• Question: What inspired you to become a scientist when you where in school? What types of lessons did you enjoy? When did you first decide that you wanted to be a scientist?

    Asked by stanleyabc to Anne, Carolyn, Joe, Mariana, Nick on 22 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Nick Bradshaw

      Nick Bradshaw answered on 22 Mar 2010:


      Wow lots of questions!

      Early on at school my favourite subject was drama, probably followed by history. I never thought about being a scientist until about year 9/year 10, by which time I was starting to find biology more interesting (mainly down to my teacher at the time).

      When I was beginning year 11 I had decided to go into something “medical-like” – either becoming a doctor or doing research into potential new medicines. This was in part mny decision and in part the decision that I felt I was meant to take (I am a Christian).

      I eventually decided on the research approach after doing some experience in labs during the summer between year 12 and year 13. I then appleid to uni do to biology and physics. Where I eventually ended up (doing schziophrenia research) was a decision I only made when I had finished uni and was applying for PhDs/jobs (it was the most interesting thing I was offered!)

    • Photo: Carolyn McGettigan

      Carolyn McGettigan answered on 22 Mar 2010:


      hello again stanley

      i think when i was at school i didn’t really find the science i learned that inspirational, but i definitely preferred finding out how things in the world work to reading novels in english class. i also probably thought i could get a better job after school with science subjects. however, outside school i started reading New Scientist magazine to prepare for my university interviews, and that’s when i found out about research that was going on at the time in genetics and drug development. so, i thought these would be cool subjects to study at university. i did a general science degree, and studied lots of different subjects – chemistry, cell biology, biochemistry, pharmacology (how drugs affect the body), physiology (how the body works) and experimental psychology. i found that my experimental psychology lectures on hearing and language were the ones that really set my mind alight and inspired me to come up with lots of ideas. as i explained in my other answer, i’ve always loved music and language, so i think this was the time when i ‘found my niche’ and realised i could go beyond being someone who enjoyed learning facts and actually be a real scientist.

    • Photo: Mariana Vargas

      Mariana Vargas answered on 22 Mar 2010:


      What inspired you to become a scientist when you where in school?
      I was fascinated by how much there is to learn about nature, but also by how we don’t know it all and there is still a lot to discover.

      What types of lessons did you enjoy?
      I always enjoyed biology, anything to do with how organisms work, and what goes on inside cells, plants, insects, etc. I also used to love my Spanish classes.

      When did you first decide that you wanted to be a scientist?
      I was about 12, and I knew for sure when I was 16 (when I had to choose my main subjects before going to University)!

    • Photo: Joseph Devlin

      Joseph Devlin answered on 22 Mar 2010:


      For me, I loved science fiction (still do) and there was a particularly good book by Robert Heinlein called “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” My favorite character was Mike (the computer) and I totally wanted to talk to a computer like Mike.

      So when I did computing at Uni, I studied artificial intelligence and was sadly disappointed — 50 years and there have been so few successes. That got me interested in why computers were so rubbish in all the things that people do so automatically and I started studying the biology and realized that brains are pretty cool.

      So i guess I first wanted to be a scientist towards the end of university, although at the time I didn’t really know that. All I knew was that I wanted to learn more about brains. I didn’t really become a full fledged scientist until I was 34 and got my first full time job as a scientist (that is — not as someone still doing training). Up until then, I thought about maybe doing other careers but now I’m pretty happy as a scientist.

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