What made me study geology and paleontology? A tiny bit of personal advice for students.Could this be of interest to somebody? No idea, but maybe, if you are a high school student looking for the right choice what to do after school, but just don't know, you might find (or not find) some comfort with my personal story. Was I interested in geology during my school time? Well, did not have any chance for that. Geology was not really treated by my school and high school teachers. Until the end of my high-school period I thought the Earth is made of rocks in mountains, sands in deserts and at beaches, and of pebbles and mud for the rest of the world. The latter prevailed to my impression. No real wonder if you grew up in an area of Pleistocene fluvial terraces. In any potatoe field such rounded pebbles could be found, they obviously were more frequent than the potatoes proper.
How about biology? That was a different story. I was a fanatic of animals already as a small child. I had the luck to grow up with dogs, birds, guinea pigs, and loved reptiles and amphibs (many of which I cought myself, kept them for a while and set them free after that). Let's call it the "frog-factor" to my decision. I did have a very good high-school teacher in biology who was strict but really made me interested in the subject. Thanks, Dr. Burkhardt! So why then the geology course? This is difficult to answer because there was a large proportion of chance in this decision. After having completed high school with the so-called Abitur-degree, my thoughts were the following:
So how then did I decide? Well, I thought Munich would be a fine place to study. I liked geography but would not want to become a school teacher (- the "tired-of-school-factor" -) and still did not know about geology (truly!). So I inquired about the biology course (see the 'frog-factor'). Once I was told I had to cut frogs and mice I refrained from it (although I actually did quite some of this stuff anyway later during the geology course). Then I thought of forestal science. Why? Well, nature and traveling seemed possible with that, and I was especially interested in rain forests (and how to save them, for which, of course, you had to see them first personally ;-). At the forest science institute there they told me all about the course, and there wasn't much traveling but rather a lot of economics. Oops. They also told me, by the way, that I also would have to study some geology and soil science in order to do the forestal science course. What was that, geology? I rapidly bought a book on geology (- I must have given it later away to somebody interested, but I think I still remember its name: 'Die Schmiede des Hephaistos' - it was mostly about volcanoes -), which fascinated me and made it clear to me that this is it: a lot of different sciences, a lot of traveling...). But still, besides applying in Munich for the geology/paleontology course, I applied in Freiburg for a mineralogy course. They were first in Munich, so that's how it started. How did the course run? The geology course in Munich formerly was a small course with about 8-10 beginners every autumn. When I started (in 1975) we were about 150 beginners (many of which actually were waiting for a place in a course for medicine). In the beginning we had to do a lot of physics, chemistry, biology (the mouse-slicing was there...) and maths, but the traveling was also there and I noticed that all these sciences had to do with each other. I noticed Geology as an 'integrated' science, a feature which still fascinates me most even today. However, there were some friends who after a while gave up the course, since there was too much of physics, too much of maths and too little of geology/paleontology according to their expectations. I did not have this problem, possibly because I did not have any special expectations at all. And the traveling was there, right from the start... Why the focus on paleontology? This focus was certainly also not there from the start. I really didn't know what fossils are when I started the course. The dinosaur-hype had not yet begun. I collected my first fossils on a rainy, cold november excursion to the Franconian Jurassic in 1975 and was amazed. But as I said, I was very interested in biology, and paleontology was the bridge between geology and biology. But I was as interested in mineralogy and tectonics (the plate tectonic theory had not appeared too long ago at university teaching). So it was, to a large extent, the friendly and competent paleontology staff which made me turn to that side. And again, it was the 'traveling-factor'. I was asked at a fairly early stage of the course whether I would be interested in doing the final mapping and field work for the diploma thesis in Portugal, and it was paleontology staff (Franz Fürsich and Norbert Schmidt-Kittler) who asked me this. That was it. Why an academic career? As any other student, I sometimes - not too often - thought of what to do after the course. Even at that time, job prospects weren't really too bright. But I though, I'll finish this without bothering too much and then let's see. I did have something like a 'rescue-yourself-idea' in mind: If I wouldn't find a job, I wanted to convince travel agencies to go for 'guided geology excursions for everyone', something which did not exist at that time (of course, I wanted to be the guide). But admittedly, I did not bother too much. When I studied, many of my study colleagues got a job at the petroleum industry after completing their course. At that time it was actually still easier to get there provided the final marks were ok. I did a practical time at EXXON during my university course, so might also have had some chances to get there, but it was the research which interested me more. I believe a key-event taking me to the research side was finding a wrongly labeled photograph in a text-book (I still know what it was: it was about charophytes but it showed charophyte stems rather than gyrogonites, as the caption said). Very nervously I reported this to the author of the book (who was one of the Gurus of paleontology), and guess what? He was very pleased and thanked me a lot. I think it was at that time that I noticed that science is not steady but an continuing approach. Of course, you cannot decide to become a researcher. But I unexpectedly did get the chance to get a research post at Mainz University directly after completing my course, so that was the start of an academic carreer. Admittedly, at that time I would have rather preferred to stay in Munich for private reasons, but fortunately did accept the Mainz job (and never regretted it). Had I not had that possibility I might have run for a job in petroleum exploration, I guess. Did I ever regret becoming a geologist/paleontologist? No, not really. I often do have enormous headaches when I see how administration does take over the 'real thing' which is research, university teaching and further education, but this probably happens in many other jobs as well. Fortunately, what I liked in the subject from the beginning is still there - a connection between all natural sciences and the 'integrated' approach, particularly the tight connection between earth sciences and biological sciences, the traveling and meeting different people and cultures, and the possibility to contribute to an 'applied' aspect, be it in petroleum exploration, climate research, or sustainable use of the oceans. But I am in no way a 'determined' academic paleontologist. I can still imagine having 'landed' in other jobs as well and liking it: high-school teacher, petroleum exploration, multimedia producer, coastal manager, science journalist. This does not mean that I don't love my job but I think it is a good practice to imagine that one could live with other choices as well. This keeps one's mind a bit more open, hopefully. So what? Is there any moral to this all? No, not really. I wrote this down mainly just for fun. But if you are a high-school student thinking of what you could do later on, you decide whether my personal experience may help you a bit or not . Based on my own experience I recommend to try out what you think might be good for you, whatever personal or objective reasons you have to go for it. But don't come with too many expectations or dreams, be open for surprise and take it. If then you like it, do it at full concentration. Also, don't bother too much what to do after completing your course because, again, if you liked the course and did concentrate on it, you will have developed some convincing radiation around yourself which, with a bit of luck and lots of flexibility, makes it a lot easier to get a job. My advice is: (1) don't bother too much of what your studies or job happened to be, as long as some of your expectations are fulfilled; never ever dreams will come fully true (and if they do, they might even turn out to be quite boring); (2) be open for new, unexpected things; (3) concentrate on what you are presently doing with full force. If you cannot, give it up (but do this at an early stage, as I did with my musician plans). Wish you all the best for your future! Reinhold Leinfelder, Munich, 30 Oct. 02 Last Changes by Reinhold Leinfelder : |