• Question: how long did you have to train to become a scientist?

    Asked by katieee to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 18 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 449spea43, hello??, Primrose, Callie.
    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      You could say my training never ends!
      It depends when you define ‘started training’. I started my independent research with my project in final year of undergraduate study, so at the age of 21; add on a Masters’ degree and a PhD, followed by a postdoctoral placement, you have a total of about 8 years training.

      That said, everything leading up to that has supported me, so A levels and GCSEs were training as well!

    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      I am still a scientist in training, as I am a PhD student. Up till now I have spent 6 years as a scientist, 4 year chemistry degree, 1 year masters and another year as a pre-PhD course in a DTC program.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      I’m always learning new things so am still in training, and I guess you could say I’ve been in training my whole life because I’ve always been learning new things about science!
      On a more formal route though, I’ve been doing a PhD for 3 years and 2 months, I did a Masters project for a year before that (where I worked in a research lab with PhD students before I graduated from my degree), before that there were 3 more years of my Undergrad degree, plus A Levels (2 more years), high school (5 years) and even primary school (7 years). So all in all, over 21 years!!

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