JAAS News

Today, we interview Raquel Sánchez Romero, a Post-Doctoral Scientist at Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements, JRC, EC.

Raquel in his lab in Geel, Belgium

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

Although I was interested in Math when I was a child, after my participation in a “Chemistry Olympics” during my last high school year I decided to study Chemistry. There I realized how Chemistry could be the key to explain many things that awoke my curiosity.

Why did you choose your research group/University and what factors influenced your choice?

I have to admit that research was not among my first interests until I started working on it. It was during the last year of my degree at the University of Alicante (Spain), when I had my first contact with research. And I discovered my vocation. Under the supervision of Prof. José Luis Todolí, I started to apply ICP-OES for the analysis of organic matrices. This project had a direct application in real life and thus was the main factor to decide to continue and I started my PhD. It was a project in collaboration with the IFP-Energies nouvelles (Lyon, France), under the supervision of Dr. Lienemann. It focused on the investigation of possible solutions to the day-to-day problems in the analysis of petroleum, its derivatives and biofuels by ICP techniques.

Can you explain a bit the purpose of your current research activities?

As project manager, I am currently working on the development, production and certification of reference materials in the area of environmental science. Moreover, I am currently working in the development and validation of methods for the analysis of environmental samples by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

How is a typical day in your lab?

I cannot say I really have a typical day in my job, since I have many different tasks and projects to manage. So depending of the day-to-day priorities, I schedule my work focusing on the method development and therefore the tasks of the lab or on the coordination of my projects. If I have to work in the lab, I usually arrive pretty early. I try to prepare everything to start measuring early. So I am able to analyze the results before going home. In this way I am able to plan the lab work for the next day. However, if I have to spend my day at my desk, I normally come a bit later and I work until late. I am more creative after my coffee around 10 in the morning. So I spend my first hour and a half working on easy tasks.

What common activities are organized in your research group?

There are two types of activities, those linked to the work as CRM development producer and those, outside working hours, orientated towards the integration of all the staff. With regard to the first ones, for instance different meetings are organized from general meetings, such as unit meetings, to the more specific ones, such as laboratory meetings or group meetings. Moreover, different trainings are offered.

Regarding the social activities, the unit organised two special meals during the year and a special day with the families. Also, whenever there is someone’s birthday, we bring cakes to celebrate it. My institution organizes several social events throughout the year such as a summer barbecue, an end-of-the-year party … Also there are different social clubs (bowling, volleyball, cooking …) that you can join if you like.

What app/programs do you typically use?

Besides Microsoft Office tools, I use the software specific to the instruments. Also, I use the program SoftCRM, a special software for evaluation data from reference material certifications. I use End Note for the management of my references. Presently, I am working with the program R to make some statistical analysis.

How do you search for scientific information? How do you manage your bibliography?

I am subscribed to email alerts of several journals, so I can keep up with all the latest papers. When I am looking for a particular paper, I normally use the Web of Science. Then, I organized my bibliography using End Notes. I order the papers by subject in different End Notes libraries.

What are your views on JAAS? Which type of articles do you prefer? Do you miss some content?

JAAS is one of my reference journals. I started to follow it from the beginning of my career as researcher. As one of the most important journals in my field, it covers almost all the areas related to atomic spectrometry and lists the most recent and important jobs. Not only I have followed the journal as a reader, most of my papers have been published in this journal. What I like the best is that there is no limitation on figures, tables and pages allowing the authors to present all the data necessary to support the main results.

What do you like and dislike the most about your work?

I am considering myself a lucky person because I can work on what I like. Of course, the part I enjoy the most is working in the laboratory. I enjoy that not all days are the same. I enjoy new challenges to analyze and try to solve them. Like many people in this field, the part that I dislike more is the administrative paperwork. Moreover, I really like working in an international environment. I have the opportunity to meet people from around the world and learn new cultures… What I dislike is being away from my family.

What do you expect to be doing in 5 years time?

This is a tricky question. I like the fact that my days are not all equal. I like the new challenges, I like asking me why… And, I think that only when you do research you are confronted with this. So I hope to continue working in this field. Moreover, the combination of research and teaching would be perfect. My greatest wish would be to obtain a Professor position and to transmit my enthusiasm for science.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not in the lab?

The truth is I’m pretty active in my free time. I like sports, so I go to the gym, running, trekking and I occasionally play basketball. Also I use part of my free time to improve and complete my training, for example my language skills. I like going out, travelling, reading, cooking… I am part of the cooking and bowling club of my institution.

Thanks, Raquel! Keep up with the good work on CRMs, we all need them!

Have a look at the latests articles of Raquel in JAAS:

Quantification of nickel, vanadium and manganese in petroleum products and biofuels through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometryequipped with a high temperature single pass spray chamber

Raquel Sánchez, Carlos Sánchez, José Luis Todolí, Charles-Philippe Lienemann and Jean-Michel Mermet

Today, we interview Ariane Donard, a PhD student who carries out her research at the University of pau and pays de l’adour and at the French Nuclear Energy Agency (CEA), under the supervision of Dr. Christophe Peycheran and Dr. Fabien Pointurier.

