• Question: Did you always want to be a scientist

    Asked by Edith to Alex, Ali, Kerry, Philip, Theo on 11 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by Bebe, Amelia:-).
    • Photo: Alex Pool

      Alex Pool answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      I knew I wanted to be a scientist since I was 7. Originally I wanted to be a forensic scientist, so someone who uses science to solve crimes. When I started university my best friend died of cancer, and I also started studying it and found it fascinating so specialised in cancer instead.

    • Photo: Kerry O'Shea

      Kerry O'Shea answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      No, I enjoyed languages at school and thought I wanted to be a translator for a long time. I realised I wasn’t good enough to have that as a career, so changed my mind to physics – I think I made the right decision. Being a scientist gives you great opportunities to travel so I haven’t missed out on that!

    • Photo: Philip Ratcliffe

      Philip Ratcliffe answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      From as early an age as is possible to have that sort of idea, yes. That’s certainly not true of everyone though; I know lots of people who only decided when than had to choose what to study at university.

    • Photo: Alison Thomson

      Alison Thomson answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      No! I wanted to be a pop star, then a forensic pathologist, then a dentist, then a teacher. Eventually I ended up wanting to be a scientist, and that was around the time I had to start picking what subjects I wanted to do at school, so I just went down the science route!

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