Yi Lu is in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and works in the areas of bioinorganic, bioanalytical, and biomaterials chemistry.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

My choice to being a chemist was not as glorifying as many others who choose chemistry as a major or career. When I was in high school, I was pretty good at all subjects. When it came down to choosing a major when I applied for colleges, I had a hard time making a decision. I ended up choosing chemistry as a major by a slim margin, partly due to the fact that it is the subject that I did not have to study very hard and still can get a top grade. In retrospect, I realized I had an excellent chemistry teacher who was not tough to students and yet was good at inspiring them. I think I benefited from his influence.

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

When I was a child, I wanted to be a librarian, because I loved reading all kinds of books, fictions or non-fictions, and I thought, naively, that librarian was an ideal job because I would be paid to read books that I love (and will always to be the first to get the sought-after books so that I don’t have to be put on the waiting list). My favourite weekend activity was to go to either local bookstores or local libraries to read and borrow books for the coming week. I also tried to figure out better book catalogue systems in the library, and systems so that I can get the book I want faster. Now with my busy schedule, I have not had much time to read much other than papers in science journals. I am longing for the quiet days so that I can read those novels that I have missed. So I would realize my childhood dream of being a librarian if I weren’t a chemist.

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

My group members are working on three exciting areas. In the bioinorganic chemical area, we are working on designing functional metalloenzymes involved in biomass conversions, biofuel cells, photosynthesis and water oxidation. We have already found many non-covalent interactions that are responsible for high enzymatic functions. We hope this research will lead to efficient and cost-effective alternatives to native enzymes for alternative energies.

In the bioanalytical area, we are developing novel biosensors for on-site and real-time environmental monitoring and point-of-care medical diagnostic tests. This research has already lead to two startup companies that are commercializing sensor products, one of which uses the widely available personal glucose meter to detect many non-glucose targets (a paper published in Nature Chemistry last year).

Finally, we are exploring genertic codes using different combination of DNA sequences for abiological nanomaterials. We believe this research may lead to fine-control of nanomaterials assembly at an unprecedented level, similar to what DNA can do to control biological materials such as protein structures and functions.

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

Linus Pauling. Among the many brilliant scientists, Linus Pauling has amazing deep insights into chemical principles and theories from many complicated data, and he is also very good at summarizing and explaining the principles and theories in ways that are quite accessible to non-specialists.

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

Embarrassingly, I have not done an experiment in the lab for a while. The last time I did an experiment was a few years ago when I tried to prepare and give a demo to high school students using research results carried out in my group — we have developed dipstick tests for toxic metal ions such as lead and organic molecules using DNAzyme or aptamer-functionalized gold nanoparticles. It is very cool that we can use what we have accomplished in the lab to inspire a young generation of students.

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

With so many books that I want to read, it is really difficult for me to decide on one book. May I bring a book series, such as Encyclopedia Britannica? I hope to know every entry in the encyclopedia by the time I am rescued from the desert island. For music album, I like classic music and would like to bring a complete album from Beethoven—it is the kind of music I have never been tired of hearing many times.

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

I have two suggestions. The first is Harry Gray from Caltech, my postdoc advisor. He is in my mind the Linus Pauling of today. The second is Joan Valentine, my Ph.D. advisor. She is an ideal mentor and I always learn new things from her.

Matt Rattley is in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and works on cascade catalysis in heterocycle synthesis — and is also one of the winners of our In Your Element essay competition.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I think it had a lot to do with my teachers in school – my first A Level teacher in particular (a brilliant man called John Luton) was very passionate about science and definitely passed on the bug. It might also be a bit of rebellion, as my parents repeatedly refused my requests for a chemistry set for birthdays or Christmas.

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

If I were more talented, I’d enjoy doing music – I’ve played the bassoon in quite a few orchestras at school and university, but I don’t think I could make a career out of it. I’d also quite like to open a bakery – baking, after all, is just edible chemistry that always works (and it definitely smells better!)

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

At the moment I’m not in the lab – I’ve just finished my Masters project, which involved making cinchona-derived phase-transfer catalysts with H-bonding groups incorporated into the scaffold. They were a bit tricky to prepare, but thankfully they worked on the first thing we tried (the nitro-Mannich reaction), and having screened that, some of the others in the lab are finding some new reactions that it can also catalyse. In a few months I’ll be working on some cascade reactions to stereoselectively prepare saturated heterocycles for my doctorate.

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

I’d quite like to meet Gibbs – considering the massive contribution he made to physical chemistry, he’s barely known at all outside of chemistry, so I’d be interested to talk to him about his work and how/why he kept himself so hidden away.

