• Question: how long have you beem a scientist?

    Asked by heslopee01 to Jim, Richard, Amelia, Liz, Prateek on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by steveni01, harrislp03, hannahphelan1, bagnalam01, skye01, sellarsl02, joshyf, katiearis, pittsro01, lalevbb01, hainswsj01, mcpheekb01, stansfjr01, slaterst01, elliemae.
    • Photo: Jim Caryl

      Jim Caryl answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      Hi there, well, it depends at what stage you decide to start referring to yourself as a ‘scientist’. I think that during my first university degree, once I’d decided that science was something I was really going to do as a career, then I started referring to myself as a scientist. So that was about 14 years ago. However, I’ve been a practising scientist (working in a lab) for 11 years.

    • Photo: Richard Badge

      Richard Badge answered on 12 Jun 2011:

      I agree with Jim – it does really depend when you think your scientific career begins…

      For me, I spent the first years of my university degree learning about biology and how science works. Only in the third year, when I did a research project (on genes controlling how yeast cells divide) did I really start “doing” science for myself: thinking up experiments, doing them and then thinking about what the results meant…

      So I guess by that measure I have been a scientist since 1991… so 20 years (gosh that was a scary thing to work out!)

      Richard

    • Photo: Lizzard O'Day

      Lizzard O'Day answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think I came out of the womb as a scientist. My parents say I was always a very curious kid and we wonder off (not the best idea) and explore or ask a million questions. In the 7th grade I wrote an essay claiming I would be a “biochemist”, where I heard the word I have no idea. But it stuck and when I actually got into a real lab during college and learned what a biochemist really does- well I fell in love and have been there ever since!

    • Photo: Amelia Markey

      Amelia Markey answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Well I still find it hard to think of myself as a real scientist but if you count from when I started my first degree in biology. Since then I’ve done a 3 year undergraduate degree, 1 year research masters degree and I am now in my 2nd year of my PhD so that’s only 6 years to Richard’s 20! 😉

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