Dr Alex Shard

At Orwell High School in Felixstowe (now Felixstowe Academy). At that time, in the mid-1980s, we were fortunate in having some very talented teachers. Mr Travers, my chemistry teacher, inspired my interest in chemistry in no small part because he allowed us remarkable freedom in devising our own experiments.

Martin Seah, NPL. Previously he had been a rather remote and somewhat intimidating presence at conferences. I met him properly when I joined NPL and found him supportive, constructive and a useful critic to discuss ideas with.

Solving a problem in the most general way possible. It annoys me to think that the same problem is occupying the time of large numbers of scientists who are each starting from first principles and, occasionally, making errors. I like to think that there will be a simple solution that will save them hours of work. I also look forward to the surprising experimental results that seem to defy common sense. When Jiro Matsuo’s group in Kyoto demonstrated that cluster ion sputtering could remove organic material without damage, it led to a whole new direction in surface analysis that enormously advanced the measurement of organic samples such as drug delivery systems, OLEDs and biological specimens.

Sorting the wheat from the chaff. There are so many papers published with bold and startling claims that it is easy to miss the much smaller number that are of practical value.

I am always pleased when a side project turns out to be of great value. I was casually asked how a detection limit could be calculated in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and, although it is easy to do for a specific set of data, it led me to think of a more general way to do it. There is a lot of tedious detail, but in the end I managed to calculate detection limits for any element in any matrix. The resulting colour chart enables analysts to see whether an analysis is feasible before even receiving the sample and saves many analytical hours being wasted. A fair amount of unsolicited gratitude has come my way for this work, which is both surprising and nice to receive.

Currently, a COVID antibody test.

If something interests you, pursue it and try not to worry about topics that others tell you are more important.

Quantum detectors in analytical equipment. These have the potential to enormously increase sensitivity and resolution.

Teamwork is important everywhere, not just in science. When a team is motivated and focused on a problem, has the right mixture of skills and, most importantly, there is trust and respect between the members of the team, then great progress can be made. These things happen when challenges are shared openly, each member of the team has a clear remit and there is fair recognition of effort.

Scientific progress is made globally. International communication and collaboration ensures that we are up-to-date on that progress and ensures that what we do is widely known.

Most of the exciting developments in science are made when discoveries in one discipline can be applied in another discipline. It requires communication and collaboration between experts in the different disciplines or an exceptionally talented individual capable of spanning more than one discipline. It is wonderful to meet such talented folk, but they are quite rare.

Fluorine.