• Question: Who inspired you to be a scientist?

    Asked by anon-274106 to Rachel, Kate, Hamed, Ben, Alex, Alex, Rebecca on 3 Dec 2020. This question was also asked by anon-274096, anon-273565, anon-273080.
    • Photo: Ben Pritchard

      Ben Pritchard answered on 3 Dec 2020:

      My GCSE and Sixth Form maths teachers!
      They taught me how powerful mathematics can be in describing the world around us. And through wikipedia and the internet I discovered that mathematics is used to define a lot of engineering and physics.
      Teachers are a great source of inspiration, as they know a lot beyond what they teach you at school! I’d recommend reading about something on the internet and then going to your teacher with some questions! You’ll be surprised at how much they know and can inspire you and help you!

    • Photo: Rachel Jackson

      Rachel Jackson answered on 4 Dec 2020:

      Hi Niamh! When I was at school I enjoyed sciences and maths which encouraged me to see what degrees involved these subjects and I found a course called Biomedical Engineering. When I was at university, we got a lecture from a ‘Clinical Scientist’ who was specialised in engineering, the job sounded so interesting and it had a real impact on peoples lives. From there I was really inspired to be a clinical scientist and I pursued it from there!

    • Photo: Kate Dobson

      Kate Dobson answered on 7 Dec 2020:

      There wasn’t really one person – it was the enthusiasm of all the sciecne teachers that taught me, but I guess mainly the people who taught me at university that made me want to do the job I now do.

    • Photo: Hamed Mosaei

      Hamed Mosaei answered on 7 Dec 2020:

      Honestly, my main inspiration was my questioning mind. I always asked questions and solving a problem was very satisfying during my school years. Of course, my teachers had important role in developing my inspiration and showing the rout to achieve my goals.

    • Photo: Rebecca Rae

      Rebecca Rae answered on 8 Dec 2020:

      For me it was my high school chemistry teacher. She made chemistry so fun and interesting and because of her amazing classes it became my favourite school subject. So I decided to study chemistry at university. Then when I was at university I realised that what I really wanted to do with my life was help others and the environment so I looked for ways that I could use my chemistry knowledge to do that and thats how I ended up studying waste removal for my PhD.

Comments

  • Photo: Hugh

    Hugh commented on :

    I always loved the ‘Science Heroes’ on TV and film; like Doctor Who or the CSI team. These guys were never the biggest or strongest, but they always beat the bad guys by thinking and by knowing things the bad guys didn’t.
    Then I found out that there were people like that in real life, except rather than aliens or criminals they dealt with other things, like disease or hunger. That made a big impact on me when I was young.

  • Photo: Katie

    Katie commented on :

    Hi Niamh,
    I think David Attenborough inspired me to become a scientist first. But when I started doing my degree at University, I was inspired more and more by all my female teachers! They were so strong and amazing and smart and made me want to be more like them. I think as a girl, it is important to have women to look up to and inspire you to become who you want to be, and I hope I can inspire other girls to want to become scientists one day.

    From Katie 🙂