Q&As

Andrew Goodwin is Professor of Materials Chemistry and a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the dual aspects of flexibility and disorder in functional materials, and his group of about 10–15 researchers is based in Oxford’s Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory.

Dr Camille Bishop is an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University. She obtained her PhD in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, where she prepared glasses with liquid crystal-like packing using physical vapor deposition, after obtaining her B.S. in chemistry from the University of Chicago.

Nancy Scott Burke Williams is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Keck Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges in Claremont, California, where she has been in the faculty since 2003. She was born in Puyallup, WA to Burke and Nancy Williams, from whom she takes most of her names.

Abhik Ghosh grew up in Kolkata, India, and is a Professor of inorganic and materials chemistry at UiT—The Arctic University of Norway. His research interests lie at the intersection of inorganic, materials and computational chemistry.

Dr Jovan Dragelj completed his undergraduate and Master’s studies in chemistry in Belgrade, Serbia, after which he worked as a chemistry teacher and researcher at the University of Belgrade. In 2019, he earned his PhD in computational chemistry from Freie Universität Berlin and then pursued postdoctoral studies at Technische Universität Berlin. His research during this period spanned diverse areas, from non-covalent interactions to biocatalysis, with a major focus on studying cytochrome c oxidase and hydrogenase enzymes through multiscale modeling approaches.

Polly Arnold is a Professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley and Director of the Chemical Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US. Polly’s research focuses on exploratory synthetic chemistry. Such knowledge underpins the discovery of catalysts and our understanding of the behavior of nuclear waste.

Dr Josh Makepeace is an Associate Professor in Materials Chemistry and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Raised in Australia, Josh started his journey in chemistry research at Flinders University of South Australia, investigating the origin of hematite crystals in William Bligh’s naval logbooks, and the detection of pesticides in waterways.

Anna G. Slater is a Professor of Chemistry and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Materials Innovation Factory and Chemistry Department. Exploiting continuous flow processes for enhanced control of chemistry is a central theme of her work, which spans molecular materials, supramolecular chemistry, and sustainable synthesis.

Dr Zoe Schnepp and Professor David Smith share their experiences of working part-time in academia, discussing some of the benefits and challenges, and offering advice to those who may be seeking to work part-time.

Dr Satoshi Honda talks to us about pursuing his scientific dreams, scientific developments he is excited about, directions polymer synthesis and materials development should focus on, as well as his experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.

Dr David Nelson talks about his motivation for being a chemist, his viewpoints on the research field of homogeneous catalysis, as well as his experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.

Professor Wei Zhang answers questions on his scientific career, scientific developments he is excited about, directions electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies should focus on, as well as his experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.

Professor Jun Lu talks about the driving force for his career pathway and his academic journey from chemical physics to materials science and electrochemistry, as well as his experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.

Professor Kristin Wustholz answers questions on her scientific career, scientific developments she is excited about and directions the spectroscopy and photochemistry communities should focus on, as well as her experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.

Hear from Professor Nathalie Katsonis on her academic journey and passions, her thoughts on the future directions of chemical research, and her experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.

The importance of collaboration and good working relationships is unquestionable in our field, and is vital for the effective publication of research articles. In this series of Q&A’s we talk to people involved in all aspects of the process and explore the relationships between them. Here we discuss interactions between authors and reviewers with Professor Jennifer Andexer (University of Freiburg) and Professor Wolfgang Kroutil (University of Graz).

The importance of collaboration and good working relationships is unquestionable in chemistry, and is vital for the effective publication of research articles. In this series of Q&A’s we talk to people involved in all aspects of the process and explore the relationships between them. Here we discuss the mentor-mentee relationship with Professor Gisbert Schneider and Dr Francesca Grisoni (both ETH Zurich).