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

The last experiment for my Masters a month or two ago was attempting to prepare a dialkoxyborane – it didn’t work too well, it just ended up making a polymer mess. To add insult to injury, my borane source (as the dimethylsufide complex) led to some unpleasant smelling waste, my labmates weren’t too impressed…

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

The book would probably have to be Roger Penrose’s “Road to Reality” – it’s as easy to read as good pop-sci, but it’s a very challenging look through the maths & science that underpins the universe – being exiled on a desert island might give me enough time to read and understand it all! As for the music – that’s pretty tough, but I’d probably go for the soundtrack to Bernstein’s “West Side Story” – the symphonic version is one of the best pieces I’ve ever played, I don’t think I could get tired of listening to it.

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

Prof Yujiro Hayashi gave a lecture at Oxford last year on some remarkable one-pot syntheses – he seemed like an interesting man with some very clever ideas, it’d be great to hear from him.

Richard Wilson is in the Heavy Elements and Separation Sciences Group at Argonne National Laboratory, and works on the fundamental inorganic chemistry of the actinide elements. His work focuses on correlating periodic chemical trends found in the actinide elements with their molecular structure and chemical properties to better understand the nature of bonding in these elements.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

Chemistry was a field that I initially struggled with quite a bit. Like a lot of other college freshman I wanted to become a physician, so I put my nose to the grind stone in my freshman chemistry courses and found out that I actually kind of liked the subject. I had the good fortune of having some pretty good chemistry professors as well. It turned out that counting the number of bees visiting a flower in a biology class wasn’t my thing. It is the hands-on nature and the challenge of laboratory work that makes being a chemist fun for me.

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

Well if everything were to fall into place somehow, I would definitely love to make wine. Chemistry you can drink. It’s no doubt hard work, and certainly not easy, but I think there is a thrilling selflessness (or narcissism) in crafting something truly exceptional for others to enjoy – and of course for me to enjoy as well.

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

I’m gearing up to start a new project with protactinium. A lot of people in the f-element community stopped working on protactinium many years ago. It’s tricky to work with and very very rare. But, what is puzzling to me is that many computational treatments of the actinides ignore Pa, as if the actinide series goes Th, U, Np, Pu etc. I’m optimistic that we’ll find some interesting chemistry here since it treads a fine chemical line between transition metal behaviour and actinide behaviour. It will no doubt be exciting to see where this research goes.

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

Dmitri Mendeleev. I want to know if his three traits of a good chemist (none of them fit for print) as told to me by a colleague are true.

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

I was last in the lab a couple weeks ago. We were working on synthesizing and crystallizing some plutonium coordination complexes for study using Raman spectroscopy.

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

So, I’d definitely take Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”, as for reading material I think I should probably be forced to finish “The Brothers Karamazov”.

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

I’d like to see Richard Andersen from U.C. Berkeley interviewed. He’s pretty colorful and knows a little something about molecules. He always has a good story to tell whether you like it or not. No, I don’t think he’s Russian.

Xiaogang Liu is an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at National University of Singapore. He also holds a joint appointment as senior research scientist with the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research. His research interests include nanomaterials synthesis, lanthanide luminescence and surface science for catalysis, sensing, and biomedical applications.

1. What made you want to be a chemist?

I was trained in the fields of chemical engineering when studying in college. But after I moved to the States to pursue my graduate study, I was largely influenced by my former Masters supervisor John Sibert. His enormous passion and dedication to organic chemistry played a pivotal role in influencing me to pursue chemistry as a career. My former PhD supervisor Chad Mirkin also influenced me tremendously with his enthusiasm for knowledge in nanochemistry. He really taught me how to get my work up to standard.

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

I would probably be a physician. My mother is a retired doctor (internal medicine) and I have always envisioned myself to follow in her footstep.

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

I am currently working on developing approaches to the synthesis of luminescent rare-earth nanomaterials, particularly photon upconversion nanocrystals that are able to convert two (or more) low energy pump photons to a higher-energy output photon. These nanomaterials, which are approximately 20 nanometers in diameter, are biocompatible and mix rapidly with biomolecules in water. When illuminated with a near-infrared laser, they give rise to multicolored visible luminescence. I am also interested in mechanistic investigation of fascinating energy transfer between different lanthanide ions confined within a nanoscopic region. I hope these studies could lead to substantial impacts on fundamental science and biotechnology.

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

There are quite many people I would like to have dinner with. If I have to choose one, I would ask Albert Einstein to join me for dinner. I would ask him to share his violin experience and pass on some of his music. Many scientists have fallen in love with music. But this love is not always rewarded with perfect mastery.  My personal hobbies are playing the harmonica and guitar, and I am desperately seeking a balance between research and time for my instruments.

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

It was about a year ago when I taught my student how to grow organic single crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction studies. If I have more time on hand, I would certainly enjoy spending time carrying out more experiments with my students.

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

This is a hard one. I might prefer to relax and indulge in the beauty that nature has endowed on the island. Not everyone has such opportunity to enjoy sounds and music of the nature peacefully.

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

My former MSc supervisor John Sibert. His own research work and personality have inspired me over the years. And I have not heard much from him more than a decade.