We continue this section by interviewing Morgana B. Dessuy, a very young, just appointed Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil. Morgana works at the Laboratory of Trace Analysis, coordinated by Prof. Dr. María G.R. Vale.

Morgana Dessuy in her lab in Porto Alegre

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

At school I was always interested in Sciences. During high school, I decided to study Chemistry, after having read some articles about the role of a chemist in society.

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

During my graduation, at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, I was given the chance to work with different analytical techniques. At the end of my degree I decided to work with Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS), which led me to do my TCC, which is a first supervised research work to conclude the graduation course, at the Laboratory of Trace Analysis at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), coordinated by Prof. Maria Goreti R. Vale. This TCC work increased my interest in this technique even more; consequently I decided to take my Master and Doctorate in this area. Considering the fact that the Laboratory of Trace Analysis offers an adequate infrastructure for the development of my research, and that UFRGS is one of the best universities of Brazil, I chose to follow my studies there under the supervision and orientation Prof. Maria Goreti. During my PhD work I also had the opportunity to spend one year at the Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic in Prague under the supervision of Dr. Jiři Dědina in the frame of a sandwich program. This gave me the opportunity to work with other techniques, to know new people and a different culture, which contributed very much to increase my horizon, scientifically and personally.

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

My current research is based on the application of the AAS technique for the development of analytical methods. I am currently working on the development of analytical methods for the quantification of non-metals using High-resolution Continuum Source Graphite Furnace Molecular Absorption Spectrometry (HR-CS GF MAS). Besides this project, I have been developing another study related to the leaching of metals and metalloids from different food containers, particularly from pewter cups produced in Brazil.

How is a typical day in your lab?

I am not able to stay for a long time in the laboratory to make measurements, due to my recent activities as a Professor. Having to divide my time among giving classes, research and doing the paperwork, what I usually do is to plan the experiments and discuss the results with the students in the lab early in the morning and at the end of the afternoon when I finish my classes.

What common activities are organized in your research group?

Eventually we gather to make a barbecue or a happy hour to celebrate birthdays, presentation of final papers or the approval of a scientific project.

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

To make the bibliographic review I make use of the Web of Science. In addition, I usually access the websites of the main Journals in the field, to follow what is being published, and I save in folders, ordered by subject, those articles that I find relevant.

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

JAAS is one of the most important Journals in the field of Atomic Spectrometry, being a reference for me since the beginning of my graduation. Nowadays, I wish there were more articles about sample preparation, as well as method development and applications involving AAS techniques, mainly using high-resolution continuum source AAS and high resolution continuum source molecular absorption spectrometry.

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

I really like my work and I feel honored for being able to provide classes and carry out research activities simultaneously. I am happy with what I do. I do not really like the administrative paperwork, which is automatically inserted in my duties. Having to administrate money for my research and face bureaucracy and delay for the purchase of material/reagents is really annoying.

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

I have recently reached a position, which I have aimed for a long time: the one of being a Professor at UFRGS. In five years time I hope to have acquired the potential to widen the structure of the Laboratory of Trace Analysis and to be satisfied with the research developed during this time. Besides that, I hope to contribute to the formation of graduate and post-graduate students.

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

I really like going out with my friends or going to a park on the weekends. I also like reading a lot of books of general literature.

Thanks for sharing your views with us, Morgana, and congratulations on your recent position!

We are starting a new section in JAAS News in which we will try to find out the views of the younger generation of atomic spectroscopists. Today, we are publishing an interview with Luca Flamigni, who is currently a PhD student in Detlef Gunther’s group at ETH Zürich (Switzerland).

Luca Flamigni in his lab at ETH Zürich

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?

I have always been interested in technical and scientific aspects of life and nature. I think I inherited this curiosity from my father, who is a biologist and teaches science and mathematics in a secondary school.

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

After my MSc in chemistry at ETH, I decided to pursue a PhD in analytical chemistry. At that point, I had done three projects in analytical chemistry at ETH and I was convinced that mass spectrometry was appealing the most to me. After being accepted as a student by Prof. Günther, I had no more doubts that analytical chemistry was my field of interest and joined his group for micro and trace analysis. ETH has a great infrastructure, is a world-class university, and is not too far from my home town.

