Developing Fascination in Science

1. Developing Fascination in Science Chances and Challenges Zbigniew L. Pianowski Institut de Science et d’Ingenierie Supramoleculaires Universite Louis Pasteur Strasbourg, France

2. At the beginnig was the... BIG BANG

3. Complicated formulas came later:

4. But form the beginning I have been meeting people whose passion towards chemistry allowed me to learn it with enthusiasm. Practical training for high school students preparing for participation in a chemistry olympiade – Jagiellonian University, Cracow – 2 semesters at the age of 12 years Practical course of analytical chemistry for students – Cracow University of Technology – 2 semesters at the age of 15 ... in the mean time a primary music school was my main education pathway.

5. A choice of high school: Big schools dedicated to teach chemistry and biology for future medical application Smaller schools promoting individuality and creativity Catholic High School with good background in humanities, but also individual programs of teaching A dedicated chemistry teacher – Dr. Zbigniew Fryt – being constantly in touch with academic environment

6. Jagiellonian University, Cracow With approval of the Dean of Students’ Affairs (prof. Janusz Jamrozik) a possibility to attend in student courses – training in scientific literature, practical skills of organic synthesis and interaction with experienced academic staff A practical course of Organic Chemistry A (2nd year) – organic preparation (dr. Bożena Kawałek) A training of NMR spectroscopy (dr. Anna Kolasa) A practical Organic Chemistry B (4th year) (prof. Barbara Rys)

7. Jagiellonian University, Cracow Permission to develop my own scientific project under guidance of a tutor (prof. Barbara Rys and Janusz Jamrozik) Presentation of results as a poster during diploma session and as oral presentation (Students’ Chemical Association) The project focused on synthesis of unknown derivatives of 4-aminopyridine N-oxide and investigation of their mesogenic properties. It was afterwards presented as a poster on the International Conference on Liquid Crystals (Zakopane, Poland, 2001)

8. Polish Children Fund Organization of volounteers (students and professors of sciences, arts and humanities) supporting and directing passions of young scholars (primary and high schools) from the whole country by organizing meetings with lectures as well as practical training for groups (a week) and individual stays (3-4 weeks) on the top national level. By creating a large (c.a. 300 people) community of gifted youth there is strong stimulation to develop new skills. Meeting people of similar interest on equally enormous level creates also a social surrounding usually not existing at place of living Cooperation with similar organizations from other countries results in international exchanges of scholars

9. Polish Children Fund Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences – a practical group training, presentation of labs and research groups Chemistry Department, Warsaw University a practical group training, presentation of labs and research groups Chemistry Department, Warsaw University individual training: Laboratory of Dielectrics and Magnetics (dr. Ewa Górecka) – physical properties of liquid crystals Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences – individual training – group XXIII (prof. Mieczysław Mąkosza) 1) synthesis of 5-membered carbocycles by carbanion addition to Michael acceptors 2) Synthesis of 4-n-alkylbenzoic acids for preparation of mesogenic compounds A general interfaculty scientific camp Świder 2000 – selected oral presentations of leading scientists, artists and philosophers

10. Polish Children Fund – international exchanges Research Science Institute – a scientific summer school organized by MIT and Harvard University for talented high school students. 50 students from the US and 24 students from England, France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Syria and Singapore involved. A week of training on scientific presentation and preparation of a scientific paper was followed by 5 weeks of pracitcal training with research teams of chosen specialization and ended with a written 15-pages report in a form of publication

11. My work in Rowland Institute on Harvard with dr. Amit Meller leading the Single Molecule Biophysics Lab was focused on rolling-circle amplification of single-stranded circular DNA templates to obtain iterative DNA oligomers for biophysical investigations using confocal laser microscopy

12. 13th European Union Contest for Young Scientists A contest of scientific presentations of individual research projects of participants in a form of poster sessions On the national level – from c.a. 50 applications 10-12 participants are chosen for the national poster session. Among them, 6 prizes are given and 3 people or teams are selected for the European level of competition. My presentation ‘New Rod-Like Liquid Crystals’ on chemistry and possible applications of the mesogenic derivatives of 4-aminopyridine N-oxide was awarded on the national level and selected for the European edition in Bergen, Norway One of the second prizes and a special prize (a practical stay in Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias) was awarded to that presentation by international scientific jury.

