• Question: How long have you been working in science. Did you take all three sciences at school?

    Asked by 712pmrc36 to Arthur, Anne, Rose, Ruhina, Thomas on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by 829pmrc24.
    • Photo: Arthur Wilkinson

      Arthur Wilkinson answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I’ve been working with polymers (in industry and at university) for 38 years. At school I only did GSCE physics and chemistry (or O levels as they were then called) and then left school to work in industry. I then did BTEC qualifications on day release from work. As my BTEC qualifications (and all my qualifications after that) are in polymers, I sometimes feel that my breadth of scientific knowledge is narrower than that of my colleagues. For this reason, and the fact that a lot of the exciting science is now done where two sciences meet (such as biological physics), I’d recommend as broad a science education as possible.

    • Photo: Anne Canning

      Anne Canning answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I have spent about 10 years in science education since leaving school at aged 16. For my GCSE’s I studied triple science, and then studied Chemistry and Biology at A-Level.

    • Photo: Thomas Farrugia

      Thomas Farrugia answered on 24 Jun 2015:

      Hi there – I did take all three sciences (biology, chemistry, physics) back in secondary school, and had maths as well, and when I moved to A Level I kept all three, although physics was at Intermediate Level (kind of like AS). I do regret not taking Maths back then, since the physics was fairly straightforward – I got to do quite a bit of maths when I started University though.

      II’d say I’ve been working properly in science for the past 3 years or so, since my Masters and PhD are research based, which is where you’re actually researching and creating instead of constantly learning. In total I’ve spent 5.5 years studying science after leaving school.

      Funny bit is that I’ve actually not had non-science jobs – during the summers between University terms I interned in a local chemical company and had also spent some time doing experiments over in Belgium – the only non-scienc thing I have done has been some bartending!

      Edit – this was previously a comment, thought I had written this one already – you get two replies now, by slightly different versions of me.

    • Photo: Rose Simnett

      Rose Simnett answered on 25 Jun 2015:

      I am a 3rd year PhD student, so I’ve been researching polymers for 3 years now. Before that I did a Masters in Chemistry degree where I did some research projects on lots of different areas of chemistry. I did triple science at GCSE and then for my A Levels I took Maths, Physics and Chemistry.

    • Photo: Ruhina Miller

      Ruhina Miller answered on 29 Jun 2015:

      Same/same amount of time as Anne – except for my A-levels I did Chemistry and AS-level physics 🙂

Comments

  • Photo: Thomas

    Thomas commented on :

    I’d say my actual scientific career started around 2 years ago when I decided to take up a PhD since that’s the bit from which you start breaking new ground and carrying out research.

    When I was in secondary school I studied all three sciences at O Level (still called that in Malta!), and then studied Biology and Chemistry at A Level, and kept Physics at Intermediate (similar to AS Level). I didn’t get to study maths again till I got to University, and then got up to around A Level and beyond. If you’re torn between subjects I’d recommend always considering Maths – it’s a great and powerful tool which is applied across all the disciplines, but as Arthur suggested it’s great to have as broad a scientific knowledge as possible – gives you more areas from which to pull on for inspiration. As an idea I still draw on quite a bit of my A Level biology, and have complemented it with more, but starting my PhD on proteins would definitely have been harder if I hadn’t heard of them beforehand!