• Question: what was/is your childhood/present ambition?

    Asked by mendelev69 to Jack, Jon, Tom, Yalda on 15 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Tom Branson

      Tom Branson answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      At school I really wanted to be an artist. I studied Art at GCSE and thought that was what I’d be doing in the future. But then I started to like science more, choose science subjects for A Levels and then went to university to do Chemistry. So my thoughts have changed since I was younger.

      Now I’m really happy studying chemistry and I want to continue to research and to teach chemistry at a university. My ambitions with my work are to craete structures from proteins that can act as drug delivery vehicles or as nanoscale architecture for creating new thiings on such a small scale.

      But maybe in the future I’ll change my ideas again and want to do something completely new, I really like travelling and exploring new places, so maybe something like that. It’s never too late to change what you are doing in life and have new goals.

    • Photo: Yalda Javadi

      Yalda Javadi answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      My childhood / teenage ambition was to be a journalist. I got some work experience and wrote an article about my school that was published in a local magazine. And even though I chose to study Chemistry and became a scientist, I still enjoy writing about science. I even started my own online science and art magazine (www.ionicmagazine.co.uk), which is a lot of fun! 😀

    • Photo: Jack Heal

      Jack Heal answered on 16 Mar 2013:

      My ambition at school was to write comedy for a living. I really wanted write a hit comedy play, and be in it as well! During A-Level I started really enjoying maths and then I took a real interest in science at university. I’m enjoying science at the moment but I plan to try writing comedy again soon, even if it’s just for my own amusement!

    • Photo: Jon Marles-Wright

      Jon Marles-Wright answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      At school I really wanted to be a physicist, then I got interested in biology during my A-levels and followed that through with my degree. I went to university wanting to study genetics, but got really interested in how biological molecules work and ended up studying Biochemistry. Now I would say that would I do is biochemistry/biophysics/microbiology, so I achieved all my changing ambitions from my childhood.

      My current ambition is to be able to keep doing my current research and to get some funding for it, so that I can do all the interesting experiments I have planned.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      As a kid, I wanted to spend my life swimming with fish. I did it for a while when I was a grown up – it was what I did my PhD on – but it was kind of chilly and got a bit boring after a while. Now, I really enjoy writing about science and I want to keep doing it while learning about new ways to communicate with patients and doctors – for example, rather than boring essays, how we can use new technologies like iPads or 3D holograms.

      The great thing about ambitions is that it’s OK to change them. Just because you think you want to be an astronaut/teacher/doctors/milkman now doesn’t mean that you *have* to stick at it when you’re older. I spent 7 years getting university degrees & then went to do something entirely different – and that’s really OK. Being happy is definitely the most importantg thing!

      (see also

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