I started out as a physicist; however, I am what I have become. I have evolved, with the help of many colleagues in the international scientific community, into an interdisciplinary scientist.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I trained initially as a physical chemist, and then, after becoming interested in biology, I went to medical school and learned how to be a physician. So, I'm a physician scientist.
I think I set myself on a course to become a scientist around about the time that Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' series was on television, and there really was no going back for me at that point, and then I went on to study space science and then get my Ph.D., then go aboard and work in the European Space Agency.
I think becoming a scientist is the product of parents who gave me enormous opportunities to master nature.
I fell in love with science and decided to continue for my Ph.D., and from there on, I was a scientist.
I always said I wanted to be scientist, but I didn't really have the staying power.
I was a terrible science student, so I could never be a scientist; my mind doesn't work that way. But I've learned to love the stories around science, and I have so much respect and fascination for the people who can make discoveries and find applications. There's a lot of drama there.
I've always really been into science, and in the last five years I've gotten into theoretical physics and the origins of the universe.
Ever since I was a kid, I've had an enormous interest in the sciences - everything from quantum physics to anthropology.
When I was 28 years old, I found myself in Schenectady, New York, where I discovered that it was possible for some people to make a good living as physicists.
When I was a college student at Yale, I was studying physics and mathematics and was absolutely intent on becoming a theoretical physicist.