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

    Asked by alex09a to Anouk, Chris, Judith, Leisha, Seyyed on 11 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by brandong8489, rachelfitzpatrick18x.
    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      I was always interested in science and used to love an old TV programme called Quincy (like Silent Witness from the dark ages!). It was about a pathologist who used to solve crimes. So, for a while I wanted to be a forensic pathologist. Then I found out that I really didn’t want to train as a medical doctor and decided I was far too squeamish for pathology, so I did a degree in Cellular and Molecular Pathology which looked at how genes and cells go wrong to cause disease. I realised during that degree that what interested me was finding the clues and piecing them all together to solve problems. So now that’s what I do, although usually I end up finding more questions and new problems rather than getting clear answers!

    • Photo: Anouk Gouvras

      Anouk Gouvras answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      I was always interested in animals, and plants too but to a less extent. I wanted to know where did this animal come from, how does it survive in its environment, why was it this colour, why did it eat x,y,z. And the answers, when I could find them, just amazed me and made me want to know more. I started off wanting to be a vet but then I just became more and more interested in science. When I was at uni I learnt about parasites and how they had adapted to their particular environment, how they spread and infected other hosts, what they did to hosts. I still find it amazing. It makes me think about how complex and diverse life is and it makes me appreciate what I see so much more.

    • Photo: Chris Kettle

      Chris Kettle answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      In the 1990’s. Alec Jeffries’ DNA finger printing technique had me captivated. Like Judith I wanted to Forensic scientist and capture the baddies. I went to Uni to study Genetics by which time other areas had me fascinated – developmental genetics is amazing. How the fusion of two cells can give rise to an entire adult creature – have a think about that for a minute. You have to build a billion cell creature from one set of instructions!

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