• Question: What made you want to be a scientist

    Asked by anon-252061 to Shenghong, Yewande, Sophie, Elena, Connor on 28 Apr 2020. This question was also asked by anon-252252, anon-252277, anon-252550, anon-254313.
    • Photo: Shenghong He

      Shenghong He answered on 28 Apr 2020:

      Thanks for the question! For me, I started university in 2007. At that stage, to be honest, I thought I would be an IT engineer after graduation. However, when it was near the time for leaving, I felt that the 4 years undergraduate study was just so quick. There were still too many things I wanted to learn, and on the other hand, I felt myself simply wanted to stay a bit longer at school. Thus, I continued with my master. Two years later, similar feeling made me keep pursuing PhD. At last, I stayed 10 years from undergraduate to PhD in the same city, same university, and same department. I really enjoyed this period in my life. After PhD, things were much clearer, I found myself quite like the life as a scientist. Then I am here as a postdoc. Hopefully, several years later, I would have my own lab and keep working in brain science somewhere in the word.

    • Photo: Elena Lazarova

      Elena Lazarova answered on 29 Apr 2020:

      Thank you for your question!
      Personally, I wanted to be a scientist since I was 10 (although later I also wanted to be a software engineer, a lawyer and an eSports star…). I recall my brother was playing a video game in which there were scientists on an alien world studying alien technology and biology. For young me, that was the coolest job I had ever seen! This inspiration made me focus on natural science subjects (Maths, Physics, Biology and Chemistry). Then, when I was in my last two years of school, I read the comic book ‘Lazarus’. While the story was good, there was a part at the end of each chapter, where the latest advances in science & technology were written – stem cell research to regenerate tissues and make organs, nanorobots delivering drugs, etc. It really made me want to study Biotechnology at university to make cool biological technology with stem cells!

Comments

  • Photo: Shaline

    Shaline commented on :

    Great question. I think for me I always wanted to be a scientist in some way or another, but didn’t necessarily realise this at an early age. From a very young age I was intrigued by how the body worked and was curious about how certain processes worked, so with that science was always something I was interested in. I knew for certain that I wanted to be a scientist when I did my undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and cultured my first ever Schwann cells in a dish. Seeing cells growing in dish for the first time felt so surreal and is something I will never forget. I haven’t looked back since, and now I am realising more and more that being a scientist has no limits, but many endless opportunities!

  • Photo: Donna

    Donna commented on :

    Fabulous question…
    I always loved growing things and had lots of pets – and found that I really loved research when I was at University