Professor Enrique Iglesia FRSC

Chemistry (and mathematics) arrived early and somewhat naturally as part of an educational system that was significantly more advanced and demanding in Cuba than in the US. Arriving in the US as a refugee from Cuba at the age of 14, and with only a very primitive command of English, the language of chemistry and mathematics (which I ultimately merged into chemical engineering as a profession) became a sort of showcase that others noticed, and which allowed me to be noticed.

This universal language of molecules and equations could be understood without reference to (or knowledge of) any given spoken language. Others wondered: how can someone communicate scientific matters so well with such a primitive command of the local "dialect". To this day, I refer to chemistry and engineering research as how humans are able to understand the language that molecules use to move and to react to their dialects. As often happens, what one does well, one likes to do; my lifelong love for molecules and their equations ultimately and inevitably followed my need for them, to be able to communicate with and to blend within my very uncomfortable surroundings; the immigrant in the foreign country found a voice early on without the need for the local language that he could not understand.

In chemistry and in life ....
- Be multidisciplinary in attitude and accept the learning from other disciplines, so that you can translate their different languages into one.
- Separate what research you can fund from what research is meaningful to you and to society about doing: find time and resources for both , but use them to complement each other – as in life, one needs to eat, and one needs the time and the disposition to love what you do
- Avoid hyperbole and its hype cycle; work on important problems of broad impact especially when such problems are out of fashion; when they return, you will be well ahead of those who followed the hype wave.
- If a finding is unique, it is probably not useful, because it will never "happen" again; if a finding has no precedent (replace it with "novel", "first-in-kind", "breakthrough" "remarkable"), it often violates at least one of the laws of thermodynamics.
- Small groups innovate, create, and define their fields; large groups develop, implement, and deploy; these activities are complementary and they are all essential for progress, but they belong in different environments and become important at different points in time in the life cycle of a problem or a discipline; decide where you want to be and how you want to contribute. Ponder how you want to be remembered by your discipline (and your students) decades after you have made your most significant contributions.
- Remember that tenure as an academic represents the explicit license to quit every bad habit that was required of you in order to be tenured.

To watch an academic family and a biological family grow and thrive side-by-side. To recognise that my contribution consists of bringing them together in space and time, to provide some boundaries and a good example, and to let nature take it the rest of the way. To find simple explanations to complex problems and practical impact in unravelling the details of how nature works ... often enough to make it a method and a pattern.

To balance nurturing with mentoring – the love and the rules, the friendship and the mentoring.
To find logic in human actions and behaviours, as they occasionally defy the logic and the language of the molecules and the equations.
To know when my teaching is done and to let them go on their own when the time comes. To know when to criticise and when to praise and when to do both and in so doing build confidence and self-esteem.
To convince others that the intensity and time commitment of a research career is not a requirement for success or part of the job description, but a consequence of what we enjoy doing (and what we get reasonably well-paid for doing).
To accept prejudice against (and innuendo about) the achievements and recognitions of our research as a badge of honour and as a statement about our impact.