Archive for the ‘Meet our authors’ Category

2016 ChemComm Emerging Investigators issue – now published

We are delighted to announce the publication of the 2016 ChemComm Emerging Investigators issue.

Now on its sixth year, this annual special issue showcases internationally recognised, up-and-coming scientists who are making outstanding contributions to their respective fields.

This year’s issue includes a selection of Feature articles and Communications, as well as a Profile of this year’s contributors, with interesting photos to spotlight our authors at work or at play – look out for a cool plasma ball, white-water rafting, a cute canine friend, and loads of lovely shots in the great outdoors!

You can also take a look at our previous Emerging Investigator issues in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.


Read our Emerging Investigators 2016 collection today

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Meet our authors: an interview with Kamil Godula

Welcome to a new entry on our series of interviews in the ChemComm blog! We want you to know more about some of the early career investigators who choose to publish their exciting work with us.

Next in this series is Dr Kamil Godula, from the University of California San Diego. Read the full interview below.

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What inspired you to become a scientist?Kamil Godura

For me, it was my curiosity in finding out how the world around me works. My science teachers seemed to be the ones that had the answers to many of my questions and that had inspired me to pursue a scientific path.

I’ve always been intrigued by the ability of biologists, physicists and mathematicians to describe our world and try to pinpoint its fundamental principles. But ultimately, it was chemistry that captured my imagination for being a transformative science rather than a descriptive one. Becoming a chemist has allowed me to unleash my creativity and imagination.

Follow us on Twitter!How did you find out about ChemComm?

I became familiar with ChemComm as a new graduate student. Ever since, I’ve enjoyed the high quality of the research papers and the broad scope of topics that appear in the journal. Reading ChemComm is always a great way to gain a fresh perspective on and a new inspiration for my research.

What was the motivation behind the work described in your article? What interested you in this area?

My research team is interested in studying the role of carbohydrates in modulating biological events at the boundary between cells and their surrounding environment. The structures of these glycans, as they are called, can be recognized by protein receptors and many pathogens have evolved to target glycans to gain entry into their hosts.

What is interesting is the fact that the interactions of individual glycans and proteins are typically rather weak to be specific in a biological setting. To compensate for that, multiple copies of glycans are typically displayed by lipids and proteins found on cell membranes. My lab is interested in understanding how the three dimensional presentation of glycans on our cells affects the ability of influenza viruses to bind and initiate infection.

Once we gain a better understanding of these higher-order binding interactions between the virus and our cells, we may be able to design better drugs to fight influenza.

Reading ChemComm is always a great way to gain a fresh perspective on and a new inspiration for my research.

Dr Kamil Godula, University of California San Diego

Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work?

Our research is very interdisciplinary and involves carbohydrate and polymer synthesis, microarray platform development, as well as virus production and biological assays. At the same time, chemistry is always the central enabling science in all of our research. Therefore, ChemComm was a natural choice to publish our study.

Where do you see your research heading next?

Wikipedia

Our microarray platform has begun to reveal very interesting effects of glycan organization on their recognition by intact influenza viruses. We are currently investigating how the initial binding of the viruses to the “sugar landing pad” on epithelial cells correlates with their ability to enter the cells and initiate infection. We are also expanding this platform to enable the discovery of more effective antiviral drugs.

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?

Definitely a jazz musician. Benny Goodman has always been my great inspiration; I’m fascinated by the complexity and beauty of his improvisations and wonder what it’d feel like to master the clarinet the way he did.

———-

Did you enjoy Kamil’s story, or do you have your own memorable story about your first ChemComm paper? Tweet us @ChemCommun (#meetCCauthors) or reply in the comments below!

ChemComm fully supports researchers in the early stage of their careers, and remains the leading journal for urgent high-quality communications from across the chemical sciences.

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Meet our authors: an interview with Ruth Webster

We are proud to introduce a new series of interviews in our ChemComm blog. We want you to know more about some of the early career investigators who choose to publish their exciting work with us.

The first in this series is Dr Ruth Webster, from the University of Bath. Read the full interview below.

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What inspired you to become a scientist?Ruth Webster

As a second year undergraduate, I did a summer placement at GSK in Harlow and absolutely loved being in the lab. Until that point, I really didn’t enjoy the labs as an undergraduate, but this showed me a different side to chemistry. I was working with some people that were brilliant lab chemists and seemed to love what they did. They were also immensely knowledgeable, which made me want to do a PhD.

