¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº

Q&A with Professor Jason Hallett

How did you first become interested in chemistry?
I really didn't become interested in chemistry until I took organic chemistry as an undergraduate. Something about reactions and transformations was really appealing to me. During my PhD, it became more and more of an interest and just grew from there. I had an extremely inspirational chemist as co-supervisor during my PhD (Charlie Liotta) – his boundless enthusiasm was a huge factor.

Tell us about somebody who has inspired or mentored you in your career.
My PhD supervisors were a huge influence. I had two of them – Chuck Eckert (a chemical engineer) and Charlie Liotta (a chemist). Watching the two of them talk through a problem had an enormous influence on me as a researcher. I still always think back to them when confronted with a question about the motivation behind research or whether something is not just a good idea but "elegant". I didn’t do any research as an undergrad, so they have always stuck with me as formative.

What motivates you?
I just really like to work on interesting problems. My motivation in research stems from finding something I think would be really fun to work on and seeing if we can tackle it from a new direction. My motivation in translation is entirely about trying to push the limits of our ideas and find out just how practical they really are. In some respects, it’s a mixture of business and academic research – can our innovations be translated into commercial reality or not.

What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in chemistry?
I think it’s extremely important to keep your own motivation in mind when deciding what to do as a career. Far too often, people decide on a solution and then try to fit it to a problem – if you enjoy chemistry, become a chemist. If you want to make the world a better place, find the career path that best fits with what you find interesting, which could still be chemistry!) Part of the reason I like being an engineer is that we train ourselves to be open-minded about solving problems – the best solution is not always what I think it is at first instinct.

Can you tell us about a scientific development on the horizon that you are excited about?
I can’t choose just one! We’ve recently developed a process to recycle textile dyes, which is a first – there are no technologies to do this in the world yet. I’m hugely excited to be working to solve the huge problem of textile waste by making recycling easier. We launched a company to attack this problem and another to manufacture our new biobased surfactant and make bio-based detergents – I’m so thrilled to see huge quantities of it in the lab (250kg!!). Now we’re working on recycling mobile phones and rare earth elements in electronics; so much exciting work ahead!

Why is chemistry important?
¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº is fundamentally about change, and change is one of the most important things in life. ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº can help us change our ways from bad to good and our products and processes from dirty to clean – all while continuing to make life better for everyone. That’s what’s so exciting about it.

What has been a highlight for you (either personally or in your career)?
The biggest (30 and counting) highlights for me have been my PhD students graduating. It’s always a moving experience when they pass their viva. Besides that, I was hugely excited the day we opened our first pilot plant (Lixea) when I walked in and saw a process that was first drawn on my whiteboard as a thought exercise become a real, physical, operational chemical process. It’s been running for two years now, and I still have to pinch myself.

What has been a challenge for you (either personally or in your career)?
I had a really hard time finding a permanent academic position. I was a post-PhD researcher on short-term contracts for 12 years, and at times toward the end, I thought I would have to give up. Which would have been unfortunate for me as it was what I wanted to do since I first started my PhD. It eventually did work out, but the stress of that prolonged struggle to find a home really wore on me, and I think of it when I see early career researchers go through the same thing – it can be hugely stressful, but if you persevere, you’ll find your way. For me, I finally stopped trying to say what I thought people wanted to hear and just started saying what I wanted to do – communicating my research vision was really, really difficult for me early on, but it is so important to an academic career.

What does good research culture look like/mean to you?
I have tried to install the elements of research culture that I found appealing during my PhD studies. Because my research has a heavy emphasis on innovation, I try to promote a relaxed environment where researchers feel free to try out ideas, understanding and even expecting that most of these will not pan out. But we try new things and see where it leads us, striving not to be too prescriptive on the research work. I personally don’t like being constrained in what I do in research, and I want my group to feel able to work in the same way. This has led to a lot of our new innovations and spin-outs as it is often not someone’s actual research project that leads to the newest, freshest ideas but instead something they tried on the side after inspiration struck.

How are the chemical sciences making the world a better place?
To innovations in the chemical sciences. ¾ÅÖÝÓ°Ôº is how we invent new stuff, and chemical engineering is how we make things in new ways. Together with materials and energy production, these are the areas where innovations are having a growing positive impact on the environment and people’s lives.

Why do you think collaboration and teamwork are important in science?
I find that my ideas become really stale when I work alone. Collaboration and teamwork are how we make progress rapidly – bouncing ideas off each other and looking at research from a new angle. It’s how we learn about new problems in new areas that we never even thought about before. It also helps to be social – I work best when talking with other people.

What is your favourite element?
Technetium, no question. Why on earth is there a radioactive, almost completely artificial element that is so light? It is a weird, weird element.