• Question: Did you get inspired by another scientist , if so who ?

    Asked by 943cesf28 to RobB, Kylie, Matt, Bex, Sam on 13 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by TheChosenOne'sSidekick.
    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Yes I did. When I just started my PhD, I went to a talk by a lady called Polly Matzinger from America. She did a whole 1 hour presentation with only a pen and an overhead projector, which is quite a rare thing to see in the current world of computers! She worked on the ‘danger model’ of immunity, that states that cells can release ‘alarm signals’ to tell other cells that something dangerous is about. This was a whole new theory that has now been accepted by immunologists.
      She really inspired me to re-think my research, and to apply other ideas to what I was studying.

      It actually took her 11 years to do her science degree, so shows that you don’t have to be a top grade student that whizzes through school to succeed as a scientist.

    • Photo: Rob Brass

      Rob Brass answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I don’t know if I’d say there was somebody who inspired me early on to go in the direction I have now, but since starting in my current job there have been few who have pushed me to look at things differently. Until he retired recently I worked with a guy called Alan Nahum, he’s an expert in radiobiology – looking closely at exactly how radiation affects cells, he was also my supervisor for my MSc project. He had his own theories about the best way to deliver radiation. We currently use 1 dose level and number of treatments for each site we treat, for example we give our lung patients 55 Gray (unit of dose) in 20 daily treatments. But his idea was that we should look at each patient individually and try and personalise their treatment more so that its more effective. He convinced me fairly early on and thats what I did my MSc project on 🙂

    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      I think we all got into this field due to inspiration in some form or another, mine came from a scientist who had a great career as a biochemist and then returned to schools to teach, Alan Watts. He was a great scientist and an even better teacher, and it was him who inspired me to study science at a higher level!

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