Dr Andrea Laybourn MRSC

I first became interested in chemistry at secondary school where it quickly became my favourite subject. I loved (and still love) the practical and problem-solving aspects of chemistry and learning through discovery. I like that chemistry can be used to explain everyday things, such as the beautiful colours of flowers and the delicious smell of freshly cut grass.

My secondary school chemistry teacher, Geoff Roberts, was absolutely brilliant and his enthusiasm for chemistry was infectious. We used to have classes in his laboratory which was wonderful, full of chemical reagents in bottles of different colours, shapes, and sizes, each reagent having different properties and possible reactions. Geoff also used to display 'Not all chemists wear white coats' posters which sparked my interest in the varied careers possible after studying chemistry.

There have been some exciting developments in the use of artificial intelligence in functional porous materials research such as computational screening of structures and properties and automated high throughput reaction screening and optimisation. I think these are powerful strategies for accelerating materials discovery and optimisation and provide opportunities for improving sustainability by reducing waste, time, and energy. I am also excited by advancements in characterisation, such as electron diffraction which enables researchers to obtain single crystal structures from nanocrystals including under a range of conditions.

A good research culture is one that values everybody for their contributions. I believe that we should continue progress towards transdisciplinary teams and collaborations that include people who have a wide variety of differing backgrounds as science does not exist in isolation and impacts everyone. At the moment we are moving towards being more open access with our research findings; this is a trend which should be embraced as it has the potential to lead to faster scientific advancements and realisation of societal impact.

My favourite element is deuterium as it can be used as a probe to understand the dynamics of materials, such as mobility.