Don’t wait for ideal conditions – they don’t exist. The sooner you get started, the faster you begin to learn. Don’t aim for perfect results; they will improve over time.
This advice was given by Professor Omar Yaghi, one of this year’s Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry, to young researchers and students during a visit to the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
Omar Yaghi, Professor of Chemistry, was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on developing and modifying the class of materials known as metal-organic frameworks. These porous materials have great potential, as they can be tailored to capture and store various substances, for example to capture carbon dioxide or extract water from desert air.
He visited the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology to meet young researchers and students for discussions about their research, and to talk about how education and knowledge can be made accessible to the entire research community – not only to those in high-income countries.
"Sharing knowledge benefits us all"
Omar Yaghi has long been committed to creating platforms for collaboration in education and for knowledge sharing, with the aim of strengthening a global research community. The foundation of his engagement is the belief that everyone should be included.
“In science, everyone can contribute, regardless of country or seniority, or resources available to them. Sharing knowledge beyond boundaries benefits us all. Teaching is not a one-way transfer of information, it is an exchange of ideas, which in turn generates new ideas and knowledge. It is magical,” he says.
Through Omar Yaghi’s initiative, Global Science, teachers and researchers focus on various forms of global mentorship, including different programmes, open seminar series and networking meetings.
“Attending global seminars can be a starting point for young researchers who need to build a strong foundation. Within the initiative, we are exploring how students from all over the world can log into AI platforms, for example to learn how to synthesise different metal-organic frameworks. But most importantly, you need to get started on your experiments,” says Omar Yaghi.
"A reminder that science is an active process"
Dr Maureen Gumbo is a postdoctoral researcher in Lars Öhrström’s group at Chalmers. She learned about her position through contacts established via the Global Science initiative. She plans to return to her home country, Zimbabwe, in the future to start her own research group.
She sees the advice to stop waiting for the right conditions as “just start” as a practical strategy for overcoming the paralysis caused by over analysis in the early stages of research. She also believes it can be interpreted as a profound philosophical statement on the nature of discovery.
“As researchers, we often feel the pressure to have the perfect hypothesis, the most expensive equipment, or a guaranteed outcome before we commit to an experiment. His advice is a reminder that science is a verb, not a noun. It is an active process of engagement. If you wait for the conditions to be ideal, you are essentially waiting for the discovery to have already been made by someone else who was willing to start,” she says.
"View of collaboration across boundaries is inspiring"
For Omar Yaghi, learning throughout the research process is essential. He believes that experiments in which AI platforms are used as a resource are crucial today in helping young researchers move forward. AI should be seen as part of the experimental process – a tool for exploring chemistry in general and one’s specific interests in particular.
“I really like his view of AI – that it is not dangerous but an asset for research in chemistry. You just have to evaluate the results properly, just as you would in any other experiments,” says Ahmed Watioui, a master’s student at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
The other invited master’s students, Tova Fradelos, Molly Andersson and Suzan Hamadeh, agree. All of them have taken Lars Öhrström’s course ‘Resources and innovations in a chemical and historical perspective’, in which Omar Yaghi has previously been a guest lecturer. However, there were more insights from the meeting they will carry with them into their everyday life at Chalmers.
“His view of collaboration across all kinds of boundaries was also inspiring. It is a reminder that we can contribute to science even at a junior level. It feels reassuring when you have just begun to understand how little you actually know. What matters is that we are doing research,” says Molly Andersson.
Lars Öhrström, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, has studied metal-organic frameworks for 30 years. He is delighted to see the research field recognised by the Nobel Foundation. This recognition makes it easier to explain the field, and may also increased interest from other stakeholders or companies.
“It is always great to see how engaged and enthusiastic Professor Yaghi is in his interactions with students and younger researchers. A role model for us all,” Lars Öhrström concludes.
Read more
- Professor Lars Öhrström hosted the Global Science meeting at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering where, besides the participants mentioned in the text above, Dr. Chandra Kanth (postdoc) and Vanessa Chivere (PhD student) attended.
- During the day Omar Yaghi also met doctoral students William Reinholdsson och Eva Dahlqvist, and Assistant Professor Dr Yizhou Yang to discuss their research projects. He was also given a tour by Dr Andreas Schaefer in the ”Surface Area & Porosity Laboratory” att the Division for Applied Chemistry.
- Read a press release from Lars Öhrström’s and Ivan Mijakovic’s research groups at Chalmers: Nobel-Prized material that puncture and kill bacteria
Contact
- Director of Graduate Studies, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering