• Question: Why did you decide to pursue a career in science?

    Asked by priyuta to Andrew, Beth, Bruce, Lindy, Lizzie on 14 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by taylorp, irishleprechan, rebeccamccabe10, shannon2003.
    • Photo: Lindy Heath

      Lindy Heath answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      When I was at school I really enjoyed science lessons. I liked how different and hands on they were in comparison to traditional ‘book’ subjects such as English and History. When I had to choose subjects to study at A-level I chose Chemistry, Biology and Geography. I didn’t know at this point what career I wanted but I knew that I enjoyed these subjects and wanted to study them further. After researching University courses I decided that I wanted to study Pharmacy at degree level. I went to several interviews at different Universities around the country before selecting the University of Nottingham. It was a big decision as it would be the place that I would spend 4 years of my life. My circumstances changed and instead of starting a Pharmacy course I actually started to study for a Chemistry masters degree (MSci). The four years flew by in a mass of lectures and practical lab sessions! I had a brilliant time learning lots of fascinating things and in my fourth year I started to do some new (never been done before!) research. I got some fantastic results so I chose to stay in my research group and take my learning to the next level. I started my PhD three years ago and I’m still enjoying Chemistry as much as I did at School. My next step is to choose where I’d like my PhD to take me but for now I’m just enjoying the opportunity to complete some novel Chemistry.

    • Photo: Beth Mortimer

      Beth Mortimer answered on 14 Jun 2012:

      I still haven’t decided! I have made choices along the way for what I want to do next, never having a grand plan for a career path.
      For A Levels I picked science subjects (Biology, Chemistry, Maths) as well as a non-science ‘fun’ subject (Music) as I enjoyed them the most and I was good at them. I always loved science because I like understanding how things work, and doing experiments to answer questions about the world. Science to me is finding patterns or rules in the chaos of the natural world. When understood you can start making sense of bits of the world that people didn’t understand before!
      My faviourite (but not my best subject) was always biology, because a lot of it is science that you can see and I’ve always loved animals! Therefore, doing biology at unviersity was an easy decision. Then I enjoyed my degree so much I wanted to do more. A PhD gives you an opportunity to work very hard at one particular area. You learn to work on your own and be able to answer questions efficiently – giving the world a little more order and understanding then there was before!
      I’m still enjoying it, so I’ll see what opportunities await when I finish…

    • Photo: Bruce Alexander

      Bruce Alexander answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Three reasons. Fortunately for me I was good at it. It made sense to me and I could see how it worked.

      I enjoy it. The fact I enjoy science and find it interesting has helped enormously. If you can do something for a living that you enjoy, then you are very lucky, and I feel very luck to be a professional chemist.

      Lastly, as a chemist, I can make a contribution to answer some of the critical problems we face, such as new fuels, medicines, and the like. What’s not to like?

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