Then, my fourth year of the five year MSci in Scotland was spent at the Rutherford Appleton Lab near Oxford, helping set-up lasers for visiting academics. Working with so many academics who were so passionate about what they did, working at the boundaries of what we know as scientists, made me realise that a) I was an awful laser chemist (!) and that I should stick to synthetic chemistry and b) I wanted to be an academic.

Follow us on Twitter!How did you find out about ChemComm?

I remember publishing my first ChemComm article during my PhD. This was the point when my supervisor said (words to the effect of): “That’s it, you’ve made it”, i.e. I had managed to get really good quality work that was going to get noticed and highly cited.

What was the motivation behind the work described in your article? What interested you in this area?

I originally started investigating metal interactions with bulky amides when I got my independent position at Bath, but unfortunately they weren’t behaving how I wanted them to behave, so I decided, having put a lot of effort into the bulky amides, to change tack slightly and look at turning some bulky analogues into polymers.

I’m not a polymer chemist, but did a little bit as a postdoc (also published in ChemComm!) and I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out what I had made. Most of the polymers in this paper are completely novel, so analysing them was not trivial, but when I had figured them out it was awesome! I also had some help from Dr Mark Wyatt at the EPSRC NMSF, whose expertise with MALDI-ToF analysis was invaluable.

I remember publishing my first ChemComm article during my PhD. This was the point when my supervisor said… That’s it, you’ve made it.

Dr Ruth Webster, University of Bath

Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work?

I knew the work was good and novel –I knew it was worthy of being published in ChemComm. I also wanted it to go to a general journal because I feel the transformation itself is interesting to more than just polymer chemists.

Where do you see your research heading next?

We published a really nice piece of iron catalysis in ChemComm about a month after this polymer paper; I love catalysis, so a lot of our research is in this area. We also noticed ligation of the malonamide to copper during the RSC Research Fund work and I was lucky enough to get an RSC Summer Studentship, so we investigated the use of the malonamide as a ligand in copper catalysis. I’m hoping to publish that work soon before expanding our efforts in that area.

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?

I got accepted into Art College when I was at secondary school, but went for the Chemistry degree, so I really would have liked to have been a visual artist of some sort. Although I don’t know how much I like the subjectivity of art –at least with science you tend to be either right or wrong!

———-

Did you enjoy Ruth’s story, or do you have your own memorable story about your first ChemComm paper? Tweet us @ChemCommun (#meetCCauthors) or reply in the comments below!

ChemComm fully supports researchers in the early stage of their careers, and remains the leading journal for urgent high-quality communications from across the chemical sciences.

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ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2014: Winners announced

On behalf of the ChemComm Editorial Board we are delighted to announce the winners of the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2014.

To mark the 50th volume of ChemComm we have awarded three Lectureships this year. The 2014 winners are: Xinliang Feng, Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research (advanced organic materials), Tomislav Friščić, McGill University (organic chemistry) and Simon M. Humphrey, University of Texas (inorganic chemistry). Congratulations to the winners!

This annual lectureship recognises an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career.  Further details of the Lectureship tours, including lecture locations, will be announced in due course.  For information on previous winners see our website.

Also of interest: You can now read the 2014 Emerging Investigators Issue – which highlights research from outstanding up-and-coming scientists. There are a mix of Feature Articles and Communications, as well as an Editorial showcasing the authors – which includes some fun photos… look out for a giant pumpkin and R2D2!

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Why publish with the RSC?(video)

Watch this video and find out why the world’s leading scientists choose to publish with the RSC.  Keep an eye out for ChemComm Associate Editor Jon Steed (1:37), as well as ChemComm Advisory Board members Polly Arnold (2:39) and David Smith (6:00).

Polly Arnold also sits on the Chemical Science Advisory Board, together with Ben Feringa (3:10) and Seong Keun Kim (3:52).

Also appearing in the video is Chem Soc Rev Editorial Board member Zijian Guo (2:58).

Submit your best work to ChemComm, Chem Sci, and Chem Soc Rev!   

Find out more about RSC Publishing: http://rsc.li/11ki0Uo

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ChemComm Emerging Investigators Issue 2012

ChemComm issue 10 is the Emerging Investigators issue 2012, a celebration of the work of some of the world’s best early-career scientists. We think these people have the potential to influence future directions in chemistry – do you agree? Read the issue and let us know your thoughts.

At the front of the issue, we’ve profiled the contributors so you can learn more about them and their work. We asked them to be creative with the photos they supplied. Here are a selection:

Syuzanna Harutyunyan, Charlie O’Hara, Fabrizio Mancin, Christian Hartinger and Daniel Mindiola

 

Do you know a brilliant emerging chemist? We’ll soon be inviting contributions to the 2013 Emerging Investigators issue and we’d love to hear your suggestions. Email us or leave your suggestions as comments below.