Ariane in his lab in Pau, France

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?
I always liked science class as a student and believe that being a scientist would fit my personality well because I think it requires curiosity, patience and pugnacity. There is also no doubt that my father had a great influence on my desire to become a scientist. My father is an analytical and environmental chemist specialized in speciation. He is very passionate about his job and very enthusiastic when he talks about it. I have caught the research bug!

Why did you choose your research group/University and what factors influenced your choice?

After graduating, I worked as an engineer for a year realizing then that I wasn’t completely satisfied with my job. I thought research would fit me better so I started to look for a PhD program. I spent a year in Sweden as a student where I got the chance to work on the coupling of laser ablation and ICP MS and started to appreciate the potential of this technique. So, when I heard Christophe Pecheyran had a PhD position on this subject in collaboration with Fabien Pointurier from the CEA (French nuclear energy agency), I jumped on the opportunity. Another reason that made me choose this PhD program is the availability of great analytical equipment in those laboratories.

Can you explain a bit the purpose of you current research activities?
I work for the French nuclear energy agency. I try to develop methodologies to use LA-ICP-MS for different applications of interest to the agency. I am currently working on a challenging particle analysis dealing with an extremely low quantity of analyte, which produces a very short signal. Another part of my research is to study “laser-material interaction” by evaluating the influence of very high frequency (up to 100 000 Hz) with different wavelengths on ablation. For this, I use a prototype femtoseconde laser being developed in collaboration between my team and NEXEYA, a French company when I work in Pau. I also spend some time of the year in the CEA laboratory, close to Paris where I use a nanosecond laser UV.
How is a typical day in your lab?
When I conduct experiment, I start by turning on the instruments and checking that there is no problem before going to our laser group “kick off of the day” coffee meeting. We are a small group of two postdoc, our chief and me. This morning meeting is a very important moment of day in the lab because we talk about what we will be doing or discuss problems we may have encountered. The rest of the day is typically divided between running experiments and computer work.
What common activities are organized in your research group?
What I really like in our laboratory’s activity is the lunch seminar every other Friday. A person of the lab: a professor, an assistant, a post doc, or a PhD presents one of his research topic for 45 min. It is really interesting because it gives us an insight on all the areas of on-going research in the laboratory. The presentation is followed by a discussion that is always very constructive because people specialized in other fields can give us other perspectives on our own work. After that we all share lunch which is a great opportunity to get to know our coworkers and really help foster a nice atmosphere in the lab.
What are your views on JAAS? Which type of articles do you prefer? Do you miss some content?
JAAS has been one of the reference journals for my bibliography since the beginning of my PhD. I follow actively papers on LA-ICP-MS but also on particle analysis in general. I like the “technical notes” articles that are very useful when you start an experiment and can help you to develop the method.
How do you search for scientific information? How do you manage your bibliography?
At the beginning of the PhD, I did extensive research on laser ablation publication. I mostly use general database like web of knowledge, Scopus. I also check all the reviews in my field and verify that all the journals cited are accessible from the databases I use. I set-up different alerts with key words and also names of famous authors in my field to be up to date on the latest on laser ablation mass spectrometry field.
What app/programs do you typically use?
To write documents, presentation or compiling data I use Microsoft Office pack. I manage my bibliography with Mendeley, it’s really convenient to access to all your files from any computer.
What do you like and dislike the most about your work?
As I said before my experience as an engineer really helps me to see the bright side of the PhD. It’s really nice to have the chance to develop our own subject, to be focused on just one goal. I feel really lucky to work surrounded by experienced persons and to have access to such powerful instruments. I like the fact that we are challenged all the time. Once you find an answer on a subject a new one is always popping up. The part I dislike the most is when the instruments are unstable and you could spend a whole day to get them to work properly.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
In five years, I would hope to be back in France after some postdoc abroad. I would love to work for a few years in a foreign lab. It’s very enriching to discover different methods of work, different cultures. I would like to continue in the research field possibly the public sector but I don’t rule out the industrial sector at this point. Working for example in an analytical laboratory at developing new analytical methods could be a nice job.
What do you enjoy doing when you are not in the lab?
I like my job but I also like my life outside the lab! I have a lot of activities when I’m not at work. I take dance and guitar classes and I’m playing in a band. I think it’s important to take your mind off the work to be even more concentrated during the day. Of course during a PhD, there are very busy periods when you have to put aside your activities for a while and stay focus on your work but I always try to find a balance.

Many thanks for sharing your views with us, Ariane, and be careful with the research bug!

Frank Vanhaecke

Frank Vanhaecke is a professor of analytical chemistry at Ghent University in Belgium. His research encompasses the determination, speciation and isotopic analysis of trace elements using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). He took some time out from the 2013 Goldschmidt conference to talk to Rebecca Brodie.

What inspired you to become a chemist in the first place?

That’s an easy question. When I was in secondary school I knew that I wanted to do something in science. At first I had my mind set on biology. Questions like ‘how do animals and plants defend themselves?’ and ‘why do trees lose their leaves in autumn?’ intrigued me. But I quickly gave up on this idea when I had to do my first dissection – that was the end of biology for me.

