• Question: Why did you decide to become a scientist in the first place?

    Asked by ej10 to Kath, Ailsa, Ryan, Evan, James on 20 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by phoebe123, ecab, 08abarnes, devon, tashacook, babygx, james68, fitchy97, choaky98, stephthompson, 08mhook, 08boguntoye, albob11, 09lakkaup2.
    • Photo: Kath O'Reilly

      Kath O'Reilly answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      I like asking ‘why’? But I think my Dad got most of the Why questions! I didn’t always want to be a scientist, I remember wanting to be an architect too, and a vet (vets are also scientists). But I always enjoyed the outdoors, and have always loved animals. So being a scientist was a natural thing to want to do…

    • Photo: Ailsa Powell

      Ailsa Powell answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I think I’ve always been fascinated by what’s around me, always asking about how things happen, why things work in a certain way. I still am like that, I love learning about other areas of science, picking up information from documentaries and the internet.
      When I think of all the careers I have thought about they were all science based, an optician and I think briefly I wanted to be a medical doctor, but I was still at school when I decided I wanted to become a research scientist. I just loved doing experiments, working out what the experiments meant and tinkering with them to make them better. The idea that you could do that for a job was too good to be true and so I’m pretty lucky that’s what I’ve ended up doing!

    • Photo: Ryan Ladd

      Ryan Ladd answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      When I went to university to study engineering I didn’t know what I wanted to do at all! Even when I finished my masters degree I wasn’t really sure. It was only after working as a production engineer (that’s making sure factories keep running basically!) for a few years that I realized I wanted to go back to university and start doing advanced research.

      It’s still hard to say exactly why I decided to do research. I guess I really like the idea of making a difference in the world by making a great discovery!

    • Photo: Evan Keane

      Evan Keane answered on 20 Jun 2011:

      Because it was the thing I liked the most in school so I did in university and realised I really wanted to do it for a job. I haven’t done anything which I enjoyed as much and figured I should do what I enjoy the most, if somebody will pay me (!), because why would I do some other job I wouldn’t like!

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