Brett Paull talks to Mike Brown about analytical chemistry, the effect of personal care products on the environment and the amazing opportunities chemists have to travel.

Brett Paull is director of the Irish Separation Science Cluster at Dublin City University, Ireland. His research interests are based within the fields of analytical, bioanalytical and environmental chemistry, particularly fundamental (new materials and detection techniques) and applied aspects of ion chromatography (IC), capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and coupled techniques such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

What inspired you to become a scientist?
I really enjoyed biology at school and was convinced that I wanted to go to university to study biology. Then I attended a presentation by John Bull from Plymouth Polytechnic (now University of Plymouth) about environmental science. He talked about global warming and the ozone layer - issues that really mattered and this inspired me to study Environmental Science at university. 

What attracted you to analytical chemistry?
I did a chemistry project as part of my degree at the University of Plymouth. It was on aluminium speciation and I had to collect samples from lakes at night on Dartmoor in the winter. Seeing chromatography peaks of molecules from actual samples I had collected made chemistry real for me. My project showed that there was aluminium in people's drinking water and made me realise that analytical chemistry is relevant to everyday life. 

Chromatography is a major tool in a chemists' tool box, what new and exciting developments are emerging in this area?

Chromatography has come a very long way in 10 years.   Today you can separate 30 or 40 solutes in five minutes that 10 years ago would have taken two hours. Now chromatography is seen as an instant technique for screening more and more complex samples. For example in proteomics you may be looking at 10?000 different components in a sample. This shows there are still great challenges to overcome in separation science.

The exciting thing about chromatography is that it is based on materials. All the new advances such as speed and resolution for the last 10 years have been due to advances in the materials used. As the materials used get better, the instrumentation gets better and currently people are asking the question how much further we can go with particle chromatography. At present the limitations are to do with the instruments used - we can make very small particles, but need the instruments to catch up.

Another exciting area of chromatography is seeing the interaction of solutes with surfaces - which is what my group studies. Switchable phases and controlling the chemistry of molecules on surfaces with light or potentials is also exciting and so scientists are looking to make the chemistry on surfaces more controllable. 

In 2009, you published a paper on the sorption of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment. Should we be worried about the effects of our shampoos and shower gels on the environment? 

In environmental science, there are pollutants and contaminants. Pollutants cause measureable changes in systems and contaminants are just there, appearing not to cause measurable disturbance. There are very few studies that show detrimental effects of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on the environment and even fewer studies on the environmental fate of the chemicals - how they build up and what effects they have on the environment. We have looked at antifungal and antimicrobial pharmaceuticals in soil to see if they have any effects. Our studies have shown that there are no adverse effects at the concentrations present at the moment. But this doesn't mean that if the concentrations get higher it won't start causing problems. Water treatment companies should be looking at this and monitoring the effects of these contaminants. 

You worked in Tasmania in the 1990s as an associate lecturer. Not many people would connect chemistry with world travel. Would you say chemistry as a career can help you to see the world? 

Absolutely, I have travelled a huge amount in the last 20 years. I have just spent some time in Florida and spent the winter months in Tasmania again. Since I got into research, I have visited Canada, Tasmania, Japan, Australia, the US and Russia. So my career has given me the opportunity to work with lots of people in almost all the corners of the planet and my family and friends can't believe how much travel scientists get involved in. 

Collaborations in science are increasing in the modern world. What in your view are the benefits to collaborations? 

The danger of working in a research laboratory is that you become narrow minded in that you work one particular way and don't experience other ways of doing things. Collaborating with other researchers instantly opens your mind to other options and opportunities. 

I have been lucky enough to collaborate with many people, including Pavel Nesterenko at the University of Tasmania who I meet with regularly. We meet up regularly and discuss new projects and carry out some work together sharing ideas over a beer. If the chemistry works, then great, but if it doesn't we try something else. 

Collaborations are also great for my students as other researchers can come in and help out by sharing experience, supporting what I know and educating in other areas that I might not be so familiar with. 

You're the editor-in-chief of Analytical Methods, can you tell us a bit about this role?
Analytical Methods fills a space that has been vacant for a while and it suits my research activities so I was very pleased to join the team. Being able to steer the journal in the right direction and making sure the quality of the journal is the right standard is very important. Analytical Methods should complement its sister journal, Analyst and it is important to get the right balance of content - publish the fundamental development in Analyst and then show it's practical value for real world applications in Analytical Methods. From the feedback that I have been getting, that is what researchers are really quite excited about. 

What do you like to do in your spare time?
I have a toddler and a baby so my spare time is mostly gone! I used to play a lot of soccer when I was younger but now I prefer oil painting. Also, spending time in Tasmania has made me become very interested in scuba diving. I find it very relaxing and very enjoyable. Ireland, although it is cold, has some good diving spots too, so I hope to be able to carry on my diving here when I get some spare time.

If you weren't a chemist, what would you do? 
I would like to do something creative. At school I thought art was what I would do later in life. But, it was difficult to keep it up with everything else you have to do at school. My father was a builder so maybe I would have been an architect, creating something with my hands. I was always impressed when my dad would show me a house he had built that would last for hundreds of years. Craftsmen always impress me.