What do you consider to be chemistry’s greatest achievement or most important discovery?
Chemicals and chemistry compose every material object and process on this planet. In that all that exists on Earth is made up of chemicals, life itself might be termed chemistry’s greatest achievement. In tighter focus, a watershed accomplishment would be elucidation of the structure of DNA and the means by which genetic information is encoded and decoded – though illustrious colleagues in other branches of chemistry may well favor other breakthroughs.

What do you focus on in your research and what aspects of it are evident or usable in everyday life?
Our group studies enzyme mechanisms with the goal of engineering protein catalysts to drive reactions faster or more selectively than those found in Nature. For many reactions of interest, natural catalysts may even be unknown. Examples of enzymatic applications to everyday life range from therapies for heart attack victims to meat tenderizers, stain removal from clothing, and, in a case beloved of Switzerland, cheese making.

Have you got a role model in chemistry? If so, who and why this person?
The great German scientist Emil Fischer, father of chemical biology, came to many key realizations by drawing on inspired reasoning and pure logic in addition to observation and experiments. He is still a towering figure in science. Interestingly, his autobiography tells us his father sent him to university because he felt young Fischer was too stupid to succeed in the family lumber business.

How will your research field develop? Where does the potential lie?
Chemistry, allied with biological methods and computational tools will make it increasingly possible to create particular, specially tailored catalysts rivalling the speed, selectivity, and efficiency of natural enzymes. The field will continue to evolve fast and far beyond what is realizable today.

What term from chemistry should everyone know by the end of the International Year of Chemistry and why?
It is not important to know a particular term. In fact it is all about understanding the concepts and tasks of chemistry. I was born in America, and I can only praise the Swiss in this regard. I wish all the world were as science-literate, informed, and knowledgeable as Switzerland. I would urge only: weiter so!