Question: What made you move over from Physics to Biology?

Matt Bawn answered on 8 Mar 2018:

Thank you for the question. I didn’t make any conscious decision it just sort of happened that way. I liked physics at school even though I wasn’t very good at it (at theI really did not like biology mainly because of the disections etc.). Anyway I decided to continue with physics at university. I liked university alot but perhaps didn’t concentrate on my studies as much as I should have. I then found a job in scientific equipment manufacture and engineering which I really enjoyed but after a few years I started to think I wanted more challenging work. I switched departments but that was also not enough. While I was working I did a couple of open university courses to continue learning. I was offered a PhD position at one of the university labs that I had been to during my work and at that moment realised that was the challenge that I had wanted. The PhD was in biochemistry and my first academic memory of it was sitting in a meeting and not understanding anything anyone was saying! I had to do a lot of reading to get to the same position as everyone else and remember feeling amazed when I read about proteins and how they worked. The more I learn about biological processes the more they impress me and I have recently become facinated by evolution. I hope that I can stay in biology to learn more about evolution but I like that I will always “think” like a physicist.