Question: Why did you become a scientist and what inspired you to do all this ? Was it a childhood dream or did you fall in love with being a scientist when you were older?

Daisy Shearer answered on 27 Mar 2022: last edited 27 Mar 2022 12:00 pm

Great question!

The short version is that I just followed the subjects that I enjoyed and ended up as a quantum physics researcher.

Here’s the longer version:

As a child, I always really liked both arts and sciences and it wasn’t until I was 15 that I decided I wanted to do physics at uni. This was because physics had become my favourite subject and there’s a little story about this that I like to tell:

I was in a chemistry class during GCSEs and we were learning about electron shells and how they fill up. The concept of ‘electron spin’ was mentioned in passing and I got really curious as to what this meant. I asked my chemistry teacher to explain ‘spin’ in more detail and she actually said to go and ask a physics teacher which I did. They recommended I read some books on quantum physics so I started reading popular science books about quantum physics and I got totally hooked! It also made me realise that physics underpins chemistry and allows me to use the language of maths to explore and explain the world around me.

I wasn’t sure if I was smart enough to study quantum physics but I knew that it interested me a lot so I did a straight physics degree to see what areas of physics I enjoyed. This meant that during undergrad I got to do lots of different modules exploring different areas of physics like astronomy, nuclear physics, and quantum physics.

It turned out that I really enjoyed everything linked to quantum technology which is mostly a field called ‘solid state physics’ that uses quantum physics as its basis. During my degree, I did a research placement where I was designing and testing lasers for telecommunications (basically making the internet faster) which made me realise that I loved doing research in quantum technology (I mostly studied a quantum mechanical effect that lets you turn the lasers off and on really quickly). My colleagues encouraged me to do a PhD as they could see I really liked research and I ended up where I am now as a quantum technology researcher who studies electron spin! I’ve come full circle in a way 😊