He vist que a Chemistry World hi ha una entrevista a Martin Poliakoff, el gran divulgador britànic de la University of Nottingham, al laboratori del qual en Pep Anton Vieta hi va fer una estada predoctoral, i del qual n’hem d’aprendre moltes coses (l’article es pot llegir, després de registrar-se de franc al web de la revista).
Caldrà continuar seguint la feina d’en Martin Poliakoff i la seva taula periòdica dels videos, perquè s’acosta l’Any Internacional de la Taula Periòdica dels Elements 2019, i hem de tenir bones idees i innovadores, com ell.
La fotoquímica li sembla que té un gran futur, i que pot aplicar la seva recerca a la indústria (en el marc de la química verda)… i com es pot preparar el terreny al benestar de noves generacions:
I’m excited that photochemistry is now becoming an a hot topic. With luck, together with my colleague Mike George and collaborators in Bristol and Southampton, we might help bring photochemistry to chemical manufacture in the UK. My passion, the area I’m most interested in, is green chemistry. This is a huge challenge – how we chemists are going to provide the chemical needs of the future. As one gets older you begin to worry more about future generations. The most important challenge is how can we make more chemicals from the same amount of feedstock. I’ve encapsulated this into what I call the Robin Hood question: how can we give to the poor without robbing the rich?
Acaba parlant de la síndrome de Peter Pan:
I sometimes feel I’ve never grown up very much in some aspects, like a chemical Peter Pan. As a chemist, although I’m sometimes quite impressed by my old papers, it’s always the new experiments and research that are the most exciting. It’s good to go on until you feel it’s not very useful, although I think nowadays there’s all sorts of administrative hassle that didn’t exist when I was younger. Some of it is inevitable and some is irritating, and I can imagine in due course I might get fed up with it. I do hope I will outlive this bureaucracy and emerge safely out of the other side. But that’s some hope.
Em fa gràcia que, igual que jo, no en té ni idea de música:
I can’t read a note of music, I’m quite unmusical. I whistle tunelessly, and when younger I apparently used to sing hymns out of tune in the laboratory.
Ningú no és perfecte!