I’m following Psyc Girl’s example and making the most out of these interview questions that EcoGeoFemme asked me (many moons ago). I’m going to start with the first question she asked me:
How did you decide to get into biochemistry? What made you choose that over some other field of biology, like physiology or proteomics or forestry or something?
At the risk of sounding horribly corny, it was my high school chemistry teacher and biology teacher. I really enjoyed both classes. For some reason, chemistry just made sense to me. The way everything in the world could be reduced to these tiny atoms and the entire world was governed by how they interacted with each other was just really cool to me.
When I got to college, my school didn’t offer a biology major, so I majored in chemistry. [I might’ve majored in physics had my intro to physics class been a bit better taught. Unfortunately, the physics program here seems to be averse to attracting students (our prof repeatedly told us that only stupid people needed this stuff explained… and sometimes I needed this stuff explained).] Still, I liked the idea of working on biological systems, so I switched to biochemistry in my junior year.
As for anything else, I kind of think that everything can be reduced down to chemistry (including physiology and proteomics). So, I feel like it’s a good foundation for anything else I might want to study or know about (except maybe forestry, I had the hardest time identifying poison ivy as a kid).
Yay for answering the questions!
Pretty cool that you knew your interests from high school (had I even known about my field, I might have developed an interest in it that early too). It’s awesome when something just clicks, and even better when you can see how it relates to so many other things. Isn’t Science great?
I don’t think it’s corny. I got into genetics because of a high school biology teacher too! (Although I did start a biochem degree, mostly to please my parents who thought it sounded like something you could get a “proper job” in, but switched to genetics after the first year).
I don’t think I’ve said hello yet, but I started reading recently! Well spoken. Some of the same reasons why I went into Chemistry…
I totally loved chemistry because of my high school teacher. Had my intro chemistry course been taught better, I would’ve stuck with it.
I am not a hard science person, and I loved chemistry. I just love all the rules (that might say a lot about me….)
I really enjoyed my chemistry classes in undergrad. The text book we used in general chemistry was called Chemistry, the Central Science (or something like that) and I remember thinking that was an excellent title since it was obviously true.
It is neat that you knew what your major(s) would be in high school. And I like this idea of doing the interview questions in shorter posts!
micro xx, I think I used the same textbook!
Hi
Tks very much for post:
I like it and hope that you continue posting.
Let me show other source that may be good for community.
Source: Science teacher interview questions
Best rgs
David