• Question: What is your pathway? How did you become a scientist?

    Asked by Justletmebegreat to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 7 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi,
      For me my love for biology started to show fairly early with a fascination for wildlife, insects and pets. Biology was my strongest subject at school, and so this is what I wanted to study further. I decided to start small with a view to working up, so chose microbiology and am still trying to understand how microbes work. I guess I will never move to anything larger now! I have never regretted by choice – absolutely love it.

    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      By arguing with people – sometimes they were right, and sometimes I was right. Then I went and read more and learnt more, so I could be right more of the time!

      At school, I didn’t do many GCSEs as I was in hospital, but I did A levels in Chemistry, Biology, and Psychology. Then I went to the University of York to study Psychology. Then I did all sorts of different things, like volunteering with asylum seekers and in a top security prison. Then I was off work for a few years as I wasn’t well with schizophrenia. As I started to get better, I wanted something to do so I did a Masters in Public Health, and when I finished that then I got the job I have now.

      But you don’t have to have a job as a scientist to be a scientist! The reason I liked Psychology so much is that you can do real experiments which nobody has done before with no more equipment than your friends and a packet of biscuits! You just have to keep asking ‘What would happen if…?’

    • Photo: Matt Bilton

      Matt Bilton answered on 8 Nov 2014:

      I always liked science, but when I was 17 I actually thought about applying to study art! I took Maths, Chemistry and Art for my A levels, but in the end decided that I would rather study a science degree. I didn’t take Biology for A level or even AS level, but I always found the idea of studying life at the level of molecules pretty intriguing. So I applied to study Biochemistry at university.

      In my fourth year, I took a research project in a lab in Oxford where they study the immune system. For the first time, learning something new didn’t just mean reading facts from a text book, and I found that quite exciting. At the end of my project, my supervisor said I could stay on to do a PhD if I could be awarded funding, so I applied for funding from an external research trust, writing a research proposal and then being interviewed. Fortunately I was successful!

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 10 Nov 2014:

      I was at School doing GCSEs. I was easily best at Maths and Science so I took Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology for A level. When I was applying for University I wanted to continue both Biology and Chemistry and start pharmacology (the study of drugs). I therefore did Natural Sciences and took units at University for all these things. When I graduated from the University of Bath, I applied for a few normal jobs and a few PhD positions, I got a PhD positions which I liked and wanted to do before I got any other jobs…

    • Photo: Marikka Beecroft

      Marikka Beecroft answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      I’ve always had an interest in biology but I didn’t really love it until I went to secondary school. It just made me want to learn more and when I took it on at AS and A levels I went to a science research centre and got to see new and exciting experiments that they were doing. I realised that was what I wanted to do in life after that and at University it just fueled it further! I can’t see myself doing anything else really now!

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