NOISE - New Outlooks In Science & Engineering

NOISEmakers / Emma Schofield	read my blog
Emma speeds up reactions.
Subject: Chemistry Job: Synthetic chemist Works for: Johnson-Matthey Interests: Travel, viola player
Emma's biography
Age: 32 A-levels: Chemistry, Biology, Maths with Statistics, General Studies Degree Course: B.Sc. in Chemistry with a Year of Study in Continental Europe, University of Birmingham Emma makes catalysts out of precious metals and improves our catalytic converters, making them more eco-friendly. My job is… At a company called Johnson-Matthey where I have a job as a synthetic chemist making catalysts out of precious metals. Home is… They say home is where the heart is, but I’ve moved so often that now my home is wherever the bear is. Stevie Bear, a leaving present from my final-year project supervisor, has been my travelling companion around Europe for ten years now. He's currently watching over a small flat in Henley-on-Thames, and spends far more time there than I do! The story so far At 16 I faced a familiar quandary: which A-levels? I wanted to play viola, was a Chemistry nut and was eager to become fluent in some foreign language. It was a tough call, no question about that. With the reasoning that I could hardly do chemistry research in my garden shed, I picked the Chemistry path. My Chemistry degree took me to Germany for a sandwich year, after which I headed off for a Ph.D in Switzerland followed by a post-doc in France, and then I went to Dublin as a Chemistry lecturer for three years. I’ve become fluent in French and German, played viola in a professional orchestra all over Europe, while making any number of chemicals never before seen on this Earth. It was a hard decision at the time, but choosing Chemistry was the ticket to a decade of adventures. Day in the life My workday starts around 7 am, when I wake up with a head full of molecules, a curious consequence of the synthetic chemist's lifestyle. On good-weather days I cycle five miles through the sleepy Oxfordshire countryside to the Johnson-Matthey Technology Centre. It isn't often much later than 8 am that my electronic key opens me the doors to the Centre and the clocking-in machine lets out its 'bing' of greeting. First off I might start a chemical synthesis, which is a lot like doing Indian cookery, although smellier: brightly coloured powders are mixed with a little water according to the recipe, then simmered for a while, adjusting to taste. While a reaction bubbles, I could be checking email for breaking research news or getting exciting or disheartening test results back. One day I might present my results to my research group, outlining successes, discussing failures; another day I might be pressing buttons, turning dials and generating graphs on the intimidatingly expensive machines that give me clues as to which molecules I've made. At fiveish, I'll clock out of the Technology Centre, elated if the reaction has worked, despondent if it appears to have failed. Getting sweaty spinning in the gym, losing spectacularly at badminton with the research group, driving out to a village for a string-quartet rehearsal, I'll always do something of an evening that'll let me switch off. After all, even a synthetic chemist knows there's is more to life than molecules. The project I'm most passionate about is the one I'm working on at the moment: making new platinum-containing compounds to put into catalytic converters in diesel-fuelled cars. As most people know nowadays, burning fuel in a car engine releases pollutant gases into the atmosphere. These gases have all sorts of detrimental effects: some cause acid rain, which is responsible for huge swathes of forest dying in Scandinavia; others add to the 'glass' of the atmospheric greenhouse that is causing global warming; many are bad for human health. Clearly, it's important to stop these gases getting away, and that's where a catalytic converter comes in. A catalytic converter is essentially a sieve that sits halfway along the exhaust pipe of a car. When gases from the engine go through the sieve, the harmful ones get caught by a catalyst which turns them into gases which are safe to release. The catalyst which makes this reaction happen easily is the precious metal, platinum. A synthetic chemist by trade, my days are dedicated to improving catalytic converters by designing and making novel molecules which contain platinum. Catalytic converters have improved so much since they were invented that the quantities of pollutant gases coming out of car exhaust pipes have been reduced to a fraction of what they were once. But is that enough? Wouldn't it be better to have a catalytic converter which sieves out all pollutant gases, so nothing gets out? The process starts off at the drawing board with wild flights of fantasy as I sketch out target molecules: molecules that combine the best of any catalyst known; molecules which are completely different but might just work; molecules which someone mentioned at a conference in Mexico last month and look exciting. The next bit is the fun bit: mixing, stirring, bubbling, creating in the laboratory molecules that have probably never existed anywhere else in the universe. Because molecules are so unimaginably small, I have to look at them with machines instead of eyes if I want to be sure of what I've made. In this step of my molecules' lives I play chemistry detective, putting all the clues together to find the identity of the molecule in question. Finally, the nail biting bit: do they work? I start off by testing my catalysts in the laboratory, but I say goodbye to the best ones, which are taken to our production site where they're tried out in real cars. Free time Whenever I can, I get on an aeroplane and go visiting. The advantage of having lived all over the place is an international network of friends and mentors who are always delighted for me to drop in. Weekends in Toulouse, weeks in Seattle, the occasional fortnight in Sydney, whichever part of the world I want to visit, there's someone to welcome me. Closer to home, I play viola in a string quartet, and will join any chamber group which has promised not to make viola jokes. Burning ambitions "You have a job in Chemistry? Wow, that's hard. I hated Chemistry at school." I hear this all the time - on railway platforms, in the queue at the supermarket and at the few parties where I don't pretend I'm an air hostess. My burning ambition is point out to the world that Chemistry can be easy and fun, and to slow the unnecessary drain of people from a misrepresented subject. The best thing is… Funky science and trans-continental adventures are great but the best thing is waking up every morning knowing I'm doing research at the cutting edge of a field which is of global importance. Regrets? They say experience builds character. While I haven't any regrets, my life to date has left me with lots of character!
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