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Meet our author… Matthew Gibson

Matthew Gibson is a chemist working at the University of Warwick, UK. His research interests focus on the design of macromolecular structures which can interface with biological systems, and consequently all the work in his group is cross-disciplinary. Matthew took time out from his work to talk to ChemComm…  
 
What initially inspired you to become a scientist?
I was always interested in the natural world, but really only became interested in chemistry during my A-levels. I had two very enthusiastic chemistry teachers who strongly encouraged me. We were able to undertake an extended lab project, and I found myself enjoying the challenge. At university I found myself drawn to the creativity of synthesis and how creative solutions can be used to gain fundamental understanding and innovative solutions.   

What was your motivation behind the work described in your ChemComm article?
In my group, we are very interested in interfacing materials with biological systems. A key challenge is making these materials ‘smarter’, so that they have triggerable/programmable activity, but also to introduce degradability. A major hurdle to this is that the synthetic methodologies to obtain degradable materials are not tolerant to introducing functional groups e.g. biological ligands. Conversely, controlled radical polymerisations are tolerant of most functional groups, but these polymers are inherently non-degradable. To overcome these limitations we developed a methodology to introduce bioreducible (-SS-) linkages into polymers derived from controlled radical polymerisation. We demonstrated that these polymers have interesting thermoresponsive behaviour, which can be ‘switched off’ by degradation.

Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work?
I felt that both the synthetic methodology and also the applications of the materials we describe in the article would be of interest to readers with both chemistry and bioscience backgrounds. Considering the broad readership of ChemComm and the rapid publication times, it was really the best place to disseminate this work.

Where do you see your research heading next?
We are now extending the technology from our recent ChemComm paper to develop increasingly complex materials which have triggerable interactions with cell membranes. We are broadening the scope of the monomers used and also undertaking biological studies.

What do enjoy doing in your spare time?
Since I lived in Switzerland for 3 years, skiing and alpine hiking are always top of my list! Otherwise, reading a good book or heading to the movies.

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?
It would be something outdoor such as a national park warden, or alternatively running a pub/brewery – in an ideal world, I’d combine the two.

Matthew has recently published two communications in ChemComm touching on the degradable thermoresponsive polymers described here and another on gold and micelle-based polymer nanoparticles.

Degradable thermoresponsive polymers which display redox-responsive LCST Behaviour
Daniel J. Phillips and Matthew I. Gibson
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 1054-1056

The critical importance of size on thermoresponsive nanoparticle transition temperatures: gold and micelle-based polymer nanoparticles
Nga Sze Ieong, Konstantinos Brebis, Laura E. Daniel, Rachel K. O’Reilly and Matthew I. Gibson
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 11627-11629

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Meet our author… Weiping Wang

Weiping Wang is now a Ph.D. student under the supervision of Professor Ying Chau at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He has just passed his Ph.D. thesis defense and has been accepted into a postdoctoral position in Boston area. Weiping took some time out from his work to talk to ChemComm

Chau and Wang’s recent ChemComm article, Efficient and facile formation of two-component nanoparticles via aromatic moiety directed self-assembly,  presents a self assembling system based around Fmoc groups for the construction of nanoparticles.

What initially inspired you to become a scientist?

I grew up in a family of teachers and was influenced by my parents. I became interested in the natural sciences from a very young age. I spent my childhood making simple circuits, performing oil combustion, observing ant behavior. Becoming a scientist was a very natural path for me. After I started my Ph.D. my desire to become a scientist was consolidated. For me, scientific research is the best career in the world. You can accelerate societal development and bring benefits to the human race by investigating topics that interest you.

What was your motivation behind the research described in your ChemComm communication?

Aromatic groups conjugated with small molecules can engage in specific interactions to facilitate self-assembly. However, most synthetic small aromatic molecules self-assemble into nanofibrous structures, which are not suitable as drug delivery carriers. Inspired from the natural protein clathrin, we envisioned that a simple trigonal core molecule conjugated with three aromatic groups may achieve a rapid and efficient assembly into nanoparticles. Moreover, as drug delivery carriers, nanoparticles need to be well-dispersed at physiological conditions. This further motivated us to design this two-component self-assembling system employing aromatic interactions.

Where do you see your research heading next?

The two-step aromatic-directed self-assembling process allows us to introduce biofunctional peptides on the surface of nanoparticles. We have successfully prepared two-component nanoparticles functionalized by Fmoc-modified targeting peptides. The nanoparticles have shown attractive physicochemical and biofunctional properties for drug delivery application. Now the nanoparticles are being evaluated for encapsulating poorly soluble anticancer drugs and in vitro cytotoxicity. The idea of the self-assembling system may also inspire the construction of functional nanomaterials using other aromatic moieties. Other aromatic groups or even aromatic drug molecules may be formulated into a promising drug delivery system using a similar approach.

