• Question: how did you become a scientist

    Asked by #Holly to Alice, Bose, Christian, Emma, Steve on 16 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by albielog.
    • Photo: Steve Marsden

      Steve Marsden answered on 16 Mar 2016:

      I enjoyed science at school, doing separate sciences at GCSE. I carried maths and physics through A-level, along with business studies.

      I didn’t take a gap year, and in 2007 I went to University of Manchester to study maths & physics at undergrad. I did a four year undergraduate masters course.

      In my fourth year I worked on a project on the Tevatron (a predecessor to the LHC), looking for the Higgs boson. I really enjoyed working in particle physics, so applied for a PhD in the same department.

      During my PhD, I worked on the LHC looking for gravitons, becoming a doctor towards the end of last year.

      My future will likely entail moving between different universities, working for each for a couple of years as a post-doc researcher. After a few of these, the hope is to find a more permanent university position.

      A rather boring story really. If you’re willing to put in the work and manage to get the grades, then it’s a fairly straightforward process. One of the most challenging parts is deciding which area of research you want to work in.

    • Photo: Benjamin Bose

      Benjamin Bose answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      So difficult to say and depends on what a scientist really is.

      If a scientist is someone who wonders about nature and how it works then I became a scientist about 20 years ago or more.

      If a scientist is someone who formally studies a science then I became a scientist ~ 15 years ago.

      If a scientist is someone who does experiments to find things out whether the experiment has been done before or not then I became a scientist about 10 years ago.

      If a scientist is someone who does original research, then I became one about 5 years ago.

      And finally if a scientist is someone who does all of the above for most of the day each day, then I’ve only been a scientist for a year and a half 😀

    • Photo: Emma Dean

      Emma Dean answered on 17 Mar 2016:

      I really enjoyed studying science at school, so I did my A-Levels in the three sciences. After that, I got a job and took a few years out because I didn’t feel I was ready for university. I always knew I wanted to study physics at uni, so when the time was right, I applied and got in!

      I chose to study experimental physics. This allowed me to pick and choose different modules from the theoretical and astrophysics courses, and do lots of fun experiments. I studied at York for 4 years and finished with a Masters degree. I took another year out and got married and went travelling. I then applied for a PhD and was lucky enough to get the placement I wanted. That’s where I am now and I’m really enjoying it!

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