• Question: how did you become a scientist

    Asked by AlliatS to Yannick, Tris, Harriet on 3 Nov 2020.
    • Photo: Tris Warren

      Tris Warren answered on 3 Nov 2020: last edited 3 Nov 2020 3:47 pm

      At school, I enjoyed maths and science GCSE, so I took those at A level… I wasn’t sure if I should do physics or engineering or maths at university, so I literally flipped a coin and it landed on engineering. After University I decided I wanted to continue studying and did a PhD in space science – looking for where water might be on the Moon.

Comments

  • Photo: Jarryd

    Jarryd commented on :

    I started working in motorsport building race cars which got me into an engineering career. I then got an apprenticeship at a university where we carry out a lot of scientific research which is very interesting!

  • Photo: Declan

    Declan commented on :

    I’m an engineer rather than a scientist: I focus on using scientific principles to design and build things. Scientists are concerned with the “why?” – why is the sky blue? Engineers are more concerned with the “how?” – how do I see an enemy aircraft that is blue against a blue sky? Engineers need to understand the science, and some contribute greatly to pushing the boundaries of science (CERN has a lot of engineers working on the Large Hadron Collider).

    A space example: Newton figured out the equations governing spacecraft in motion, and others built on his work to figure out how to guide a rocket into orbit and how to manoeuvre it once it is there, perhaps to dock with the space station. But the major achievement in getting a rocket to work is the engineering design necessary to get all that fuel into the combustion chamber, burnt and out of the nozzle, while keeping the structure from exploding.

    Science and engineering are closely linked and often overlap, but I enjoy the engineering focus on creating things, more than the scientific focus on understanding things. That’s my nature – yours may well be different.

  • Photo: John

    John commented on :

    I always wanted to be a scientist astronaut. I watched the Apollo Moonlandings and that just set my life plan. So I set out to get all the right skills. Science at A level and university, Learned to fly. Worked as a flight test engineer on Tornado fighters. Worked at satellite ground stations, helped to build and test satellites, worked at telescopes. Never did a spaceflight, I was the wrong age at the wrong time, but I had a lot of fun trying.