What advice would you have for young scientists considering a career in science research?

Passion is the most important factor to consider.

What do enjoy doing in your spare time?

Travelling, hiking, swimming and photography

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?

I think I would be an entrepreneur and start up a company with friends. I would like to know whether I can run a company well.

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Meet our author… Daniela Iacopino

Daniela Iacopino, a chemist working on organic nanostructures at the Tyndall National Institute, in the Republic of Ireland, takes some time away from her research to speak with us… 

Iacopino’s recent communication in ChemComm reports an advance in the field of photoswitchable nanomaterials and in particular polymer nanotubes: Reversible modulation of photoluminescence from conjugated polymer nanotubes by incorporation of photochromic spirooxazine molecules.

 

What initially inspired you to become a scientist?

I was inspired by my chemistry teacher in school.

What was your motivation behind the research described in your ChemComm communication?

When we started working on the photoswitiching paper we had been working on polymer nanostructures for a while, exploring their photophysical characteristics. We were then interested in observing different functionalities and also studying possible energy transfer processes in novel doped systems.

Where do you see your research heading next?

At the moment we are investigating the manipulation and functionalisation of metal nanorods. We are also working on dark field spectroscopy of single metal nanostructures for sensing applications.

What advice do you have for young scientists considering a career in science research?

Be curious and be patient, I haven’t always been patient but I have always been curious.

What do enjoy doing in your spare time?

I read, run, swim and practise yoga.

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?

I’d seriously consider becoming a midwife.

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Meet our author… Martin Blaber

Martin Blaber, an enthusiastic surface chemist, working as a post-doctoral researcher for Professor Schatz at Northwestern University, in the US, takes some time away from his research to speak with us… 

Blaber’s recent communication, published in ChemComm, reports some of the challenges that come with using nanosphere dimers for surface enhanced ramana spectroscopy (SERS) at long wavelengths: Extending SERS into the infrared with gold nanosphere dimers 

 

Martin Blaber

 What initially inspired you to become a scientist? 

It was definitely nanotechnology.  While at at high school, I got very excited about the possibility of nanobots! Not the malevolent world destroyers, but rather the constructors of sky scrapers and converters of refuse into sports cars etc. The possibilities were endless! I enrolled in a BSc majoring in nanotechnology. After learning that bacteriophages could be programmed to build battery terminals and other wonderful things, I decided that micromachines were best left to biologists and I swapped nanobots for nanoplasmonics, eventually completing a PhD studying alternative materials for nanoplasmonic systems. 

What was your motivation behind the work described in your ChemComm article? 

Electric Field Enhancement!
SERS can be used to detect tiny amounts of many industrially, scientifically and socially important chemicals. SERS is used to identify counterfeit currency, detect chemical warfare agents and help art historians determine pigments for preservation projects. A major component of the enhancement in SERS is due to the localisation of electric fields around metallic nanoparticles when they are irradiated with light. This phenomenon is known as surface plasmon resonance. Our work involved trying to maximise the electric field enhancement around a dimer of gold nanospheres so that molecules attached to the surface of the spheres would have the largest possible surface enhanced Raman signal. This work grew out of previous studies noting that SERS intensity increased with increasing surface plasmon resonance wavelength. If the maximum field enhancement reaches approximately 1012, single molecules should be readily detectable. It turns out that in our case, the field enhancement follows a trend that causes the enhancement to “max out” for laser wavelengths of around 700 nm, limiting the average field enhancement to 108.
 

  

Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work? 

ChemComm recently published a special issue dedicated to SERS* that I thought would help broaden both the readership and impact of our article. 

Where do you see your research heading next? 

In this article we investigated a very specific system to determine how the field enhancement scales with surface plasmon resonance wavelength. Trends like this are geometry dependent, and there is such a multitude of other nanoparticle geometries that are readily fabricated via wet chemistry that the possibilities are essentially endless! 

What do enjoy doing in your spare time?
Cycling, listening to music, watching movies, spending time with family and friends.
 

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be?
I thought I’d like to be an M.D. but clumsiness and scalpels don’t go well together, so I’d settle for being an astronaut.
 

  

*ChemComm recently published a SERS web-themed issue, guest edited by Duncan Graham, Zhongqun Tian and Richard Van Duyne. Interested in SERS? Then take a look at our online collection of articles today! 

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