• Question: When you decided what career you would go into, was there much hesitation in that decision and what obstacles where there along the way for you?

    Asked by anon-199498 to Sumit, Kate, Aryanne on 8 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Kate McGonagle

      Kate McGonagle answered on 8 Mar 2019:

      Hey, not really…I’m not sure how much I really decided or how much I just kind of fell into it! I went to uni to study chemistry because I enjoyed the subject at school. As part of my degree I done a placement year in industry doing drug discovery and I really enjoyed it. Because I liked it and I had experience in this particular branch of chemistry it made good sense for me to move into this job! I think getting relevant experience in whatever you want to do is really valuable!

    • Photo: Sumit Konar

      Sumit Konar answered on 9 Mar 2019:

      I had hesitations in the beginning as I never did high pressure research or crystallography before. I gained confidence and became interested in my research slowly over the years.

      I was offered a PhD position on superconductivity. I was very excited as the project was to make new form carbon. We were not able to make our dream compound but I found many other interesting compounds on the way. Most of them was made using high pressure. I made the new compounds and solved their structures. This is how I became a high pressure scientist and a crystallographer.

      Hesitations are normal. If you have those , nothing to worry about. It will be all gone with experience and time.

Comments