To read the full article, please read Chemistry World.

Today we interview Alexander Gundlach-Graham, a graduate student who is finishing his PhD at the Laboratory for Spectrochemistry, in Indiana University, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Gary M. Hieftje

Alexander in his lab in Bloomington, Indiana

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

I’ve always been curious about the natural world and about how things work. I trace my curiosity about the outdoors to hiking and camping trips I took growing up with my family and scouts. I never really made a decision to study chemistry; I took general chemistry my freshman year of college and then just kept taking chemistry classes because I enjoyed them so much. The most influential course I took in college was Instrumental Analysis. In this course, we both used instruments and, as a class, built an instrument to study kinetics reactions through a fast-flow mixing tube.

Why did you choose your research group/university and what factors influenced your choice?

I joined the Hieftje group at Indiana University because I wanted to build scientific instruments. The black-box approach to chemistry has never worked for me: I’m too fascinated by “how” measurements are made. I came to IU to learn about everything that goes into building a scientific instrument, from theory, design, and construction to operation and first results. In this regard, IU (and the Hieftje group) has been a fantastic place to learn about instrument development. Also, Bloomington, Indiana is a wonderful place to live.

What do you like about where you live?

My favorite part of Bloomington is definitely the Farmer’s Market. Abi and I go every Saturday during the summer to stock up on fresh vegetables for the week.

Can you explain a bit the purpose of your current research activities?

My PhD research has been to develop and characterize the first Distance-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer (DOFMS). Prof. Chris Enke from the University of New Mexico invented the concept of DOFMS in the late 2000s, and I’ve applied his theory with a real instrument. I think the research we’re doing on DOFMS in the Hieftje lab is beginning to solidify DOFMS as an analytical MS technique. To date, we’ve built two DOFMS instruments and combined DOFMS with glow-discharge and inductively coupled plasma ionization sources. More combinations of DOFMS with alternative ionization sources and applications of DOFMS are certainly on the way!

How is a typical day in your lab?

I don’t really have a “typical day” in the lab. The only real routine I have is that several members of the group and Prof. Hieftje often gather for coffee in the mornings to socialize and talk about our research problems, questions, and ideas. I typically spend the rest of day working mostly independently. Depending on the day, I will be taking measurements; analyzing data; designing, building, or changing components for the DOFMS; or reading and writing.

What common activities are organized in your research group?

Every day we have make freshly-ground French pressed coffee in the morning; for some reason we are quite particular about our coffee. Otherwise, we have two main group events during the year: in the summer we rent a pontoon boat and troll around a local lake for a day, and in December there is a holiday party. We also often have group dinners when visiting scientists prepare to leave the group and have celebration dinners when a group member receives his or her degree.

What apps/programs do you typically use?

I think I use programs typical to analytical chemists. I use Origin to plot data, Endnote to organize my citations, and Microsoft Office programs to make presentations and write manuscripts. I also do a lot of work with LabVIEW to remotely control the instrument and to analyze data. I use SimION for simulating new designs for the DOFMS.

How do you search for scientific information? How do you manage your bibliography?

I follow journals with an RSS reader. My preferred reader is Google Reader—I only get to use that for 1 more month L. When I know what article I’m looking for, I use Google Scholar to find PDFs of the article, and when I want to search by author, I typically use Web of Science. I use Endnote to keep my bibliography organized. My current system is to read and annotate articles using GoodNotes on my iPad, and then save the PDF to my EndNote library, so that the article, my notes, and the citation are all together.

What are your views on JAAS? Which type of articles do you prefer? Do you miss some content?

JAAS is one of the journals that I always look through. I enjoy the research and perspective articles especially. As an author, I like the flexibility of JAAS because there are no figure and page limits. When journals are too strict about figure limits, I think that important pieces of the story can get buried in supplementary material sections.

What do you like and dislike the most about your work?

My favorite part of research is problem solving. I also have a lot of freedom to develop new ideas. At IU, we have a student machine shop that I can use to make my own parts for the instrument: sometimes I can design, construct, install, and test a new component for the DOFMS in a day or two. This flexibility really allows us to be creative. In my graduate career, I’ve also been lucky to get to travel around the world to meet with other scientists and share my own results. Just like everyone else, I don’t like it when my instrument stops working. A day or two spent in search of ions because of a missed electrical connection can be very frustrating.

What have you taught? What have your teaching experiences been like? What have you learned from teaching?

At IU, I’ve taught general chemistry and bio-analytical chemistry labs, as well as several semesters of our graduate-level electronics course. I’ve very much enjoyed teaching at IU; I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that a teacher needs to both deliver material clearly and be patient.

What do you expect to be doing in five years’ time?

In fives years, I hope to be an assistant professor at a liberal arts college in the United States. I’d like my career to balance teaching and research, with perhaps more emphasis on teaching.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not in the lab?

I like to spend time with my wife Abi, go on walks around town, go to the gym, and cook. My favorite hobby is bread baking: recently I’ve been experimenting with wild-yeast sourdough breads.

Many thanks for sharing your views with us, Alex, and all the best for your post-doc position!