• Question: Why did you choose to become a scientist, and why did you choose your field?

    Asked by monique to Alison, Artem, Caroline, John, Gunther on 11 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by chadsmith10, megantaylor.
    • Photo: Artem Evdokimov

      Artem Evdokimov answered on 11 Jun 2012:

      I chose to become a scientist several times – starting from about age 5 when I first saw a chemical demonstration called Volcano (it’s thermal decomposition of ammonium bichromate, you can find it on youtube here:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ula2NWi3Q34

      And then again when I was a teenager – I realized that building van de Graaf generator was more fun than movies.

      As to field choice – my field is a combination of several others, so I can have a lot of fun with various kinds of science. To me it’s the best part of the work!

    • Photo: Caroline Dalton

      Caroline Dalton answered on 12 Jun 2012:

      I always liked science and as I went through school and university and my PhD I just followed my interests and ended up working on the subject I study now. I think if you follow your interests it means you won’t get bored and even if things aren’t always going well you have that interest to keep you going!

    • Photo: John Short

      John Short answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      I’ve always been interested in learning about new things, about how they work and wanted to be part of the process of discovery.

      However, at school, I was influenced by movies, comics etc like the Xmen – Beast was a favourite, a scientist who could whoop some evil mutants. Admittedly, a bit geekish, I did like Star Trek, Stargate etc and thought going out there and discovering new stuff was awesome.

      At secondary school though, it was how bacteria and viruses, how something so tiny, and relatively simple could cause so much havoc on our bodies and cause so much death and suffering in the world that made me really interested in continuing science at university. Viruses especially are relatively simple in terms of structure, genetics – with most viruses having fewer than 10 genes compared to the number of genes and processes that take place in us, and yet are able to cause complex reactions in our bodies, where some can dismantle our immune system, destroy our organs and kill us.

      And yet, we could potentially use viruses to deliver into cells anti-cancer drugs, use viruses in gene therapy to restore eye sight in blind people (which has been done for a specific congenital condition), cure chronic conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis etc. Viruses are amazing!

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