• Question: why did you choose to be a scientist?

    Asked by cheekymonkey1 to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 15 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      I chose to be a scientist as biology was my favourite subject at school. I knew I wanted to go to university so it made sense to study the thing I liked the best! I’ve always been interested in science from an early age so I think it’s always been in me to be a scientist!

      What do you think you will do after school?

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      I am actually a bit of a hybrid. I am a surgeon who also does scientific research.
      I did medicine to start with because I enjoyed science and loved being able to apply the science directly to people. Surgery is also really great fun! After I worked for several years, I realised that stem cell research could be the next major breakthrough in science and I wanted to be a part of that and use it to help treat my patients. So I took 3 years out of my clinical work to do a PhD, and hopefully, after that, I’ll work as both a surgeon and a scientist for the rest of my career. Science is fun because it’s exciting to be at the cutting edge and it’s no different from trying to solve a giant puzzle.

    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hi, I always wanted to be a researcher of some kind because I love finding out about new things. I always thought I wanted to work in a lab though so it was a bit of a shock when I decided that what I really wanted to do was the ethical stuff and public engagement!

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