• Question: What age did you decide to be a scientist?

    Asked by millie123 to Adrian, Iroise, Joe, Rachel, Ria on 7 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by Ruby, KSI, Reece.
    • Photo: Rachel Harris

      Rachel Harris answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      I enjoyed science at school so decided to do science A levels. I learned about human biology and neuroscientist at University but it wasn’t until I was 21 that I spent time working in a laboratory and decided that I wanted to this work as a job.
      So don’t worry if you’re not exactly sure what you want to do now, just keep doing the subjects and things you enjoy!

    • Photo: Joe Bathelt

      Joe Bathelt answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      I wanted to be a scientist from very early on. When I was little, I wanted to be a Biologist and study animals in exotic locations. I took a lot of science classes in high school and really enjoyed them most of the time. When I studied Biology at uni, I realised that I find human behaviour and the brain more interesting than animals. So, even though I was always into science, my path to my particular field was not completely straight.

    • Photo: Iroise Dumontheil

      Iroise Dumontheil answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      Hi Millie,

      I am French and in high school I had to choose between three paths, literature, economy and social sciences, and science (as sort of majors ). Most good students went for science because it kept all your options open, so that’s what I did.

      In my last year I was really hesitating between going to study foreign languages at university (I wanted to translate film subtitles!) and science, and I was told it was easier to first learn science and then move to languages than the reverse, so I ended up studying Biological Sciences, and I never really turned back since then. I live in the UK though so I still have a bit of a foreign language element to my daily life!

      With regard to being an actual scientist, it was just a gradual process through university and deciding to do a PhD and keep going. I nearly decided to work in science communication/journalism after my master, I was inspired by the New Scientist magazine, but my supervisor said I could always communicate my own research as a scientist – which is what I am trying to do now!

    • Photo: Ria Vaportzis

      Ria Vaportzis answered on 7 Nov 2016:

      I was around 25 when I decided to continue studying psychology and be a scientist. Although I liked science at school, I preferred subjects such as languages, literature and history, and that’s what my GCSE’s were.

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