To go boldly...

Can you remember why you decided to become a scientist?

I can. When I was at primary school we were taken out of our classrooms one day to sit in the school hall and watch TV. We saw the lunar module, Eagle, landing on the surface of the moon and the astronauts coming down the steps to walk on the surface of the moon for the very first time. It was the most exciting event that I had ever seen and it told me that science and technology were the most exciting pursuits in the world at that time. So I really enjoyed science at school, and at home there were Dr Who and Star Trek on the TV and the stories of Isaac Asimov (a professor of Biochemistry) and other great science fiction writers to read. I dreamt of spending my adult life visiting other planets and making friends with aliens.