Question: how long have you been a scientist?

Paul Matusz answered on 5 Nov 2018:

As Nadine pointed out, one way to estalbish when we’re becoming scientists is when we’re starting to work on our own original research proposals. In my case, this would be 10 years and 2 months almost to the day, when I wrote to a renowned Polish cognitive neuroscientist – after finishing my 1 year long study break at Cardiff University- that I’d like to work under his supervision on a Master’s project on how people attend to non-emotional and emotional information. (He said yes and it was a fantastic experience; sadly the said professor died soon after I started my PhD in London).
Another milestone for being a scientist is when one started to be paid to do science – for me it was November 2012, when I became employed at the end of my PhD as a graduate research assistant at Oxford University to work on how children attend to visual and audio-visual information. So with this official definition I’ve been a scientist 6 years 😉