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Asked by sheannaoconnor to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 11 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by bencampbell96, kesleymcg.
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Andrew Jackson answered on 11 Nov 2012:
I love it! I realised I wanted to be a scientist when I was half way through my undergraduate degree in science, so i would have been about 21. I suppose anyone can be a scientist, and you dont necessarily need formal training. Having a PhD in science is usually a mark of your ability to conduct your own scientific research though so I guess thats a good starting place. I got my PhD when I was 27.
Right now, I really want to get promoted and become a Professor, so I think I will be doing this for the rest of my life. If i ever do give up, I would like to write and program computer games instead… im addicted to gaming.
What will i do with the money? We have a small but very nice zoology museum in my University. I would like to spend the money on getting the musuem open to the public more, such as on the Dublin Culture Night which happens every year in September/October. We also take students in on their transition year so you could always apply to come along and join us for some zoology fun in the future!
– andrew
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Eileen Diskin answered on 11 Nov 2012:
Hi!
I LOVE being a scientist. I’m not sure when I became one, really. Its hard to tell, because it depends on how you define a scientist. Personally, I think that its not really a qualification (like going to college or doing a PhD) that makes you a scientist. In fact, there are a few scientists who didn’t even go to college. Like Benjamin Franklin, who discovered a lot of things about electricity, and made lots of other inventions.
I think that being a scientist is just asking interesting questions about science-y kinds of things, and then caring enough to try and find an answer to them. So that means anyone can be a scientist. Sure, there are some really young kids who discover amazing things (even better than what a lot of adult scientists can discover!) So…if you and the other students in your class want to be scientists – then you can!
And this is exactly what my answer to your final question is all about (what I will do with the money). I want to pick one class from each of 5 schools in Ireland, and give each of them a digital camera and a voice recorder (good for interviewing people!). With these things, the students in these classes will be able to write about the science things that THEY are interested in, and that THEY care about. We’ll make a website so the class can write about what they investigate, photograph, and interview – and so in this way, they will all become scientists!
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Naomi Elster answered on 12 Nov 2012:
I absolutely love it! In a way I think I’ve always been a scientist – I’ve always been really curious about how the world works. I’m sure I was a piece of work as a child – constantly asking why? and when I was given an answer, I’d ask “Why?” again. Being a scientist is a bit like being an artist – I don’t think you can ever tell someone they can’t be a scientist, as long as they have an enquiring mind and like to think about and understand things.
In school I loved biology and wanted to study biology first, then medicine. But in my second year of a pharmacology degree I realised I was far more interested in being the person who invented new drugs and found ways to make them better than being the person who prescribed them, and with my endlessly questioning mind, I knew research was the place for me. That was when I was 19. I started the PhD I’m doing now at 22 and science is my full-time job.
I would love to be a scientist for the rest of my life. I would like to stay working on the area I’m working in now – finding better ways to treat cancers which are hard to cure – but to work on lots of different projects in this area. But that’s not all I want to do with my life! At the moment I have lots of interesting and slightly crazy hobbies, and I’m going to keep my life the way it is – crazy and a little mad, but never boring! A lot of people imagine that scientists are one-dimensional people who spend their whole life in the lab, never getting a chance to get out and about with friends or to do sports and hobbies – let me tell you that just isn’t the case!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I’d do with the prize money but eventually decided I’d use it to develop a website featuring articles and podcasts by scientists on scientific topics, chatrooms and forums just like this (because I love the I’m A Scientist idea and want to keep it going!), and fun experiments to do at home. The website will be edited and moderated to make sure it is of really high quality (and really entertaining), but it will also be as interactive as possible. Anyone who wants to will be able to ask questions of and book chats with the scientists on the team, and there will be a section where people can tell us what articles and podcasts they would like us to make. As the project develops there will be room for more involvement – I like the idea of getting school students to interview famous scientists!
I have lots of other ideas which I plan to develop in the future, like getting research images and science-based art in public places, free talks, and a film club, but I thought that the website was most deserving of the prize money because it is the most interactive and can reach anyone.
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Aggelos Zacharopoulos answered on 12 Nov 2012:
I cannot see myself as anything other than a scientist! I have dedicated loads of my life to science so far and it has been most rewarding. It is what I love doing and I think I am very good at it.
I realised that I wanted to be a scentist when studying for my degree in Physics (a long time ago). I came across some books about solar energy in the library and decided that I wanted to discover new ways for getting energy from the sunlight. I went to the lecturer that was running the solar energy laboratory and asked if I could help with the research.
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