• Question: if you were to give advice to a young person who would like to be a scientist when their older what tips would you give him/her

    Asked by Nicole!Emoji!Nicole to John, Ruth, Emma, Andrew, Dilip on 12 Nov 2015. This question was also asked by gabrielesmile123, Shauna Ní D, Seán, gabrielesmile123.
    • Photo: Ruth Hamill

      Ruth Hamill answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      I guess its useful to keep up at least one science subject to leaving cert. When I was in college, people seemed to think chemistry was a hard subject to take up from scratch in college though not impossible of course, so I would recommend chemistry for the leaving. Regarding character traits of good scientists I know, not allowing a setback to defeat you is important. Try to keep an open mind, and use critical thinking whenever you can which means evaluating the evidence yourself rather than just accepting something as true. That’s a great habit for a future scientist… and for people in general.. and keep asking questions, its the best way to learn!

    • Photo: Emma Feeney

      Emma Feeney answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      My advice would be to pick a topic that you are really really interested in, and to enjoy what you do. Its important that your enjoy your job, as you’ll end up doing it every day!

    • Photo: John Gleeson

      John Gleeson answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      I’d agree with everyone else. I was talking to some students recently about this. A PhD doesn’t measure how smart or clever someone is. It’s an award based on determination and will to succeed. Stuff goes wrong all the time, so you gotta get up and figure out why. And maybe that will fail. Then you try something else. And ever that might fail. Being able to constantly pick yourself up and try again is really what it’s about. And then when it works… well that magical feeling is like no other. It’s a sunny day when you get free ice-cream and theres nobody crowding your favourite spot in the park and you get to pet a fluffy puppy! THAT’s how awesome it feels.

    • Photo: Dilip Rai

      Dilip Rai answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      Expect the unexpected, so be prepared for it. Science is about investigation of hypothesis with experiments, and many times results will not be what’s expected.

    • Photo: Andrew Quigley

      Andrew Quigley answered on 12 Nov 2015:

      When I found out I was accepted as a PhD student, I thought I would fly through the experiments, figure out exactly what’s wrong all the time, and generally have no problems. How wrong I was!

      To be a good scientist, I think you need to keep yourself motivated. Things won’t work, you will get stuck, but the important part is that you keep your head up.

      Don’t worry if you think that science is too hard, or you’re not “smart enough”, everybody has to practice to become good at things!

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