杏吧原创

WHEN Andy Pag鈥檚 old red Peugeot is running low on fuel, he ignores the filling stations and stops at the next restaurant instead. Filling up on discarded chip fat, vegetable oil and whatever else he can scrounge from chefs along the way, Pag, an engineer-turned-journalist, hopes to inspire other people to try alternative fuels for themselves.

Last month, Pag and his chemistry-teacher partner Esther Obiri-Darko led a team that drove across Europe on kebab-shop leftovers, which they converted into clean, efficient vegetable oil using a simple filtration system. Their fuel may have been off-beat, but the message is not: finding renewable sources of energy is both necessary and possible. And for chemists, this equates to one thing: a flood of great career opportunities.

鈥淲hen I started my degree I could never have predicted that energy materials 鈥� the area I work in 鈥� would become so important,鈥� says Peter Bruce, professor of chemistry at the University of St Andrews. Energy research is breathing life into chemistry, providing welcome relief from the shortage of funding and departmental closures of the recent past. 鈥淚t鈥檚 creating more diverse opportunities for chemists,鈥� agrees Jeff Hardy, network manager at the UK Energy Research Centre in London.

Applying core chemical skills to other disciplines can open numerous avenues for scientists who are willing to adapt. 鈥淭he old traditional chemical industries are not the powerhouses for employment that they were 30 years ago,鈥� says Bruce, but 鈥渆co鈥� concerns are providing alternative career opportunities for chemists.

Could our energy problems be chemistry鈥檚 saviour? New 杏吧原创 finds out what鈥檚 on offer. While some kinds of chemistry are more in vogue than others, green chemistry is one area that won鈥檛 be going out of fashion any time soon. By rethinking chemical processes from the ground up, green chemists are providing practical solutions that need less energy, use cheaper raw materials and produce less waste, as well as reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

鈥淕reen chemistry is becoming popular by necessity,鈥� says Hardy. The need for companies to improve their green credentials is fuelling its growth. In fact, most of today鈥檚 research has some component of green chemistry, says Bruce: 鈥淚t鈥檚 very much on people鈥檚 minds.鈥�

Green chemistry often uses technologies that are too new for most university courses to cover. That鈥檚 not necessarily a problem, as an overall awareness of the environment is much more important than specific skills, Hardy says. 鈥淵ou can always be taught the techniques later.鈥� If you鈥檙e interested in getting a head start, though, York and Nottingham universities offer specialist courses in green chemistry.

If industry appeals, then Hardy advises that you learn to develop partnerships with as many people as possible. 鈥淭alk to engineers, biologists 鈥� whoever can give you a different approach to typical problems. Chemistry is not a discipline that has been traditionally comfortable with having that contact. So anything that shows you鈥檝e broken through some traditional boundaries will be good in your CV.鈥�

And don鈥檛 underestimate the significance of the work you choose to do; small steps can make a huge difference. In 1993, researchers at the Merseyside-based speciality chemicals company Uniqema developed emkarate, a lubricant for fridge compressors that increased their efficiency by about 20 per cent. 鈥淭his simple bit of chemistry has saved a large amount of greenhouse gases from being released, and is being used in 500 million refrigerators worldwide,鈥� says Hardy.

Our hunger for clean energy provides a big challenge for the next generation of chemists. 鈥淣ew fuel sources are clearly a high priority for both the government and industry in the private sector,鈥� says Libby Steele, education manager for universities at the Royal Society of Chemistry. But it鈥檚 an uphill battle for scientists as they compete to find a cheap and efficient alternative that meets our current energy demands.

