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My parents are wonderful, practical, sensible people, and the expectation was that I would study something academic.

I was good at math and science, and it was expected that I would attend the University of Washington in Seattle and become an engineer. But by the time I was seventeen, I was ready to leave home, a decision my parents agreed to support if I could obtain a scholarship. MIT did not grant me one, but the University of Chicago did.

I kept on telling my parents school wasn't for me. And they were like, 'No you need to go university.'

My parents spent an awful lot of money sending me to the best possible schools, and I came out of my exams and thought, 'I don't really want to do a degree.' I did philosophy with the Jesuits for about a year, and then I joined a bank. While I was there, I saw an ad in an Irish paper for radio announcers.

I think becoming a scientist is the product of parents who gave me enormous opportunities to master nature.

Luckily my parents were not against my ambition, they've always been very supportive. But they were adamant that I went to university first.

I think my parents did want me to go to university just in case, but neither my mum or dad went to uni, so they couldn't talk.

Both my parents instilled an interest in science and mathematics.

My mother never asked me whether I wanted to go to college, but told me I was going - to the University of Maryland on an academic scholarship.