1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Actually, the first thing I remember wanting to be was an astronomer. However, as I grew older I got to thinking that there were very limited employment opportunities for astronomers. Fortunately, the father of my best friend in high school was a chemistry professor (Prof. Wolfgang Walter, at the Universität Hamburg), and he supplied us with glassware, chemicals, and some initial demonstrations. Pretty soon I was hooked on ‘making things’. Those were the days when a kid could go to the drug store and buy some serious chemicals. My favorite chemical memory is the preparation and distillation of elemental bromine on a rather large scale in our kitchen. To this day I love chemical synthesis.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

I would want to be a glassblower or work with glass in some capacity. Glass is an absolutely fabulous material with incredible chemical and physical properties. The transformation of molten glass into intricate solid structures has always fascinated me, and I love the feel and look of glass objects. The fragility only adds to the allure.

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

That depends on what kind of chemist you are. As a professor, I think my contribution to the world are the people I train. In a more general sense, the most important problems humans are facing involve chemistry. Renewable energy, environmental protection, and pharmaceuticals are some of the obvious challenges that will keep chemists busy.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

Jesus Christ – the real historical person, that is. My father (a psychotherapist by profession) spent much of his life trying to understand this man, and the subsequent development of Christianity. He had some interesting conjectures about Jesus’ life, and I would like to ask him about those.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

About three months ago. I helped a graduate student measure the amount of gas given off in a reaction, using a Toepler pump. We don’t use this apparatus very often, and I always seem to be the only one in the lab who remembers how to operate it.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

Hmmm – a desert island with amenities like CD players? I love the music of Charlie Parker – so a compilation of his best songs would be my choice. If I had to be there for a really long time, an alto sax would be nice, to practice playing along. As for the book, I would take Darwin’s ‘The Origin of Species’. I firmly believe in evolution, but I have never taken the time to read his book. Besides, I gather it has some tips about survival on an island.

Klaus Theopold is currently Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware and works on the synthesis and characterization of transition metal compounds with interesting structure and reactivity.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

It’s a bit sad really, as I more or less followed my nose and ended up being a chemist – that being said I certainly do not regret it! I was in the maths/physics/chemistry line of things at school, so a BSc at university was the obvious route. After my first year I realized that I wasn’t a particularly gifted mathematician, and with an older brother and father both physicists the choice was clear – I had best become a chemist! I was really hooked by Michael Bruce’s organometallic chemistry course in my third year, and from then on my course was set.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

The “could” is a big part here – I would have happily been a 100-Test cricketer for Australia, although my talents on the cricket field have rarely seen me play much above fourth grade. A television commentator on the game would be a close run second!

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

I think the energy game has to be bit of a catch-all, with short term goals of CO₂ capture, storage and activation leading to carbon recycling being huge challenges. Longer term, in an increasingly unstable global political and environmental climate we’d all better start looking at managing our carbon reserves. After all, fossil fuels are also our sources of raw materials for the chemical industry and it seems a shame to be burning such a useful resource and polluting the planet in one fell swoop. Sadly, unless we go nuclear on a major scale I can see little prospect of an alternative energy economy to carbon until we can master solar energy conversion.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

Not an easy one, but like a few others I think I have to come down to Leonardo da Vinci. I would insist on dinner being served on a table stocked with plenty of beer mats and pens…after all, the very best ideas originate from discussions whilst being illustrated on beer mats!

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

If you asked my students, they might say, “When was the last time you ruined an experiment.” I’ve got a horrible habit of wanting to get my fingers wet in the lab, and my students have to be careful not to let me play too much when I see something exciting going on! My last genuinely new experiment was Friday afternoon – the synthesis of an acetylide complex from trans-RuCl₂(dppe)₂. Other than that, we were trying to rescue a batch of OsO₂, formed inadvertently from ethanol reduction of 50g of OsO₄ whilst trying to make the dodecacarbonyl. It’s rarely dull in the lab!

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

The CD is easy – any compilation of middle of the road rock ‘n’ roll. The book is a much harder choice, and of course would depend on how long I was expecting to be there! That being said, it’s time I did something about learning some French, so a decent language tuition book could be a good way to pass a few hours.

