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

    Asked by anon-255033 on 20 May 2020. This question was also asked by anon-256872.
    • Photo: Emma Daniels

      Emma Daniels answered on 20 May 2020:

      Hi Harry, thanks for the question! I decided to be a scientist when I was doing my GCSEs, before then I wanted to be an actor… I’d always enjoyed science classes at school, but my GCSEs were the first time I got to do real experiments! I really enjoyed the practical aspect of science, and especially during chemistry I was really excited about all the different type of reactions I could do. From then on I knew I wanted to be a scientist, and now I’m doing a PhD!

    • Photo: Charlotte Mason

      Charlotte Mason answered on 20 May 2020:

      I don’t think I ever decided, it just happened! I originally wanted to be a vet and in year 12 I knew my grades wouldn’t be good enough. Science was still my favourite subject, so for Uni I picked some science courses that sounded interesting. And 9 years later here I am!

    • Photo: Louisa Lee

      Louisa Lee answered on 20 May 2020:

      I think I had already decided that I wanted to become a scientist at high school, because I enjoyed my science classes the most. I loved all the practical parts of the lessons, and doing experiments! I found loads of topics interesting. But I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do as a career until much later on. Sometimes it takes longer to figure out what you want to do, and that’s okay. It works out in the end 🙂 I also thought research was really fun, because you get to discover new things, and it allows you to keep learning and understanding.

    • Photo: Sabrina Slater

      Sabrina Slater answered on 20 May 2020:

      I vaguely knew when I was about 6 or 7 that I wanted to wear a lab coat and goggles! It’s such a silly thing but it really made a difference to my life. Science was always the subject I found most exciting at school, and when I was in about year 8 I realised that being a scientist meant I could literally have fun in a laboratory all day with the added bonus that it would be helping humans fight disease. I had a chat with some doctors and scientists through some work experience placements that my school helped me arrange in around year 10 and the rest was history really!

    • Photo: Marta Dazzi

      Marta Dazzi answered on 20 May 2020: last edited 20 May 2020 4:44 pm

      Great question! I remember I used to hate science when I was in year 9. Then I magically happened to enjoy it during my GCSE’s and A-levels! Hilariously a subject I hated was chemistry and ended up studying it for my undergraduate degree. And during my undergraduate degree, the topic I disliked the most, I ended up doing for my PhD and I have absolutely loved it!! So my advice is: never say never and see where life takes you 🙂

    • Photo: Alex Holmes

      Alex Holmes answered on 20 May 2020:

      I decided quite late that I wanted to be a scientist. In school I wanted to be a vet, then realised I didn’t want to work with poorly animals as i might find it sad or upsetting. Then for a while i didn’t know what I wanted to do, which was fine – I just chose subjects for my GCSEs and A Levels that i enjoyed and found interesting. At the end of my A Levels I was really torn between doing German or Science at University, and ended up doing science as I figured I could keep up learning German alongside my studies. Sometimes I think about this decision and how my life would have been different because it was a real fork in the road of my life. At uni I loved my science classes, and only really then did I get to know what a scientist was and what a science career looked like and whether that was what I wanted for myself.

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