Anders Østergaard Madsen is in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, and works on crystal engineering using crystallographic techniques and computational approaches in the study of polymorphic molecular crystals.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

It was not until my final high school year that I realized science was more interesting than art and literature. In fact, I did not fully understand chemistry in high school, and this annoyed me so much that I fought courageously to understand it. Do I understand chemistry today? Only vaguely – there are, fortunately, still vast amounts of uncharted territory to explore.

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

I would be physician; I admire these people who every day take responsibility for the health and life of other people.

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

I am studying the stability and formation of polymorphic molecular crystals. Understanding the mechanisms behind the self-assembly and stability of solid-state materials at the molecular level is fundamental research – but with wide applications for design and manufacture of materials.

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

There are so many! To mention one, I would like to have dinner with Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) – a Danish astronomer, and a leading figure of the scientific revolution. Tycho Brahe is credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time, and his data were used by Johannes Kepler, to derive the laws of planetary motion, one of the foundations for Isaac Newton’s theory of universal gravitation.

I have spent many holidays on the island Hven, where Tycho Brahe made his famous astronomical observations. Tycho was a very colorful person himself, and lived in a very important flourishing period of Danish history.

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

The last thing I did in the lab was to perform a very meticulous X-ray diffraction single crystal measurement. I like to do very precise and redundant measurements. A saying goes that “Theory is a good thing, but a good experiment lasts forever!”

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

I might stay for a long time on that desert island, so I have to bring something that will keep me thinking …. The collected works of Søren Kirkegaard would do. And a Bob Dylan music album… Blonde on Blonde (1966), thank you!

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

I have had the opportunity to collaborate with Professor David Eisenberg from UCLA. He is a very inspiring person with a knowledge that reaches far beyond chemistry. I am sure he would give some very interesting answers.

David Lindsay is in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, UK, and works on the synthesis, structure and reactivity of N-heterocyclic carbene-main group complexes, with a particular interest in developing main group-NHC complexes for new applications in organic synthesis.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I enjoyed organic chemistry at school. I liked the order in the subject; the homologous series of alkanes and alkenes, the nomenclature for different functional groups, the way you could represent molecules on paper. I was fascinated by the power organic chemistry gave you to create new molecules. And I had brilliant teachers – they gave me the freedom to explore the subject, they answered every question I had and were always encouraging.

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

I would probably like to be a sports scientist and endurance sports coach. That way I would still be able to do research, indulge my inner geek in the scientific aspects of performance, and contribute to the growth and development of those I coached, and share in their successes – essentially, all the best aspects of an academic job.

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

My research is focussed on the field of N-heterocyclic carbene complexes of main group elements; mostly boron at the moment. I hope the research will lead in many different directions, including using the complexes as catalysts, and maybe even in medicine. However, in such a new and relatively unexplored field, fundamental structure and reactivity studies are also very important, and we hope to make a contribution here as well.

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

I think the 1965 Nobel Prize dinner would have been fun – RB Woodward and Richard Feynman were both fascinating characters. But I think I would choose Richard Feynman if I could have only one guest.

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

I work in the lab a lot these days. The last reaction I did was the synthesis of an imidazolium salt, which will be used to form an NHC-borane complex.

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

Music album would be “The First Circle” by the Pat Metheny Group. Once you get past the comedy first track, it’s a brilliant album which loosely falls into the jazz category. The book I would take is “Underworld” by Don DeLillo. It’s a tour through American history from the beginning of the cold war to end of the 20th century, told through a mix of fictional and fictionalised historical characters, and their reaction to events like the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy’s assassination. If I could cheat and have two books, I’d take also take “Earthly Powers” by Anthony Burgess.

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

Kevin Booker-Milburn, one of my old colleagues at Bristol, just to see him struggle to reduce his music collection down to one album.

Philippe C. Hiberty is in the Department of Chemisty at Université de Paris-Sud, and works on method development and applications of valence bond theory

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

As a student, I was fascinated by quantum mechanics and especially the electronic structure of atoms and molecules. I followed the lectures of Professor Lionel Salem, who was a fantastic teacher, and from then on my dream was to enter his lab and do theoretical research.

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

I sure would be a motorcycle mechanic, or even better I would work in a motor development department. Opening a motor, finding what’s wrong, tuning it, is as creative as doing research.

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

I am working on specific applications where valence bond theory can give insight while molecular orbital theory cannot. I do hope that this will lead to better understanding of chemical reactions and molecular interactions, and especially I hope to convince the chemists that both theories are complementary rather than rival.

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

President Barack Obama, for sure. Not because he is supposed to be the most powerful man in the world — he certainly is not. But he is a true visionary, and he has restored the picture of United States that we, the French, are attached to: a country of tolerance, intelligence, freedom and progress.

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

My last experiment dates back to the times when I was a student. I was such a terrible experimentalist that it is better for everyone’s security that I became a theoretician.

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

Book: « A la recherche du Soi » (In search of the Self) by Arnaud Desjardins.

Music album: Sonatas and Partitas for violin of J.S. Bach (including the celebrated Chaconne), played by Hilary Hahn

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

Roald Hoffmann. He has beautifully demonstrated the importance of quantum mechanics in chemistry, and he tremendously helped our understanding of chemical reactions and molecular structure by means of simple models. And those who know him personally know that he is even much more than a great chemist.

JJ Vittal is in the Department of Chemistry at the National University of Singapore, and works on solid state and materials chemistry.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I was introduced to chemistry by accident. My older brother advised me to take chemistry as my major for my bachelor’s degree so that I could get a job in his chemical company. However, I was overqualified when I applied to his company after I had obtained my MSc in chemistry. When I was at a different job interview I was advised to do PhD when they came to know that I was offered admission at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and I had no choice but to take it!

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

I was very much interested and good at mathematics during my school days. Probably I would have been a math teacher in one of the schools in India or a bank employee.

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

We are working on various aspects of solid state chemistry and materials chemistry. Currently, we are investigating some interesting solid state reactivities of metallomacrocycles and coordination polymers. Unexpected, unusual and unpredictable results always excite researchers. We hope that these studies will throw more light into the basic understanding on how an atom and a group of atoms in the solids respond to external stimuli during structural transformation.

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

I wish to dine with the great Indian mathematical legend Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar (1887-1920). Originally I had known that he was a mathematical genius, but I learned a lot about him when I read the book The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan by Robert Kanigel. Ramanujan lived indeed his life in mathematics and for mathematics. He was also a strict vegetarian, a diet which I have no problem with!

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

I usually check the crystals grown by my students. I do solve and refine crystal structures on a regular basis. I used to collect the crystallographic data but not anymore! Last time I really did something in the wet lab was about 14 years ago when my undergraduate student didn’t know how to synthesize (Ph₄P)[Co(SC{O}Ph)₃] and isolate the product.

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

I don’t want to do any serious reading in a deserted island! I read the famous historical Tamil novel Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki long time ago. I would be happy to read this again, which is about the story of Rajaraja Chola, one of the greatest kings of the Chola Dynasty in South India. I love to listen to 70’s and 80’s Tamil and Hindi songs as well as English pop music. Taking just one music album may not be possible. If you insist, I would be happy to take Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

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

I would suggest Prof. Richard J. Puddephatt who is an outstanding and wonderful organometallic chemist. For the past 10 years or so he has turned his attention to supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering. I know Dick well and he has been a long time collaborator. I would like to hear his views on some of these questions posed here.