Professor Laura Gagliardi FRSC

I liked to perform chemistry experiments as a child because one of my mother’s colleagues in her school was a chemistry teacher and she brought me some equipment to perform experiments. Then in high-school, chemistry was the most fascinating topic for me. I studied Latin, Greek, math and physics. I loved them all. Chemistry combined the fascinating aspects of all of these disciplines. It had the rigor of Latin, the philosophical subtlety of Greek and physics, the logic of math. And at the same time, it explains how the real world works.

My mother has been very inspirational in my whole life. She was a high-school math teacher. She has inspired me from an early age to be an educator and a scientist and she has encouraged me to pursue my own career and find passion in my work. I was impressed when, as a young girl, my mother quoted for me, from The Wrench by Primo Levi, “… loving your work represents the best concrete approximation to happiness on earth…The pleasure of watching your creature growing. After you have finished it, you look at it and you think that it will live longer than you do and that it may be useful to someone who you do not know yet and who does not know you…”

I have really appreciated Primo Levi because of what he has gone through in life (he survived a concentration camp) and his ability to describe his scientific career in a very empathetic way. When I decided to undertake a career in theoretical chemistry, I was very impressed by the big shots in my field, but my true hero was Emily Carter, now Provost at UCLA. I have always looked at her as a role model. When I saw her successes and achievements, I told myself that I might also have a chance. It is important to have role models like Emily who can help delineate your path. I also appreciated the fact that she was not scared to say what she thought and to openly criticise the system when she thought it was not right.

I like to learn new things and study new systems and new chemical phenomena with computational methods. Every time it is a different challenge. At the same time, my role in research has changed over the years. Once, I was the person who conducted the whole experiment and I owned every single step of it. Nowadays my role is to advise my students and postdocs. I feel less ownership of the individual steps of the research, but it is equally fascinating, if not even more exciting to see my students maturing over the course of the project and becoming the true experts. Designing a project from the beginning with them keeps me very passionate.  

My advice to the new generations of chemists, and to the new generation in general is to try to find an opportunity to have an impact on something that they care about. If one has the opportunity and is so lucky to find their real passion in their work, they will be successful and will have the energy to make progress every day in their work and make a difference. As scientists, chemists, educators, we are facing this incredible challenge of saving our planet and leaving it in a better condition than how we found it and we can contribute towards this mission in a meaningful way. We also have the responsibility to make science more inclusive because this will bring a better outcome and will be better for our society. We can do that in many ways and embracing this mission at an earlier stage in one’s career will truly make a difference. At the same time, I tell my students and postdocs all the time that, to make a difference, we have to excel and be the best in what we are doing. We want to find the right answer for the right reason. We have to be committed to integrity and follow ethical practices. We have to collaborate, support, and respect each other.

Chemistry is an amazing discipline because it is at the core of all sciences and engineering and one can embrace chemistry under so many different perspectives. If one thinks about the major challenge of our planet, namely global warming, it is clear that chemistry plays a fundamental role. At the same time one can reflect on what happened in 2020, namely the COVID-19 pandemic, and also in this case we see the key role of chemistry, together with all other sciences. What I think is fascinating is that in chemistry one can 'make things' (like new molecules, new reactions) and 'understand things' by analytical means. The two aspects are not mutually exclusive. I belong to the category of those who want to 'understand things' and 'make them' in a computer.

I think the role of theoretical and computational chemistry is very important today because we have the possibility to explain phenomena and make predictions. With the access to big data and artificial intelligence chemistry plays an even more powerful role, because now we can generate more data, faster, and identify patterns that otherwise would be neglected.