• Question: what first got you interested in your field of science?

    Asked by 352terb32 to Philip, Angeline, Catherine, Luke, Shona on 10 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by AshNazgDurbatulûk.
    • Photo: Philip Moriarty

      Philip Moriarty answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      When I finished my degree at Dublin City University (a loooooong time ago) I wasn’t initially thinking about doing a PhD. Luckily, however, a PhD position became available right at the last minute which involved using scanning tunnelling microscopes.

      This was back in the summer of 1990. A few months earlier, researchers at IBM had manipulated atoms for the first time (using an STM):

      I was fascinated by this ability to move atoms and inspired by the IBM group’s remarkable achievement. This played a major role in my decision to do a PhD in scanning probe microscopy.

    • Photo: Shona Whittam

      Shona Whittam answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      I liked the idea of applying my knowledge to a medical setting so when I heard about medical physics I knew i wanted to do this. I chose radiotherapy as I knew someone who had cancer and I wanted to help people like them.

    • Photo: Angeline Burrell

      Angeline Burrell answered on 17 Mar 2015:

      When I finished my Masters in Astrophysics, I got a job at a research company. I was working in a data center for a satellite that hadn’t launched yet and looking for sources of data to use in the space weather models. I really liked how much you could learn from a really simple data set, and it was nice to see day to day changes in the region of space above places I could visit.

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