Professor Daryl Williams

I recall my chemistry teacher from high school, Mr Thomson, who encouraged and inspired me to do chemistry. He wrote to my parents “Daryl threatens to be competent at chemistry!” I am hoping one day to achieve that goal.

My first undergraduate university research supervisor told me when I was about 20 that he wanted me to become a world leading expert in measuring the surface tension of surfactant solutions. Did he really mean that? Professor Healy’s comments at the time took me, as a very junior researcher, a bit by surprise, and it took me a little time to fully appreciate that this was a real expectation, and that it was an achievable goal for me. This inspired me to pursue my research interests and recognise that I had a talent for scientific instrumentation.

I am a great believer in the critical value of good experimental chemistry and science, and the importance of doing the right experiment, especially when the tool for doing the right experiment does not always exist. It is a common limitation of scientific endeavour and advancement that the experimental tools we have at our disposal can constrain us from performing the best chemistry or science. I am strongly motivated to invent these new scientific research tools, whether they operate under “real world” experimental conditions, or simply avoid complex data analysis or theories, but allow us to directly obtain critical experimental insights into material behaviour and properties. 

I am looking forward to having an environment where more young graduates in science and engineering see entrepreneurship as a serious career option post university. Certainly when I graduated in chemistry I was very interested in business, but could find no way of combining that with chemistry. I must confess to feeling very frustrated to see many talented young graduates these days simply aspiring to work in banks and management consultancy. As important careers as these can be, I feel many graduates are professionally selling themselves short, but we as the chemical industry and commercial world must do much more to make the transition from a university degree into an entrepreneurship career both easier and more desirable. There are currently both financial and cultural barriers to this objective.

Think more broadly about how important chemistry is in the real world, and see commercialisation of chemical ideas and innovations as an effective route to have an impact on society. We have a duty to build a better world and society, and chemists can play a key role in that opportunity.