Question: What made you want to be an astronomer?

Paul Roche answered on 16 Jun 2010:

In school I was always interested in science, although English was probably my best subject, and history was what I enjoyed the most (until we did The Tudors…boring….). I read lots of books, and found a really good one about astronomy that made me want to learn more – we didn;t do much astronomy at all when I was in school, less than you do now, so I really had to go and read about the subject on my own.

After my A levels, I wanted to do a science subject at university, so it was a toss-up between sports science (but a careers teacher said that would be a waste of time…) or something about geology or astronomy, as I liked rocks as well. So I found a uni course (Geophysics) that allowed me to try out these subjects, and I found I really liked the astronomy stuff.

I was able to choose about 30% of my degree, so I specialised in planets and astronomy, whereas most of my friends went off to work in the oil industry (and earn loads of money…not that I’m jealous..much…). When I was finishing my BSc degree, one of the lecturers asked me if I’d be interested in doing a PhD, and as I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, I thought that sounded like it might be fun – and would delay having to get a job for another 3 or 4 years!

So that’s sort of how I ended up as an astronomer – and now I’ve been working in the university system for about 17 years, mainly as an education person these days, trying to convince school students that science can be fun/interesting and a good career option.