Paul Low is in the Department of Chemistry at Durham University, UK, and has interests in the synthesis of conjugated organic and organometallic compounds, and their electronic structures as a function of redox state.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I had some great teachers in the natural sciences at high school in The Netherlands, and they and we did some crazy experiments. Somehow I was, and still am, fascinated by the fact that we can make molecules without actually seeing individual ones. I was trained as a chemical engineer, but I always liked the chemistry part of it most.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

I would be seriously tempted to become a biochemist to be part of the incredible revolution that is happening there in genomics and proteomics. The chemistry in there is truly intriguing. Or breeding quarter horses.

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

From an academic point of view I would like to say to train the next generation of responsible chemists who will make better and safer products and drugs, and find new ways to minimize our pressure on the environment. In my research I try, for example, to make better and more potent contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), so that patients are better diagnosed with less (toxic) materials.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

Darwin. Why? It is quite amazing that he was so right in his theory on evolution.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

If an experiment is helping one of my co-workers in the lab with a measurement counts the answer is, some weeks ago. A real experiment by myself was in the summer of 2005 when I worked for 2 months in Dr. M. Andrews’ lab at McGill, Montreal, Canada.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

I cheat a bit, but I would take a series of 6 books about the Roman empire by McCullough and a CD by Gidon Kremer “Hommage to Piazzola”.

Frank van Veggel is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and works on luminescent nanoparticles for lasers, optical amplification and biolabels. Nanoparticles are also developed for MRI (magnetic resonance imaging).

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Although I always had some ability as a chemist, I only really became interested in pursuing chemistry as a career when I was doing my PhD. I particularly enjoy the moments when you make a molecule for the first time or discover something new, and this first struck home when I was doing it for myself during my PhD. Although I rarely go into the lab any more, I still get that buzz when my research group makes that step forward.

2. If you weren’t a chemist and could do any other job, what would it be – and why?

I’m afraid I would be a politician. I know this will surprise many people, but I have a strong sense that we should use our gifts for the benefit of other people and I have always felt that politicians have the potential to make more of a difference than most, even if what they do doesn’t always work! I have strong political views and have probably been interested in politics for longer than chemistry. I also think more scientists should become involved in politics, after all we have a lot to contribute.

3. How can chemists best contribute to the world at large?

As you can tell from my previous answer, I feel that it is extremely important that chemists use their abilities for the wider benefit. Chemists already make a huge contribution to the world-at-large through new drugs and many new technologies. Almost everything we come across in the modern world has been improved by chemists in some way. One area where chemists will make a huge difference over the coming years is in controlling the effects of climate change. If you think about it, chemists are the only people who understand the problems and also know how to overcome them.

4. Which historical figure would you most like to have dinner with – and why?

Robert F. Kennedy. Although he isn’t as famous as his older brother, JFK, he was a remarkable man who had a real vision for reaching out to the less fortunate in our society. Politically he has been extremely influential and was the real thinking behind what is called the Third Way which people would recognize in Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. If he hadn’t been shot whilst campaigning for the democratic nomination in 1968, he may well have beaten Nixon to the presidency, pulled out of Vietnam and I am sure that the world would be a very different place today.

5. When was the last time you did an experiment in the lab – and what was it?

Apart from in the teaching labs it has been some years, I’m struggling to remember! I used to give demonstration lectures with bangs and flashes and that was probably more recent than any research oriented experiment.

6. If exiled on a desert island, what one book and one CD would you take with you?

It depends whether we have the Bible and Shakespeare? If I don’t have them I would have to take the Bible. If I already have that, then it would be far harder as I read a lot of different books. For fiction, I would probably take “Norwegian Wood” by Haruki Murakami, for non-fiction I would take “Make Gentle the Life of This World” which is a collection of speeches by Robert F. Kennedy. My CD would have to be “Blonde on Blonde” by Bob Dylan, even though it was made before I was born, it doesn’t get better than that.

Neil Champness is in the School of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham and works on all aspects of molecular organization, including nanoscale surface supramolecular assembly and organization in the solid-state via crystal engineering.