Young Shin Kwak from the Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research in Massachusetts, USA, develops new organic strategies to overcome the challenges of synthetic organic chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry. 

 What inspired you to become a scientist? 

My dad, a middle school biology teacher at that time, took me to his science lab at his work when I was 7 years old. He showed me lots of different things like, how to titrate aqueous solutions using indicators such as phenolphthalein, recrystallization of different inorganic salts, changing boiling points by adding salts and all the specimens of living things (which I didn't like). I still remember everything that happened on that day, like it happened just yesterday. 

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

As described in the article, introducing 2,2-dimethylpropanoates is not a trivial thing to do in organic chemistry despite its abundance in pharmaceutical compositions. I really wanted to make our lives in the lab easier. 

 Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work? 

It would be just an enlightening experience to publish my work in a high-impacting journal like ChemComm. 

 Where do you see your research heading next? 

Currently working on a publication aiming at discovering new amide bond formation strategies for sterically- or electronically-challenged systems. 

 What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? 

The 3 T's. Taekwondo, Tennis, Travel. 

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

A rock star. 

Interviewed by Mary Badcock