• Question: How often do you start a new project (roughly)?

    Asked by georgeman893 to Aled, Ellie, Fiona, Kev, Willem on 7 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Aled Roberts

      Aled Roberts answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      Hi Georgeman893!

      I’m a microbiologist and for me there are small changes from week to week! No two weeks are the same for me which is amazing! I do experiments, get my results and then that determines what I do next week… Things haven’t gone so well in my experiments this week so I will be changing what I’m doing next week! On the flip side… what I am doing now is COMPLETELY different from what I was doing a year ago! So even as a microbiologist, there are many different research areas I could go in to! The possibilities are endless for me which I love!

      Hope that answers your question! If not, ask me more!

    • Photo: Kevin Arbuckle

      Kevin Arbuckle answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      Working on a range of things means I don’t have a good answer for this question. It depends how much I have on at one time and how long my current projects take. I get lots of new ideas all the time but it takes time to start them. At the moment I have about 8 or 9 projects going on (at different stages), so I’ll start more when I finish some of those.

    • Photo: Fiona Heesen

      Fiona Heesen answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      Hi georgeman893,

      Hmmm that is a really good question! I am currently working on my PhD, which is really like one big project and that takes several years! But within that I am constantly working on smaller projects that are ongoing and I often work on many different things at the same time. Right now I am working on teaching for a geography class at the university, and I am also writing a paper on Internet use and how people access the Internet (is it through school computers, ipads and so on). So I think really I probably start a project once a month, but many go on for several months to actually get completed.

      Thanks for your question 🙂

      – Fiona

    • Photo: Willem Heijltjes

      Willem Heijltjes answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hi George! (Can I call you George?)

      The number of projects that scientists do at the same time varies a lot across different fields. I start a new project roughly twice a year, if I count only the serious ones. But come to think of it, I only finish one each year… I wonder where the missing projects have gone… 😉

    • Photo: Eleanor Parker

      Eleanor Parker answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Well I guess you could say I’ve been doing the same big project for 2 years which will probably continue for another 1 or 2 years. But it is broken down into smaller projects or questions which typically take around 6-12 months and even smaller questions which take a few weeks. On top of that I’m also involved in other peoples projects, from other scientists to students. So really I’m working on lots of different projects which means things are always interesting!

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