• Question: How would you describe your journey with being a scientist.

    Asked by anon-191361 to Anne, Kathryn, Graeme, Chris, Agnes, Adam on 5 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-191657, anon-191610, anon-191689, anon-191799.
    • Photo: Anne Green

      Anne Green answered on 5 Nov 2018:

      Short answer: sometimes bumpy, sometimes smooth, but mostly fun. Long answer: I became interested in astrophysics at school and decided that I wanted to study Physics at University (I enjoyed maths but preferred applying it to science rather than just doing Maths for the sake of it). During my degree I became interested in Cosmology, so after that I did a PhD in cosmology. After that I had various jobs (in the UK and Sweden) doing research, and started working on dark matter. Eventually I got a job as a lecturer at a university, teaching physics and doing research on dark matter.

    • Photo: Kathryn

      Kathryn answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      My journey has its ups and down as with any job or career. Enjoy the ride while it last, and don’t be afraid to shift direction when opportunities come along. Its all very good to have a dream and follow it but don’t let other things go by which may be of interest.

    • Photo: Agnes Wojtusiak

      Agnes Wojtusiak answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Varied!
      .
      I’ve been exploring and learning so many different things! Even a specialised job (I’m a “laser scientist”) has so many different parts to it, no day is ever the same. And of course, the journey started long ago at school, with lots of questions and trying to find answers, and ups and downs, and it’s all been worth it 🙂

    • Photo: Graeme Poole

      Graeme Poole answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I would describe it as “trial and error”. There’s always going to be parts you don’t enjoy that much, but until you try them you won’t know you don’t like it. Eventually you find the area of science that interests you most and focus on that.

    • Photo: Adam McGuinness

      Adam McGuinness answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Well, I worked in offices and banks for a few years after school, then realised I still liked biology, so I went to Aston University when I was 23. I then had a couple of science related jobs for a few years, went travelling to South America too, then I got a job in a hospital laboratory, where I realised I liked physics and computer science research too, so came here to do this PhD and learn even more!

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