Question: Have you always wanted to be a scientist?

Vicki Stevenson answered on 17 Jun 2010:

I didn’t always want to be a scientist – probably because I didn’t really know what one was! I’ve always loved reading, so my first ambition was to be an author. Later on I wanted to be a vet because I love animals. I didn’t really know what I needed to do to become a vet, although I was told I’d have to get good grades at school! When I was 16 I went to an open day at an engineering company which made mining equipment – they had developed equipment where all the copper wire was replaced with fibre optic cables to reduce the chance of sparks setting off an explosion underground. When I realised that fibre optics could save lives I decided I wanted to study laser physics and optoelectronics.