5 minutes DR SUZE KUNDU
WITH
Suze is a researcher and teacher in the field of functional nanomaterials in Surrey’s Chemical and Process Engineering Department. She is also a prominent science presenter on radio and TV, writer and keynote speaker.
What does a nanochemist do?
Nano means tiny – really tiny. Nanomaterials are, in at least one dimension, within the scale range of a few billionths of a metre, and at this tiny scale things start to behave differently to materials in bulkier dimensions. My work is focused on developing and optimising materials that can capture sunlight, and use it to split water to make hydrogen for use as a clean fuel. Burn it, and you get water again, so it is a nice sustainable cycle.
What’s the best thing about your job?
The best thing is the variety, though that is also the biggest challenge. I have fallen into a world where I can do research, teach, and engage the public with the work that scientists as engineers do, whether they are school kids or parliamentarians, but finding the time and being able to justify the benefit of this work is very difficult. It’s a good thing that it is so rewarding!
Who inspires you and why?
My Mum, always! A strong and independent woman who made me who I am, with Dad’s help too of course. Professionally, my former colleague Prof Mary Ryan at Imperial College London’s Department of Materials is a great role model, as is Prof Mark Miodownik from UCL who has been
a huge support to me and makes me want to be the best and most balanced materials scientist I can be. Closer to home, Mech Eng’s very own Dr David Jesson is such a cheerleader for others, and a great friend and supporter, who also does amazing research. We need more people like these!
If you were a superhero, what would your special power be?
I recently took part in an exhibition called Cosmic Superheroes where I was done up, along with some awesome women, to actually be a superhero! My superpower was the ability to manipulate atoms at will – the ultimate dream power for a materials scientist! We would be able to create any material we like, with any desired properties. The possibilities would be endless.
How do you encourage girls to study nanochemistry or STEM subjects in general?
Getting out there and being visible is important. As the old saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see. If I had been brought up in an environment where subjects had been more gendered though, perhaps I would not have gone into STEM, because I may have felt that people like me, tiny BAME unicorns, didn’t belong. So, being visible and agreeing to do demo
lectures and careers talks and being on TV and radio mean that people can see someone they may be able to relate to and feel that they could belong somewhere that I belong too.
What song hits you with a wave of nostalgia every time you hear it?
So many. Though when I hear the riff to Plug In Baby by Muse, you don’t want to be between me and the dance floor!
What’s the greatest scientific discovery or invention?
Kevlar, a polymer fibre with high tensile strength (difficult to pull apart and break), which when woven together is so good at dissipating energy across the material rather than through it that it is used in bulletproof vests. It was invented slightly accidentally by an amazing chemist called Stephanie Kwolek when she was working at Du Pont. She had faith in her strange gloopy mixture and persuaded the spinner to create some fibres from it. At the time of her death in 2014, over one million bulletproof vests had been sold, so she could potentially have saved many lives. As if that wasn’t heroic enough, she was also a vocal cheerleader for greater diversity in STEM. An absolute legend, and a legendary discovery.
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