• Question: When did you know you wanted to be a scientist?

    Asked by rachelbransom to Alan, Caspar, Diana, Murray, Sarah on 23 Mar 2011. This question was also asked by 08caseb.
    • Photo: Alan Winfield

      Alan Winfield answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      Hi Rachel

      In fact I answered a very similar question so I hope you don’t mind me pointing you to that answer, about how I became a scientist: http://ias.im/35.240

      I also answered a question about how I got into robotics here: http://ias.im/35.300

    • Photo: Caspar Addyman

      Caspar Addyman answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      Back when i was a school I quite liked the idea of being a scientist or a mathematician but it all seemed far too difficult. At that time, I had no idea that there even was such a thing as developmental psychology (aka baby science) so i would never have thought I’d be doing something like this for a living.

      So straight my first degree in math i went to work in banking and finance because I though I wanted to have lots of money. But i was soon getting bored with it so I went back to university at night school (at birkbeck in london) to study psychology. I started out just doing it for my own interest. But i started to find the mind and the brain so much more interesting than my day job that I quit banking and studied full time for my phd.

      I’ve been doing science full time for nearly six years and haven’t been bored once. Best decision I’ve ever made

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 23 Mar 2011:

      well i really liked science at school so when it came to picking my subjects i chose the stuff i liked like chemistry and biology and music. Then i decided i wanted to go to uni even though nobody else in my family had gone before me cos i was getting good grades and all my friends were going. i decided to study chemistry at uni because i loved doing the experiments at school and i was pretty sure that would be what being a scientist would be like, i also found it really interesting and i’ve always wanted to help people and do something meaningful with my life, and i thought science would be the way to acheive that! its really important just to go with your heart when you are making important life changing decisions like what subjects to take and what to study at uni, cos its so much easier to work hard and do well in a subject you enjoy and are really passionate about!

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