• Question: What three of your characteristics do you have that help you in your job?

    Asked by Adil to Paul, Greg on 18 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Paul O'Mahoney

      Paul O'Mahoney answered on 18 Mar 2016:

      I don’t get stressed all that much, so that definitely helps with research and deadlines!

      I’m quite open to listening to new ideas and having my beliefs challenged (I certainly don’t think I have all the answers or know everything), which is particularly helpful when you are working with other people and learning about new areas of science.

      And lastly, I have a passion for what I do. I don’t think I’d be quite as good at my job if I hadn’t found something I really care about (that includes getting to do things like ‘I’m a Scientist’!).

    • Photo: Greg Melia

      Greg Melia answered on 18 Mar 2016:

      Picking three is going to be a challenge. There’s my good looks, my charming personality … only joking.

      Firstly, to conduct experiments or to debug instruments that I’ve designed, I need to have an analytical nature. It’s crucial to be able to have a concept of your system in your head, understand the different processes that are happening, and be able to exclude them so you can analyse each one in turn, one by one. In science lessons, you’ll have learned about how you must only change one variable at a time when you’re doing an experiment. That can actually be quite hard, but being able to plan how to do that is a vital skill.

      Secondly, I need tenacity. This is the ability to ‘hang on’, to stick at something and see it through to the end. Scientific work is often painstaking and when you’re in the middle of something, you might not be able to see the end. It’s important that you don’t give up or change your focus halfway through.

      Finally I’ll say a good sense of humour, because this stuff would drive me insane otherwise!

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