• Question: who inspired you to become a scientist?? and at what age did you start wanting to be a scientist?? and did you want to be anyhting else when you was younger?? and have you stopped any diseases if so what one?? and why did you find science so appealing to make you want to be a scientist??

    Asked by anon-186422 to Verity, Trystan, Raquel, Danny, Catherine, Andy on 7 Nov 2018. This question was also asked by anon-186407, anon-186812, anon-186818, anon-186821, anon-186819.
    • Photo: Raquel Medialdea Carrera

      Raquel Medialdea Carrera answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      Hi Lucy S!
      So many very good questions!
      I was inspired to be a scientist by the people I encounter through my career. I decided to be a scientist when I was 20 years old and I was studying my undergraduate degree at University.
      When I was very young, I wanted to be a teacher in the morning, a doctor in the afternoons and a policeman at night (at that time I thought sleeping was not important haha).
      I haven’t stopped myself any diseases, however, I helped to contain the Ebola Virus Epidemic in West Africa.
      There were so many things that I found appealing about being a scientist: the exciting feeling of wanting to discover new things, the amazingness of the many things that can be discovered, the excitement of unravelling new mysteries… and most important of all, feeling that with my work as a Scientist, I could help loads of people.
      Thanks for all those questions 🙂

    • Photo: Danny Ward

      Danny Ward answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      I was inspired by science tv shows and magazines growing up. They didn’t necessarily want to make me a scientist, but they did get me really interested in science itself! Being interested in science, why things work and how we solve global challenges are my main drivers to why I pursued what I do. It was during A-levels and university, I realised that I was really interested in the content and that I liked performing experiments so perhaps being a research scientist was the right choice for me around age 20-24. I did want to be a medical doctor growing up but I found that I enjoyed learning new things, solving problems, performing experiments and so a research scientist was a better fit for me.
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      I currently work on Pseudomonas. This is a bacterial disease which is really problematic in hospitals and in agriculture. It can become resistant to antibiotics and so is hard and costly to treat. In many cases, this can lead to loss of life in hospitals or loss of crops in agriculture.

    • Photo: Verity Hill

      Verity Hill answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      My biology teacher at A level used to be a research scientist and he showed me that biology was a lot more than what was just on the syllabus! But I read a lot of books (and a magazine, the New Scientist!) and it was more those that helped me to realise that I loved biology.
      I decided I wanted to study biology at university when I was about 16 or 17, around the time I started reading these books! One in particular is called the Wild Life of our bodies by Rob Dunn, and it’s about how humans partly have problems because we are evolved to live a very different sort of life! It also showed me how changing biology is and how much there is left to discover!
      When I was little, I wanted to be an author, and then maybe a lawyer? I really liked arguing and talking in front of people, so it seemed good. It was later on that I realised that I found the ideas in science more exciting than the ideas in law! (in retrospect, I think I just really liked the attention when I spoke in front of people)
      I have not stopped any diseases personally – disease control is a huge collaborative effort! It takes scientists, politicians, anthropologists (people that study human behaviour and culture), medical personnel, and not forgetting the people in the area where the outbreak is happening. I hope that my science helps this effort though!
      I think I’ve answered the last question, but it’s because it’s exciting, changeable, and makes a difference to people’s lives 🙂

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