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

My work is dedicated to a better understanding of the processes occurring inside the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for mass spectrometric analysis of laser-produced aerosols. The theoretical considerations and experimental results obtained during my thesis will lead to new quantification strategies and instrumental developments on the ICP side.

How is a typical day in your lab?

I have two different typical days, depending on whether I am doing measurements or working at the computer. When I work in the lab, I usually try to get everything up and running until lunch, which is very early – at around eleven – in our group. Then, in the afternoon, I first run the most important experiments, which are on my schedule. If there is time left, I continue with what I thought of during the first experiments. If I am working in the office, I usually do repetitive, bureaucratic and easier tasks in the morning, when I tend to be less creative, then I do all the programming and interpretation in the afternoon.

What common activities are organized in your research group?

Our group is known for its good social life. For every accepted manuscript, the first author invites all group members for a drink after work. A few times every semester we meet for a barbecue or a drink for special occasions and when we have visitors. Other than that, every two years there is a group retreat, where we gather somewhere for two or three days. Last time we went to a castle close to the Lake Constance in the North-East of Switzerland. It was really a picturesque place to visit.

What app/programs do you typically use?

Everybody here in the lab knows me as an ImageJ enthusiast. ImageJ is a free piece of software used for image processing and microscopy. I do most of my work with it and have a folder full of useful macros to perform many tasks, such as size determination of micro-droplets, evaluation of SEM pictures, particle tracking etc. Beside the typical programs (Microsoft Office, Origin, SigmaPlot, LabVIEW, Adobe Photoshop), I am sometimes programming in Java using the NetBeans IDE and I recently started to experiment with Comsol for the simulation of flow systems.

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

I read at least twice a week the “recent articles” pages of JAAS and of the other analytical chemistry journals. When I find something interesting, I add the bibliographic information to Zotero, which is a browser plugin. When I do bibliographic research for a paper, I use SciFinder, which is a very powerful tool provided by the ETH library. I also use Google Scholar, which is helpful to retrieve information from outside the field of analytical chemistry. When I write a paper, I import the bibliography I have in Zotero into EndNote, which integrates well with Microsoft Word.

Which type of articles do you prefer?

We are forced to read broader, but clearly I like the articles on ICP-MS. Many of them are dealing with laser ablation and I find them always very interesting. Recently, I started to pay more attention also to the LIBS articles. LIBS is having a sort of revival, and it is a technique, which is related to LA-ICP-MS, even though sampling and plasma are not separated. This feature is the reason for both its advantages (simplicity, cost) and its disadvantages (quantification capabilities, robustness) in comparison with LA-ICP-MS. I like how both techniques are advancing over time and I think that they both have a lot of potential.

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

I especially like that I can both spend time in the lab and at the computer. This makes the work much more interesting and less repetitive. I also enjoy the freedom I have in planning and designing the experiments and see myself as lucky, because I can directly access so many tools and services at ETH, from the mechanical workshop to the chemical warehouse. What I do not like so much here in Zurich is the weather, which is quite dark and gray all year long. In addition, this is sometimes reflected on the mood of people, who tend to be gloomy.

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

This is a very tough question. I hope that I will be doing something related to analytical chemistry, or at least science and technology in general. I am very open to new challenges, but I believe that I have learnt a lot about what is achievable nowadays with modern instrumentation and I would like to exploit this knowledge. I actually have a personal interest in forensics and criminology, which I may try to cultivate professionally.

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

Contrarily to most Swiss people, I am not a very sporty person. I like to play tennis from time to time and to ski during the winter, but my principal hobbies are actually indoors. I play the piano – mostly jazz and blues – and I enjoy composing music on my computer. I have a digital piano, a synthesizer and I am a proud owner of a keytar, which is a keyboard that one can hold like a guitar. I also like digital photography and electronics, and to relax I like to watch movies and to play computer games.

Thanks a lot for your detailed answers, Luca!

Have a look at the most recents articles authored by Luca below!