• Question: Why did you choose to become your selected type of scientist?

    Asked by anon-230521 to Hira, Isaac, Elena, Alex, Anisha, Sarah on 11 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-229874, anon-229870, anon-230195.
    • Photo: Alex Leide

      Alex Leide answered on 11 Nov 2019:


      I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be a chemist, a physicist, or a mechanical engineer. Now I am a materials scientist which is kind of a mix of many different sciences. So in my degree at university I learned about big mechanical things (engines, planes, bridges…), chemistry (batteries, chemical corrosion…), and physics (quantum mechanics, electrons, optics, nuclear…). There were a lot of topics which I enjoyed, and I could avoid things I didn’t like (space, biology, advanced maths…). It’s a good varied mix of topics which suits me. Everyone has their preferences, though

    • Photo: Anisha Wijeyesekera

      Anisha Wijeyesekera answered on 12 Nov 2019:


      I had no idea what area of science I wanted to work in, so for my undergraduate degree i chose a degree subject which introduced me to several different areas (related to health) which helped me to gain a better understanding of different scientist roles. I dont think i set out to work in this field (i dont think many people would choose to work with urine and stool for a living!) but have happily fallen into it!

    • Photo: Sarah Knight

      Sarah Knight answered on 25 Nov 2019:


      I originally wanted to be a professional musician (I play clarinet and piano), and my undergraduate degree was actually in music! As part of my music degree I took a course in music psychology, and realised that I was much more interested in finding out about how and why we hear sound than I was in practising my instruments 🙂 So I started to focus more and more on psychology and hearing science, and eventually ended up doing the work I do now!

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