• Question: who inspired you to be a scientist?

    Asked by JB to Cedric, Rupert, Ines, Ellen, Carrie on 6 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by 492anmh47, Tash, 464anmh34, 784anmh29, Grace, Han-solo28, Olly Birch, ben, mat.
    • Photo: Cedric Tan

      Cedric Tan answered on 6 Mar 2017:

      Cheesy answer but its not a person, its nature and wildlife.

      The beauty, the diversity of animals and plants that we have on this shared earth are worth protecting for our future generations like you 🙂

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      My old horse Oscar. He’s the good looking one in my profile picture. When he was younger I couldn’t get him to load onto a trailer and someone said the only person I could send him to to fix it would beat him with a shovel. I really didn’t think that was right and so I started to study animal behaviour so that I could understand and be a better person. Oscar’s passed away now and I miss him a lot but he’s left me with this job that I love and a better understanding of animals. That’s why he’s in my picture.

    • Photo: Ines Goncalves

      Ines Goncalves answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      David Attenborough. My mum bought me all the early series (still on VCR tapes!) and I spent endless hours watching them over and over again. The examples he’d give and how he’d point out the work of researchers were my main inspiration.

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 7 Mar 2017:

      It wasn’t a person so much as an idea. I saw a film about how the structure of DNA was discovered. It was like a police drama, the scientists were the detectives trying to solve a problem in a hurry. There was no crime, just lots of facts they were trying to work out. I thought this looks fun and it stayed in my mind. I didn’t think of becoming a scientist until a teacher at university talked about animal behaviour one day. I thought wow, this sounds amazing. I tried it out working with a scientist that summer and I loved it. And here I am now

    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 8 Mar 2017:

      It wasn’t so much a who – I kind of fell into science. I always wanted to be a vet when I was younger so for my A levels I took Maths, Biology, Chemistry and English language (nothing to do with veterinary but my friends were doing it so I just thought why not!). I didn’t get anywhere near the grades I needed (I knew about 1 week in that i wouldn’t) but obviously I had science-y A levels. I looked around universities and found a fab course looking at Animal Behaviour. I have loved wildlife from a young age but my real love for animals cemented itself when I went to Kenya. So I guess it is a combination of: stroking every dog around as a child, going on an incredible holiday, watching David Attenborough and other amazing presenters on TV and then finally landing fortunately on a course that set me on the track for the rest of my life 🙂

Comments