Krasimir Vasilev from the University of South Australia researches the potential of plasma polymers.

What inspired you to become a scientist? 

I have been thinking about that many times. I think that my main motivation was my natural curiosity to understand how things work and the desire to discover and create new things. 

What was your motivation behind the work described in your ChemComm article? 

I have been working in the field of plasma polymerisation for several years. I am trying to transform the way people think of plasma polymers as simply polymer coatings. I am trying to engineer these films at the nanoscale for various advanced applications, but in order to do that we need to know how these films grow on different surfaces. We have not found any report of this, so we decided to find out for ourselves. 

Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work? 

ChemComm to me is one of the top chemistry journals with long history and broad readership. That is why I thought it will provide the appropriate audience for our work. 

Where do you see your research heading next? 

We are currently working on advanced nanoengineered surface coatings mainly by plasma polymerisation for biomedical and other applications. These include surface gradients, antibacterial surfaces, smart coatings for drug release and others. We have also focused substantial resources on understanding the mechanisms by which polymers grow from plasma. 

What do enjoy doing in your spare time?

I like reading history books, going to the gym, playing tennis, fishing and a few other things. 

If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be? 

An archaeologist or an architect 

Interviewed by Philippa Ross