Alán Aspuru-Guzik is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, and works at the interface of theoretical physical chemistry and quantum information.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

My junior high school teacher in Mexico was an inspiration. He was a biochemist with a passion for the inner workings of proteins and enzymes. I later had the opportunity of representing Mexico at the International Chemistry Olympiad held in Oslo, Norway, in 1994. By then, I had a a tough choice between studying computer science or chemistry. The inclination for computer science, however, never faded away. For my Ph.D., I carried out large-scale computing using quantum Monte Carlo. During my postdoc years, I began working at the interface between quantum computation and chemistry, and this is still one of my current research topics as an independent faculty.

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

If I were not a scientist, I can imagine many other possible alter egos. On dreamy days, I see myself as a film maker, doing independent film, or as a (very) progressive politician.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

I have a few projects going on in my lab at Harvard right now. At a first glance, they seem diverse, but all are at the interface between theoretical chemistry, quantum information, and renewable energies. We are interested in charge and excitation transport in photosynthetic systems and organic photovoltaic materials. For example, we are working together with IBM on the Clean Energy Project/World Community Grid: This is a distributed computing project using spare computer time from donors around the world to search for molecular crystals that transport excitations and charge as efficiently as possible. We hope that one day, our theoretical studies will lead to better organic solar cells and organic electronics applications.

In the field of quantum computing, we recently carried out the first quantum chemistry calculation of the hydrogen molecule using a prototype optical quantum computer together with the group of Andrew White (Queensland).

We also work in other places where quantum information and chemistry come together: the electronic structure of complex systems, such as molecules attached to plasmonic nanoparticles could be benefited by our work on density functional theory for open quantum systems.

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

I would have liked to meet with Isaac Newton. He was quite a character and a revolutionary scientist in his time. I recommend reading his great historical biography, Never at rest by Richard Westfall.

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

I am a theoretician, so you would expect it was quite a while ago! But you would be wrong. Two months ago, Ted Betley, one of my inorganic chemistry colleagues in my department, and myself conducted chemical experiments for a group of childen. Ted made sure that I, as a theoretician, was not working unsupervised!

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

I would probably take a complex recursive book, such as The Saragossa Manuscript by Jan Potocki or Don Quijote de la Mancha by Cervantes. As a music album, without a second of thinking about it, it would be Clandestino by Manu Chao. Clandestino is an album in which songs are linked together into one hour-long song that takes immigrants as its central theme and the tough life one may have if one is forced to live a clandestine existence. The songs are in many languages, and if you have not heard Manu Chao, you can get a taste by watching videos of him on YouTube.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions?

I would like to see what Professor Takuzo Aida, from the University of Tokyo has to say. I just heard him talk at a light-harvesting conference in Bayreuth, Germany, and I became a fan of his work.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I enrolled in university thinking I would end up in business, finance, or law, but once I got there, I found that science – chemistry in particular – was the subject I found most interesting. I found it concrete and logical, and the way that simple theories and laws explained complex phenomena really fascinated me. What really hooked me, though, was research. Once I got into a lab and started running my own experiments, I became captivated with the process of discovery and learning new things about molecular systems through experimentation.

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

I can’t imagine a job better than the one I have now – it’s so multifacted and there’s always a new challenge. If I had to choose something else, I think it would be related to medicine. I find physiology fascinating, and I could see a career as a surgeon as leveraging some of the the same skills that I liked using in the lab, so maybe that’s where I would end up.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

We are working in a number of areas, but one of our current focuses is on a biomolecular detection platform that we are pushing very hard to make practical and relevant for use as a clinical diagnostic. I’d very much like to see the work my lab does have an impact outside of academic science and make its way into clinical medicine, so this is an area we’re investing quite a bit of effort in.

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

Elizabeth I. She was a woman with so much power and responsibility at a time when women had so little. I’d be fascinated to hear about what it was like to walk in her shoes.

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

Quite a while ago…..don’t want to get into the details, but it was a fiasco involving radioactivity and the cleanup of a pretty big mess because I was too distracted with all the demands of being an assistant professor to focus properly on an experiment. I realized then that it was time to get out of the lab and devote my attention to overseeing others’ research efforts. My group at the time wholeheartedly agreed and I think my current coworkers continue to prefer that I limit my lab activities to looking over their shoulders rather than making a mess in the lab!

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

That’s a tough one. One of my favorite books because of its chemistry link is The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, so it would be a front runner. My music tastes are pretty eclectic, so what I would take would depend heavily on my mood when I got shipped off for exile, but perhaps a nice long Mozart opera would end up making the trip with me.

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions – and why?

I’d like to hear from some of my chemist colleagues in Toronto – always interesting to hear more about what’s behind the science that people nearby are doing.

Shana Kelley is in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto, and works on nanomaterials-based biosensors and drug delivery systems.

1. What made you want to be a chemist – or scientist/engineer in your case?

From an early age I loved applied physics – particularly the opportunity to solve a diverse range of application-oriented problems using a strikingly compact set of mathematical tools and physical ideas. And I grew up in town where III-V compound semiconductor quantum optoelectronics (quantum well lasers etc) was hot and exciting.

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

A dog walker. Fun to get outdoors and hang out with the dogs.

3. What are you working on now, and where do you hope it will lead?

(1) We are trying to break the solar energy compromise: today, solar cells are either efficient, or low-cost, but not both. We are working towards breaking the compromise by harvesting the sun’s full spectrum, including the infrared rays, using spectrally-tunable solution-processed colloidal quantum dots incorporated into photovoltaic devices.

(2) Working with chemist Prof. Shana Kelley, we are endeavouring to build chips that can detect a panel of nucleic acid biomarkers that are the harbingers of disease. We use a diverse range of nanostructures to display the molecular bait sequences; the Kelley team’s electrocatalytic reporter system to gain up the signal; and a merger of top-down lithography and bottom-up materials chemistry to integrate the nanostructures on chip. Together we are building low-cost, high-sensitivity, wide-dynamic range molecular detection systems.

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

George Washington. The more I read about him, the more it becomes clear that he united practical brilliance with a lack of pretention. And I loved the fact that he clearly worried a lot – even despaired – yet triumphed. He was confident in himself without taking success for granted.

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

Back when I was a grad student. Some of my last experiments involved lowish-temperature (30–250 K) measurements of lateral current injection laser current-voltage-light characteristics. Temperature turned out to be a power experimental degree of freedom that helped us elucidate the inner workings of this new class of devices.

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

Book: New York Times: The Complete Front Pages: 1851-2008

Music Album: Glenn Gould – Bach – The Partitas, Preludes, Fugues & Fughettas

7. Which chemist would you like to see interviewed on Reactions – and why?

Harry Atwater and David Ginger – both astonishingly capable and versatile interdisciplinary fusions of {materials scientist – applied physicist – chemist – engineer}. In both cases I’d love to know how on earth they honed and fused so many remarkable talents and so much knowledge.

Ted Sargent is in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, and works on colloidal quantum dot photodetectors and photovoltaics, as well as multiplexed nucleic acids biosensors.