• Question: Hi I was wondering why you all chose science as a career and what you love about it.

    Asked by nicolanaughtyhallam to Anne, Carolyn, Joe, Mariana, Nick on 15 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nick Bradshaw

      Nick Bradshaw answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      I chose a career in science because I wanted the work I did to make a difference in the long run (hopefully it will – but will have to wait to see). The best parts come along every so often when you make a discovery that no one has done before – which is quite a buzz. Its also nice seeing how the “story” of your work changes over time as you discover new things and go in different directions.

    • Photo: Joseph Devlin

      Joseph Devlin answered on 15 Mar 2010:

      I kind of fell into my career — I was interested in learning more about brains and intelligence and when I starting learning more about it, I got sucked in.

      A career in science isn’t like doing medicine where you have to decide by GCSE and stick with it for years to come. I didn’t decide to be a scientist (probably ever). I started doing it in earnest when I was about 23-24 and didn’t get my first job as a “scientist” until I was 35. Up until that point, I was still thinking about whether do stay in science or get a “proper job.” So there really is no rush to decide if this is something you’re interested in.

    • Photo: Mariana Vargas

      Mariana Vargas answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Hi! I chose my career firstly because I loved Natural Sciences, then I studied Biology and I liked the idea of doing research. I like academic research because I really enjoy teaching, and I like doing basic research but also I like the fact that there are possible applications to medicine. I love being able to publish original research, and another thing I love is to be able to travel to exciting places to conferences where I can communicate my research and meet other scientists.

    • Photo: Carolyn McGettigan

      Carolyn McGettigan answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      I chose to study science because I didn’t want to study anything else and I liked learning about how things work, especially in human biology. However, I think I only really decided that I wanted to work as a scientist, and that I might be alright at it, when I took a Psychology module at university. I was really inspired by lecture courses on the psychology of hearing and language, and suddenly found I had lots of ideas about these subjects, which i hadn’t really experienced in my ‘basic science’ lectures in cell biology and chemistry. looking back, i think my interest in sound, and specifically speech, goes back to when I was at school and really enjoyed subjects like music and modern languages. at the time, i didn’t realise that these subjects were of interest to scientists! i guess all my interests really come together in what i do now.

      i love being a scientist for loads of different reasons, but i think the most important is that i get to design and run my own experiments to find out about things that genuinely fascinate me, and someone pays me to do it!

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