• Question: How old are you and when did you decide you wanted to go into the scientific department?

    Asked by to Thon, Catherine, James, Natalie, Shaylon on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Shaylon Stolk

      Shaylon Stolk answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a scientist! When I was little, I would always ask ‘why’ for everything. My parents were very encouraging– we took lots of trips to the library to find answers for my endless questions.

      I’ve always loved animals, so I knew I wanted to study animal behaviour and ecology. When I was working on my undergraduate degree, I learned how to use statistics to create models of animal behaviour, and thought that was really fun. So I learned all I could about statistics as well as biology, which is how I got my current job.

    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I don’t really remember, I was very small when I decided I wanted to study marine biology at university. I was always absolutely fascinated by marine biology and the oceans and I’ve always loved learning about them. While I was at university I decided I wanted to stay in science and that’s how I got to doing my PhD (which is a 3-4 year long project you do when you’re learning how to be a scientist)

      If you want to be a scientist, just keep learning, keep being amazed by the natural world and you’ll get there!!

    • Photo: Catherine Offord

      Catherine Offord answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I’m 25 now, and although I was always interested in biology and science in general, I only decided that I definitely wanted to study biology at university just before the application deadline! When I was small, I loved watching wildlife documentaries on television, and I loved finding out how things worked in the natural world.

      Although there are many other things I think I would enjoy doing, there is something wonderful about working in science because you get to discover new things about how the world works.

    • Photo: Natalie Pilakouta

      Natalie Pilakouta answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I’m 25! By the time I was in my early teens, I knew I definitely wanted to do something related to Mathematics or Chemistry or Biology, but I didn’t pick a specific scientific area until I was 16 or so. I realized that what I REALLY wanted to do was to work with animals, so I decided to study Biology/Ecology in college!

    • Photo: Anthony Caravaggi

      Anthony Caravaggi answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I’m 34 and, while I’ve always wanted to be a scientist, I took the long route.

      I grew up loving wildlife and always wanted to be a palaeontologist or a biologist. I was always outside, usually playing with insects – even on a family holiday to Greece. Unfortunately things didn’t go exactly to plan and I ended up going to art college where I studied traditional animation. After art college, I worked in the IT department of my local council for a few years.

      However, the love of nature and science had never left me and at the age of 26 I decided that the time was right to follow my passion. At first my goal was to just get a degree and work in conservation. I thought that anything else, like a masters degree or a PhD were beyond me. But then during my second year, I discovered (or rediscovered a deep love of research) and, helped by a good graduating grade, I decided to take this as far as I could.

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