Solar Week - Ask a Question

Why did you decide to become a scientist? I think it would be really interesting to learn more about the working of the planets and atmospheres! How did you feel when you feel when you first learned about space? Did you right away decide you loved it so much you wanted to be a scientist? 

Julianne-FWMS

 Hi Julianne, For some reason I have always been interested in astronomy.  Whenever I would get a prize at school I would ask for an astronomy book (although they usually gave me a dictionary or thesaurus or seomthing).  When it came time to go to college I immediately signed up for astronomy classes.  I was less than impressed by the course work in my first year and actually quit astronomy, burned all of my notes and signed up for psychology for the next year.  During the summer between my first and second years there was to be soalr eclipse.  I happened to be downtown in Glasgow when the eclipse occurred.  I couldn't see it because of the tall buildings and cloud cover so I frantically raced around the streets trying to find it.  In the end I never did see it but just the fact that I was so excited by the prospect made me see the error of my ways.  I becked out of the psychology class, re-enrolled in astronomy and spent the rest of the summer copying the first years notes from a classmate.  Many, many years later here I am teaching astronomy.  It's a funny old world.

David 

Hi Julianne,

I have been interested in astronomy since I was a young child.... I always seemed to be looking up at the night sky with great wonder!  However, I didn't really decide on Solar Physics as a career until I was in college because I was also interested in other things, such as music and pychology.  I think I first fell in love with astronomy (as a career) when I began learning about the vastness of the Universe and the details of how it works and how little we understand.  It was (and still is) just amazing to me that we are part of such an enormous, complicated Universe!  Astronomy is a very rewarding and interesting field, and I highly recommend going into science if you are interested!

Holly

Hi Julianne, 

I don't remember when I first learned about space. I remember being interested in it in grade school, so it must have been by then. I remember in high school how neat I thought the Voyager images from Jupiter were! I thought I migh want to become an astronomer, but there were other things I was interested in too - both in and out of science.

Mostly I did pretty well in science in school and I like problem solving, so it was pretty likely I'd become some sort of scientist. I was considering a variety of diferent things - even after I went to graduate school I was considering studying the Earth's atmosphere, but eventually I got a position working with data from the Sun.