• Question: Why did you choose to use the topic you are doing

    Asked by anon-219943 to Nicolas, Emma, Declan, Bella, Ali on 19 Jun 2019. This question was also asked by anon-219123.
    • Photo: Bella Boulderstone

      Bella Boulderstone answered on 19 Jun 2019:

      This question is an interesting one because there’s two answers:
      1. I find a lot of space really exciting and I had the good fortune to have my supervisor hire me for his PhD. I think I would have done my PhD in almost any astronomy course. Space is fascinating.

      2. I was really interested in a whole bunch of things when I was applying to do PhDs. When you apply for a PhD, you’re really asking someone to become your academic parent and you’re asking them if it’s ok for you to come and study with them, so you have to apply to the right person, someone who studies what you want to study. Also, you have to find out whether they’re hiring. So it’s very much about keeping an open mind and working on what comes your way, rather than single-mindedly following one very narrow field.

    • Photo: Declan Jonckers

      Declan Jonckers answered on 19 Jun 2019:

      Because I’ve wanted to work on spacecraft ever since I was small, and out of the different kinds of engineering (mechanical, electrical, chemical etc.), my favourite (at the moment) is thermal engineering. This is all to do with calculating how hot or cold different parts of the spacecraft get, it’s really interesting!

    • Photo: Nicolas Bonne

      Nicolas Bonne answered on 20 Jun 2019:

      Good question 🙂 I’ve always found space really fascinating, even from a young age. Even by the end of my University degree (3 years in Australia) I still didn’t quite know what I wanted to study. When I started my honours year (a year of more difficult classes and research before you start a PhD in Australia) the most interesting project being offered was all about one particular galaxy and why it had all of the features that it had. I’d always thought that galaxies looked really spectacular anyway, so maybe that helped me as well.

      In terms of my current job, my PhD was a little bit difficult at times because of my vision problems, and because astronomy is such a visual subject. I think people with visual impairments can offer really unique ideas about astronomy, so I want to make sure they can access what they need to learn about the subject at an early age.

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