• Question: What inspired you to work in this specific area of Science and why do you find it so enjoyable?

    Asked by pommedeterre to Nuala, Gemma, Davie, James P, James V on 25 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by tomfaz123, inkyfingers, donshaks10, alex2.
    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hey pommedeterre and tomfaz123,

      I was inspired to work in polar science for the simple reason that i loved penguins! I think they are so funny and i love going to see them in the zoo. My friend also when to the Antarctic and actually played Frisbee with the penguins! That was definitely how i first became interested. In our final year at university we are allowed to do a project on anything we want ( as long as it was about the ocean), so even though no one in the university worked on polar science they let me do a project on sea ice and it just carried on from then really!

      If there’s something your interested in definitely stick with it, you can usually find some sort of job related to it!

    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi guys,
      Initially, I wanted to be a physicist. But I switched during my degree because I found that I enjoyed geology so much. It was a combination of the chances to do fieldwork, as well as how interesting and exciting the subject was, that inspired the change.

      The earth is fundamental to everything that happens to us: it’s where we get all our natural resources from, it controls the processes that affect our climate and weather, and is the source of natural disasters that can devastate towns, cities and even whole countries (did you see the pictures in the aftermath of the Japanese tsunami?).

      So studying the earth is so important, and that’s what makes it so enjoyable. Well, that and the chance to go in the field and study volcanoes while all your non-scientist friends are stuck in offices doing boring 9-5 jobs…..

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hiya pommedeterre, tomfaz123, inkyfingers, donshaks10 and alex2

      I got into climate modelling during my masters year at University. I had to give a talk to my class on geo-engineering, which is an idea that we can reduce the impact of greenhouse gases by reflecting solar radiation or trying to remove carbon dioxide that is already in the atmosphere. I found it really interesting (and very scary) that we could play around with our atmosphere to reduce the impact of climate change.

      I saw an opportunity to do a project for my masters dissertation on climate modelling geoengineering and I really enjoyed using the climate model and so I applied for and got a PhD place to use a climate model on past climates and having a background in geology I was delighted to combine these two things.

      I find the way that our climate has changed over millions of years really interesting, so having the chance to understand it better and work on it in such a way as to improve our understanding of it with respect to the changes due to climate change is really enjoyable and challenging!

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