• Question: 10 years ago, did you imagine to be where you are now?

    Asked by bethen to Sarah, Nicola, Jessica on 21 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Jessica Liley

      Jessica Liley answered on 21 Nov 2013:


      Ooh good question. Well, 10 years ago I would have been 16, finishing off my GCSEs. At that time I was really into drama and acting, all I wanted to do was be an actress! Pretty far off from being a scientist eh…?

      But even back in school I always preferred chemistry and biology to other subjects, with all the fun practicals, finding out more about the world around us, and how things work and why! So I guess I always knew I would follow the science route, and I’m definitely glad I did 🙂

      I NEVER thought I would do a PhD though, isn’t it funny how things work out!

    • Photo: Sarah Tesh

      Sarah Tesh answered on 21 Nov 2013:


      10 years ago I would have just turned 15 and be in the first year of my GCSEs. At that point I wasn’t actually a fan of physics to be honest! The teacher made it boring and I liked maths a lot more. I was also really enjoying my art GCSE so was thinking about trying to find something to do with that.

      But then I had a new teacher for physics and he was able to make it a lot more interesting (not just work sheets and textbooks). So I decided to do it for A-level, thinking it goes well with maths which is what I thought I’d study at uni. But no! Physics fought its way through and defeated maths to become my favourite subject and voila – I studied it at uni!

      But like Jessica it had never crossed my mind to do a PhD!! I had always thought I’d get a job after uni but in my final year I realised I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to do research. So here I am.

      (Art got dropped but is now my hobby instead of a compulsory activity – makes it a lot more fun!)

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