• Question: what made you want to be a scientist?

    Asked by georgia to Donna, Jo, Mark, Stuart, timcraggs on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by xmeggiexcullenx, africangirl, firdos1111, jayjay.
    • Photo: Joanna Buckley

      Joanna Buckley answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Mr. Angelosanto!

      The best chemistry teacher in the world… ever.

      He made science fun, which is what I try to do for a living. Without Mr. Angelosanto I’d have probably been a musician. I don’t come from a sciency family but I did get a very cutting-edge chemistry set when I was 7 years old. I totally loved it. There’s a pretty embarrasing picture of me using it on my profile page.

    • Photo: Tim Craggs

      Tim Craggs answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      That is a good question!

      I like understanding how things work, and being a scientist gives me the opportunity to get paid for being inquisitive. I think my Dad being a chemistry teacher and my Mum a doctor might have had something to do with it as well!

    • Photo: Donna MacCallum

      Donna MacCallum answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      Whaen I was at school the subjects that I really enjoyed were maths and science (particularly biology and chemistry – I found physics more difficult). Because of this I applied to University to study genetics (which I still find fascinating) – then had the opportunity to study for a PhD in microbiology.
      I cannnot really imagine doing another job at the moment!

    • Photo: Mark Lancaster

      Mark Lancaster answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      The short answer is chemistry ! Although I am now a physicist….

      As soon as I started studying chemistry I was fascinated by the fact that there was a simple explanation of the hierarchy of the elements and their properties in terms of the atomic (electrons) structure and that this was also true of nuclear properties – the fact that one could explain much of the modern world in terms of how 3 things were arranged: electrons, protons and neutrons was very intriguing and my chemistry teachers at school were particularly inspiring. Luckily I was also good at Maths. So I thought I’d end up doing chemistry but I gradually realised that much of chemistry (at least the aspects of how electrons are arranged) is Quantum Mechanics and that is Physics – so I decided that I should study Physics (particularly since in general it is a bit more mathematical than Chemistry). I decided that if you take the difference between Chemistry and Maths you end up at Physics !
      At university I didn’t particularly enjoy much of the Physics courses but found the Particle Physics we did particularly interesting ie the aim of it: to explain nature in terms of a small number of fundamental particles (quarks, leptons) had much in common with my early love for chemistry and in my final undergraduate year I had an inspirational tutor teaching Particle Physics. I applied for jobs in industry but then realised that everyone interviewing me had a PhD and that if I wanted to be in their shoes then I should do a PhD (although no one told me that..) and so I applied to do one in Particle Physics and was accepted and I absolutely loved it. I enjoyed working in large international collaborations (and the associated travel) and that I was doing independent research almost from day-one – every day is different and with hard work and a bit of luck anything is possible.

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