• Question: how long have you been a scientist

    Asked by anon-215813 to Laura, Kathryn, Ian, Chris, Bogdana, Alex on 10 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Ian Cookson

      Ian Cookson answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      I started my degree in 2010, so I guess you could say nine years.

    • Photo: Kathryn Atherton

      Kathryn Atherton answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      I started my undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology (after which I did an MSc and a PhD and worked as an academic postdoctoral research scientist before I got my current job) so around 14 years.

    • Photo: Laura Fisk

      Laura Fisk answered on 10 Jun 2019:

      One answer to this is “since I knew how to ask a question” – because that’s what being a scientist is, ultimately: being a question-asker. Another answer is since I did science at school and at home (yes, I liked doing experiments at home). Then, another answer is since I did a specialist science-related course when I had the freedom to choose (I did biology and chemistry at A Level, and did psychology from my first university degree onwards). An answer to the question, ‘when did you start getting paid to be a scientist?’ was when I was an assistant psychologist after graduating from uni (oooh… back in 2008?). My favourite answer is that first one, though 🙂

    • Photo: Bogdana Huma

      Bogdana Huma answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      I’ve been a scientist for 15 years, since I started my undergraduate degree in 2004. But while I was an undergraduate, I never considered myself as a scientist. It’s only now that I’m looking back and recognising that I was ‘doing science’ by conducting experiments and testing hypotheses. I think I started to think of myself as a scientist when I started my PhD which meant having a full-time research ‘job’ of gathering data, analysing it, discussing it with colleagues, reading, and writing.

    • Photo: Alex Lloyd

      Alex Lloyd answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      My undergraduate degree was in psychology and philosophy so I didn’t do much science during that time. I would say that I started being a scientists during my Master’s degree which I started in 2016. So, really only 3 years!

    • Photo: Chris Fullwood

      Chris Fullwood answered on 11 Jun 2019:

      I started my degree in 1994 (yes, I’m very old) so going by that measure, we’re talking 25 years!

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