George Malliaras discusses the interplay between organic electronics and biology with Fay Riordan

	George Malliaras is a professor in the department of materials science and engineering at Cornell University, New York, US, where he carries out research focussing on organic electronics. He also chairs the Journal of Materials Chemistry editorial board.

 

Who or what inspired you to become a scientist?
As a kid, I used to like playing with things that would explode or produce fire. What I liked most was to understand how something works rather than to prove it right, so I thought I would be a scientist rather than an engineer. But lately I have been moving more and more into engineering.

How did you first become interested in organic electronics?
My interest started when I met my future adviser, Georges Hadziioannou, whilst in the Netherlands studying for a masters degree in silicon surfaces with second harmonic generation. Georges came to give a seminar on polymers and hinted about polymer electronics being a very emerging and exciting field. I found it fascinating and the rest is history!

What projects are you working on at the moment?
One project I'm working on has to do with the interplay between ionic and electronic carriers in organic materials. I think this will become the biggest new direction in organic electronics. Because organic materials are soft, they can carry ions in addition to electrons and holes. The interplay between the two creates a lot of fascinating physical phenomena and can yield many novel devices. I think the most interesting area is the interface between biology and electronics. Biology works in aqueous media and involves the exchange of ions. On the other hand, solid state electronics is what we like to base our technology on. So organic electronics can link the two fields.

What is the biggest challenge facing organic electronics?

I think the challenge, and the opportunity, is the interface of organic electronics with biology. So far, organic electronics has been copying traditional electronics. For example, there's a light emitting diode and there's also an organic light emitting diode. The same goes for thin film transistors, solar cells and so on. I think now we have to go beyond that and look at identifying the characteristics of organics. I think, as I said before, that the most promising area is the interplay between ionic and electronic carriers. Bringing biologists aboard will be the biggest challenge but would also generate the biggest opportunities. The community went through a growing phase about 15 years ago when chemists and physicists got together and developed common objectives and that boosted the field tremendously. Now is the time to bring the biologists aboard.

What sort of applications arise from the interplay between biology and electronics?
Bioelectronics can yield devices such as biomedical implants, biosensors, environmental monitoring systems and much more.

What's been your favourite electronics invention or advance?
It's got to be the transistor. This gave rise to electronics as we know it today.

How do you see the future of electronics?
I see it becoming ubiquitous. The electronics that we have today are still highly localised. For example, you have electronics that exist in gadgets such as your cell phone, but there are not yet electronics integrated into everyday things around us like clothing, the walls, the table and so on. I think that in the future we will see more and more of that.

What's been your most exciting achievement in your research career?
Students! Seeing the students after they leave the group do really, really well, much better than I ever could. That is the crowning achievement I think.

And what is the secret to running a successful research group?
I think the secret has to be hiring the best students and empowering them to do research.

What do you enjoy most about your role as chair of the Journal of Materials Chemistry editorial board?

I really like interacting with the staff who run the journal and I think it's incredibly professional. I enjoy meeting people and potential authors and saying to them, 'Hey, what do you think of Journal of Materials Chemistry? Maybe you could think about submitting your next paper there.' Across the board, I've heard excellent comments and I've spoken to many authors who have been very satisfied with the way that their papers were handled. I find it a lot of fun.

What do you do in your spare time?
I like to get outdoors and do some gardening.

And finally, if you weren't a scientist, what would you be and why?
That's a hard one. From very early on I felt as though I liked to experiment with stuff, so I'm finding it difficult to think of something I would have done instead. Actually, the first thing I ever wanted to do was work as a litter collector. Because my mum used to throw my old toys away, I thought it would be such a great job because of all the toys you would find in the litter!