Professor Christopher Barner-Kowollik FRSC

Initially, I was very firmly set on studying history at university, which has remained one of my favourite interests beside chemistry. In fact, in my early years of high school I was quite hopeless at chemistry and I was fully intent on getting rid of it as a subject as fast as I could. However, during a high school stay of a year in the United States, I had a brilliant and inspiring chemistry teacher, Ms. Schweitzer, and I was hooked. As so many people have observed – everything is interesting, it all just depends on the teacher.

The people that have inspired and continue to inspire me every day are my group members, the undergraduate research students, the Masters and PhD students as well as the postdoctoral researchers and, of course, my subgroup leaders. Working with them every day is not only continued inspiration but also a privilege and reward. Of a previous generation of chemists, my PhD advisor Professor Michael Buback not only introduced me to physical polymer chemistry, but also how to deliver high quality science, while my postdoctoral mentor, Professor Tom Davis, encouraged me to follow my ideas, no matter how out-of-the-box they were, and taught me how to give group members the intellectual space they need to flourish. Later in my career, my current boss, Professor Margaret Sheil, Vice-Chancellor of Queensland University of Technology (QUT), mass spectrometry legend, has taught me how to lead research on an institutional level in addition to leading my own research team.

The thrill of the new, the unknown and finding out about nature, not only in chemistry, my field, but also more broadly in the world. The world is a beautiful place and art and science – the two main drivers of human civilisation – continue to amaze me every day. As already noted, my research team motivates me every day; it is such a pleasure and privilege to see young people mature into confident scientists. Perhaps most importantly my partner Sally and our children Ellie, Lars and Mika, are a continuous source of inspiration with their curiosity about the world and the amazing discussions we have.

Chemistry is the central science, the science that is at the core of our well-being and it will always be relevant. The best advice I could give is to be passionate about what you do and do not be discouraged by setbacks and disappointment. Believe in your dreams whatever they are and, perhaps most importantly, surround yourself with kind, generous and good people.

While I would love to give an example from my own field of chemistry, I am most excited about the field of astrophysics and space exploration. Nobel Prize Laureate Brian Schmidt's work has really inspired me as it asks the big questions about the universe. The fact that our universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate, the hunt for dark matter and dark energy are extremely fascinating and I am following the developments as best I can from a lay perspective.

Chemistry is the central science, at the basis of life, evolution and modern society underpinned by materials and medicines. Quite simply put, nature wants us dead by 50. The fact that we live to nearly 80 years now (on average) is essentially a result of chemistry. It is fascinating to think that our thoughts and emotions are just a result of complex chemical reaction systems, too. Many people do not realise this, but anybody who even had one glass of wine in their life can evidence that chemistry is at the core of all feelings. In my view, this is perhaps one of the most simple ways to explain the impact of chemistry to a non-scientist.

Personally, the most significant challenge was, and continues to be, balancing my love of science and having a balanced life at the same time. What I find, on a systems level, the most challenging aspect of my career, and perhaps this resonates with other chemists as well, are the increasing requirements of governments and their funding bodies to deliver tangible outcomes from fundamental research in short time frames. This is perhaps the most critical danger that contemporary science faces and current governments around the world are actively destroying humanity's ability to solve grant challenges over time spans of 20 to 30 years or even more. I have no answer for how to overcome the political short-sightedness we are facing, but it feels like a very personal current challenge.

A good research culture is one where there are no intellectual hierarchies. The value of an idea is no function of who has the idea: it doesn't matter if it's the undergraduate summer scholar, PhD student, postdoc or professor. A laboratory leader that recognises this will head a thriving and vibrant intellectual environment.

For some very strange reason, it is antimony (Sb). I don't know exactly why, but in my undergraduate chemistry course at the University of Constance, Germany, it was one I had to prepare via a reduction and remember being very fascinated by its matt shiny smooth appearance. Its ancient Greek translation means 'not alone' as it always comes in the company of other elements and this, I find, is quite comforting.