• Question: why did you choose to be a scientist?

    Asked by van to Sean, Michel, Kevin, Chloe, Anthea on 7 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by rosalyn murphy.
    • Photo: Chloe Kinsella

      Chloe Kinsella answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      All my life I have loved animals. My dream job was to be a zoo keeper. I asked my teachers about ways to become a zoo keeper and they told me to study zoology in college. So that’s what I did! While I was in college I realised that I could make a better impact on the world of animals if I studied them and found out ways to help protect them. So rather than become a zoo keeper, I became a scientist. That way I still get to be around animals a lot, but I am also finding out new things about them and can help them too.

    • Photo: Michel Dugon

      Michel Dugon answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      As a young child I used to spend hours collecting bugs in the garden and in the woods nearby. At 8 years old, I captured two young snakes that I brought back home… My Mum wasn’t impressed! To make a long story short, I ended up being a language teacher in South East Asia (first Vietnam, then Malaysia). My hobby was to look for snakes and bugs in the jungle. In 2005, I discovered new populations of snakes and lizards in some remote parts of Malaysia. I contacted scientists in the UK to tell them about my discovery. A few months later, they invited me to do a Masters of Ecology at their university. I decided to quit my job overnight, and I never looked back! I turned my passion into a profession. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me!

    • Photo: Anthea Lacchia

      Anthea Lacchia answered on 7 Nov 2014:

      Hi there,
      I’ve always loved animals and decided the best way to be close to them and really understand them and their evolution was to study them. I then found myself on shorelines digging out extinct animals from rocks, as part of my studies. 🙂 I think if you find something you’re passionate about, you’ll want to know more! Being a scientist just came naturally after that.

    • Photo: Sean Kelly

      Sean Kelly answered on 8 Nov 2014:

      In short, I became a scientist to learn more about the world. Our planet is an amazing and bizarre place, full of so many different types of beautiful creatures, habitats and landscapes. I really enjoy learning more about all of these. During my leaving cert years in school, I really enjoyed studying biology and I was very good at it, so this led me to continue on into studying science in college. As a scientist, you have wonderful opportunities to investigate questions that interest you and to answer these questions you get to use and develop really cool pieces of technology, visit beautiful places, see wonderful animals and work alongside really interesting people. It’s really satisfying to get answers to your questions too! Sometimes these answers are really important for society, whether they teach us more about the world around us, help us conserve animals or find better treatments for cancer. Science is incredibly diverse and endlessly interesting!

    • Photo: Kevin Healy

      Kevin Healy answered on 9 Nov 2014:

      I chose science because I can’t imagine any other thing that would keep me as interested as science does. While I love doing lots of different things like art, maths, teaching etc only science gives me the oppertunity to do all these things. I also get to learn about the world, especially animals, everyday and I love the unexpected things you find out (for example did you know there are Tree Kangaroos! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree-kangaroo).
      Best of all I feel like my own boss (even if im not really) so I get to work on things that really interest me (like dinosuars) and stay in bed a bit longer then I should in the morning :-p

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