Visualize Yourself as a Potentially Important Scientist

Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1951

Glenn Seaborg is University Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and Associate Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Dr. Seaborg was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the chemistry of transuranium elements, including plutonium, which he co-discovered. Plutonium is a radioactive metal used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors.

Dr. Glenn Seaborg didn't know what he was missing before he took his first science class in high school. All it took was that one class and Dr. Seaborg was hooked on science thereafter.

"Up until the time I entered high school, I had no exposure to science and, therefore, little knowledge of its possibilities. I chose literature as my major subject, and I took no science until my junior year when, in order to meet the college requirement, I took a chemistry course.

"Largely due to the enthusiasm and obvious love of the subject displayed by my teacher, Dwight Logan Reid of Jordan High School in Los Angeles, chemistry captured my imagination almost immediately. I had the feeling, 'Why hasn't someone told me about this before?'

From that point forward, my mind was made up. I felt I wanted to become a scientist and bent all my efforts in that direction. I have never been sorry, for I have found in science a life of adventure and great personal satisfaction."

Great intellect is by no means the prerequisite for the making of a scientist, says Dr. Seaborg. Rather, hard work is the necessary element.

"You don't have to be a genius to become a scientist. We have to do so many tasks which need doing in all phases of medicine, public health, agriculture, industry, and basic research. We cannot hope to carry them out without help from people of many levels of ability.

So concentrate on going as far as you can with the basic endowments nature has given you. Don't underestimate yourself. You should have no hesitation at all in visualizing yourself as a potentially important scientist."

Adapted from Curiosity is the Key to Discovery: The Story of How Nobel Laureates Entered the World of Science, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1992

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