The key is to work on several different technologies simultaneously, says Bruce. 鈥淭oo often in the western world they try to look into a crystal ball and predict what will succeed 10 or 20 years down the line. That鈥檚 not what nations like Japan have done. They have developed many different ideas right to the prototype level, and then evaluated what would succeed and what would fail.鈥�

Generating clean energy is only part of the problem; chemists will be needed to help store it so that it is always available when needed. 鈥淚f we are going to use wind, wave or solar energy, we need ways of storing this electricity because they are intermittent in supply,鈥� says Bruce. 鈥淎s we reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, we will rely on the storage of electricity far more than ever before.鈥�

At the heart of this storage is battery technology, and for this chemistry is key. 鈥淭here is much to be done in the research and development fields,鈥� says Hardy.

It seems that each challenge represents another opportunity. Hydrogen technology, in particular, has spawned a growing industry that provides a lot of work for chemists, says Nick Hart, a researcher at ITM Power in Sheffield. 鈥淲ith the rising prices of oil there鈥檚 a lot of government support for renewable energy.鈥� About 60 per cent of the people working in basic research at ITM are chemists, Hart says.

Hardy agrees that hydrogen could be the next big thing. 鈥淚t鈥檚 attractive because it has high energy density. It offers a good bang for your buck.鈥�

After decades out of favour, nuclear power is again rising up the agenda 鈥� so much so that there is now a shortage of chemists with nuclear experience. This is providing great opportunities for skilled young people to take the fast track to senior positions. 鈥淭here are quite a few reports out showing that the number of chemists available for recruitment into the nuclear industry is just not enough,鈥� says Steele.

While chemists don鈥檛 play a major role in the building of a nuclear reactor, they are vital to monitoring functions and treatment of nuclear waste, says project manager Claire Gallery-Strong at Sellafield Ltd, which is managing the decommissioning and clean-up of two of the UK鈥檚 major nuclear sites. 鈥淭here are several issues that have yet to be resolved in this area, meaning opportunities for chemists,鈥� she says.

Hardy highlights the growing number of opportunities for dealing with nuclear waste. 鈥淚n the UK we have a legacy of nuclear waste going back to the early 1940s. Now we are debating how and where to bury this waste.鈥� With 拢73 billion set aside to tackle the problem, there are likely to be plenty of jobs to go around, he says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of work for chemists in analysing, developing treatment methods, researching storage media and also understanding the long-term behaviour of nuclear waste, particularly its interaction with organic and inorganic materials.鈥�

Whether you鈥檙e in a well-placed industry or heading for a high-flying academic career, successful chemists need to be able to work with specialists from other disciplines. Such links provide access to experienced personnel and top-flight expertise. The ability to appreciate how other subjects work and how they interact with your own research is vital, says William Jones, head of chemistry at the University of Cambridge. 鈥淐hemists are ubiquitous: they pop up everywhere, working in a hugely diverse range of fields, from teaching and research to patent offices and laboratories,鈥� agrees Steele (see 鈥淎n alternative career鈥�)

鈥淭hey should think of themselves as part of a bigger discipline working to solve a problem, rather than focusing exclusively on their own subject,鈥� says Jones. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to remain open-minded. It鈥檚 all too easy to only focus on work that is immediately relevant to your day-to-day issues. But it鈥檚 essential to know what鈥檚 going on in other areas. Many of the great breakthroughs come from people who have moved from one area of research to another.鈥�

Still, a hint of stubbornness might just help you on your way, at least in academia. 鈥淭o succeed you need stamina, perseverance, determination and single-mindedness,鈥� says Guy Lloyd-Jones, co-director of the Centre for Organometallic Catalysis at the University of Bristol. 鈥淵ou have to learn not to be discouraged by failure when you don鈥檛 get funding.鈥� Though chemistry has seen some thin times lately, he believes that in the long term it has 鈥渁 healthy and positive future鈥�.

As the world becomes increasingly reliant on alternative forms of energy, the opportunities for chemists become ever more attractive. But a word of caution: with so many opportunities available, it pays to choose your career path with special care. 鈥淏e flexible and be aware of where the important challenges are, but do things that interest and excite you,鈥� says Bruce. 鈥淚f you do good science, you will define the areas that will become important, rather than chase them.鈥