Meet our new president

Annika Grandison, Royal Society of Chemistry

“Yes, and who wouldn’t be?” Dominic’s reply to being asked whether he was looking forward to becoming the Royal Society of Chemistry’s next president clearly conveys his enthusiasm. Hearing him talk, his passion for chemistry and excitement about taking on this new role for the next two years are tangible.

“I am probably the chemist who has made or broken the least chemical bonds. My school teachers and university tutors already recognised early on that I wasn’t going to be an enormous asset in the lab. But I love chemistry, especially the ideas that underpin the subject, and that has been a driving force throughout my working life.”

A varied career

Dominic’s career began in academia, with positions at Penn State, Cornell, Oxford and Southampton universities. In 1998, he decided to leave his position as Professor of Chemistry at Southampton University to move to Unilever Research. After 14 years in industry he retired as Vice President of Research in 2012.

However, his connection with academic chemistry proved hard to break, and he decided to take up the position as Director of the European Center for Atomic and Molecular Computation (CECAM) at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland in January 2013.

Connecting with the Royal Society of Chemistry

When Royal Society of Chemistry representatives asked him whether he wanted to bring his experience of working in academia and industry to our organisation by becoming part of RSC Council, he was easily convinced: “My mind was made up for me, when I attended one of the Council meetings. It was a lively and vibrant meeting.

"There was a huge amount going on, and you could sense what a successful organisation the Royal Society of Chemistry is. From our leading position in publishing to our influence in education, it is an exciting and dynamic society, and with that comes a special energy. I found it delightful, and was excited to be more closely involved with this growing organisation – first on Council and now as its president.”

Yet Dominic’s connection with our organisation reaches much further back than that. After becoming a member as an undergraduate more than 40 years ago, he later joined the Faraday Division Council and was on the Editorial Board of our journal Faraday Transactions (now PCCP).

Membership has been a very important influence throughout his life and career: “I joined what was then called the Chemical Society in the early 1970s, when I was an eager young undergraduate student in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Southampton. I still have my initial joining certificate, and I’ve been a member in one way or another ever since.

“It’s something a lot of us did at the time, but I felt very enthusiastic about it even back then. I knew that my career would be in chemistry, so I thought I should seize the opportunity to join my professional society. And for me, the organisation has been there throughout my working life, and I must say, I’ve really enjoyed my connection with it.”

Presidential priorities

Dominic’s longstanding association with the Royal Society of Chemistry and his varied professional experience, in turn, have influenced his priorities for his presidency. Having gained insight into the challenges and needs of both industry and academia, he would like to strengthen the connections between the two and for us to provide increased support for the chemical science industry and those working in it.  

“28% of our members work in industry, so I think we need to keep asking ourselves: what are we doing for them? We’re already doing a lot, but I think we could do more. We need to support those working in industry at all stages of their careers. For instance, we should offer help to people in the middle of their careers, who have to deal with redundancies or sudden changes in career direction. And we need to offer young people opportunities to explore the industrial world through placements or internships.”

Dominic also feels that we need to support small companies in the chemical sciences to maximise the opportunities for innovation and economic growth that they offer. And he believes that “we need to make sure that industries have every opportunity to grow their businesses through innovation. But innovation doesn’t necessarily come through one company working by itself, so we need to concentrate on the idea of open innovation. For me, it’s about connecting successful, large companies, to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and academia to allow ideas to be taken from one place to another and used to maximum benefit. I think the Royal Society of Chemistry can play a really strong role in facilitating that.”

Building on success

At the same time, Dominic is also committed to continuing the many great things our employees and members have been doing – whether it’s sharing knowledge through our publishing activities, supporting education from the primary school level to higher education and vocational training or sharing chemistry with the wider public. He also thinks that we must ensure to continue our work on diversity in its broadest sense.

“Throughout her presidency, Lesley was a fantastic champion for diversity in the chemical sciences. I don’t think diversity is something we can allow to come and go as presidents come and go. We should continue this work full speed ahead.”

Dominic admits that succeeding Lesley Yellowlees as RSC president will be a hard act to follow. And he hopes that together with the many teams working on so many different aspects of the organisation and with our members, who share his passion and enthusiasm for chemistry, he will be able to continue making a real difference to our community and to the world beyond. “I hope that over the next two years I can really add something to what is already a rather special organisation.”