I loved dinosaurs from the time I was 6 years old. Then at 10, I read this book about the science of it. What it's like to be a palaeontologist. I decided then and there that’s what I was going to be when I grew up.

We lived near the Royal Ontario Museum, so I would convince my parents to take me there to see the dinosaurs. That's how I’d get my dinosaur fix.

Since most of the dinosaurs in the museum were from Alberta, I finally talked my family into coming out West for a vacation. But I was shocked - there was almost nothing about dinosaurs here. That's how, by the time I was 12, I knew I was going to be a dinosaur palaeontologist, and that I was going to live in Alberta.

When I started my undergrad, I realized my job prospects were not good, but I didn't care - I just wanted to work on dinosaurs. I had just started my Ph.D. at McGill in 1976 when a professor called me. A job opened up at the Provincial Museum of Alberta (now called the Royal Alberta Museum) in Edmonton. As I walked into the interview, something clicked. Something told me that this was my job.

The interview went really well, but I knew it was a long shot. People who were more experienced and qualified were also applying. When I walked out I thought to myself, “Who the hell was that in there?”

I got the job.