How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Inquisitive, imaginative, competitive.
Brief background/short CV
I completed my PhD studies as a Rod Rickards Scholar with Professor Mick Sherburn at the Australian National University before undertaking postdoctoral research with Dr Andy Lawrence at the University of Edinburgh, and am now working with Professor John Sutherland at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
What do you do?
My background is in organic synthesis spanning transition metal and organic catalysis, total synthesis, and biomimetic chemistry, and I’m now investigating the origins of life.
Brief description of a typical day
Mixing chemicals together and deducing how they interact using a variety of analytical techniques. Once the outcome is known I do variations on the experiment to see if the result could be useful in mapping out the origin of life on Earth. The experiments are designed based on review of what is already known about the chemistry in question, either reported in the literature or based on discussions with other scientists.
What’s the best thing about your job?
I come up with lots of ideas every day, but when you check the literature, you usually find out someone else has tried this, often decades ago. When you establish that your idea has never been tested, performing the experiments and obtaining the first results is a real thrill.
If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing instead?
Writing.
Your top tip for someone thinking about a career in science?
It is great to be interested in a subject, like ‘chemistry’ or ‘palaeontology’, and to be fascinated by what has been discovered in these fields. My tip for people interested in a general field is to also become interested in its unsolved, or even controversial problems. This is the cutting edge of science.
What or who inspired you to follow your career?
Teachers at school and university.
What did you want to be after you left school?
A scientist.