13. 13th European Union Contest for Young Scientists Fan-shaped SmA texture Schlieren-texture Schlieren-texture (Nem)

14. Polish Chemical Olympiad Around 1000 participants from high schools of the whole county take part in the eliminations of Polish Chemistry Olympiad. By the regional level to the national one c.a. 110 students are qualified and compete in solving several problems from all the areas of chemistry. Their difficulty usually corresponds to 2nd-4th year of university courses. The originality of solutions as well as clarity of explanations is ranked in the teoretical part. It is completed by 2-3 complex practical tasks from analytical chemistry. In the 2001 competitions – XLVII Olympiad – I won the first prize and a special prize of organic chemistry task solution

15. Interfaculty studies Warsaw University (as well as Jagiellonian and Gdańsk Universities) created an alternative for the regular university studies for a carefully selected group of students. It assumes responsability of the student for his own fate. For everyone of the students there is an individual tutor (a professor or an associated professor) directing him towards full development of his talents and skills. The only general obligation is to collect 300 ECTS points during 5 years and to obtain the master degree on one of the seven involved scientific departments Such flexibility allows students to perform highly interfaculty projects (e.g. combining mathematics and biology) with very strong background in more than one aspect of it

16. Co-operation with Polish Academy of Sciences Several leading institutes of Polish Academy of Sciences, although not involved in regular education of students, invites them to take part in a number of modern scientific projects The students can learn and use later on their own the most advanced equipment, attend in scientific lectures and events organized by the institutes as well as in lectures for graduate students

17. Interfaculty studies My studies were performed at the Department of Interfaculty Mathematic and Science Studies and were directed towards graduation from the Chemistry Department. At the beginning of my studies I directly started the cooperation with Institute of Organic Chemistry PAS. In the group of prof. Mieczysław Mąkosza I was involved in research of applications of radical chemistry in total synthesis. Apart from the main project of dr. Krzysztof Staliński on asymetric radical catalysis using chiral stannyl hydrides I have proposed my own project: a total synthesis of a sesquiterpene bicyclic alcohol – beta-santalol – using tandem radical cyclization as a key step That project became an experimental part of my master thesis which, after completing the academic requirements, has been defended at the end of the third year of my studies.

18. Pianowski Z., Rupnicki L., Cmoch P., Stalinski K. Synlett 2005 6 900-904

19. Interfaculty studies During my studies I was involved in three scientific stays: Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (3 weeks) – modern methods of investigations of the space and astrochemistry Institute de Physique et Chemie des Materiaux IPCMS Strasbourg (3 weeks) – parameters of Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers formed by the mesogenic derivatives of 4-aminopyridine N-oxide Institute de Science et d’Ingenierie Supramoleculaires ULP Strasbourg (twice 3 weeks) - synthesis of chiral boronic aminoacids as inhibitors of proteases to be incorporated in proteomic profilling using microarrays

20. The choice of graduate studies Extremelly passionate supervisor with very good experimental skills and strong background in organic synthesis as well as biology Interdisciplinary research using fine methods of organic synthesis to produce objects interacting with biomolecules and cells Young and dedicated team Highly stimulating scientific environment covering many aspects of molecular sciences

21. ISIS – institute born of passion

22. Jean-Marie Lehn Supramolecular Chemistry Nicolas Winssinger Bioorganic Chemistry Paolo Samori Nanotechnology Andrew Griffiths Chemical Biology Martin Karplus Computational Chemistry Thomas Ebbesen Nanostructures

23. PhD thesis on total synthesis of vancomycin (K.C.Nicolaou) Post-doctoral stay on split-pool methods in combinatorial chemistry (P.G.Schultz) Nicolas Winssinger Bioorganic Chemistry Independent position in ISIS, permanent professor position in the age of 35 The research project of my PhD is focused on application of peptidenucleic acids (PNA, functional analogues of oligonucleotides) for investigations of proteome profile in cells using microarrays

24. Extensive scientific exchange – invited lectures of the most interesting scientists including nobel laureates as well as young promissing researchers Importance of the cultural issue – regular lectures given by humanistic professors as well as concerts of classical music

25. Conclusions Constant interactions of academic teachers with enthusiastic young people is very important. Direct financial support is less effective than creating highly stimulating environment to improve their development. The existing international student exchange programs (e.g. Socrates-Erasmus) are usually not efficient enough for experimental scientific stays and should be supplemented with additional small grants fully covering living costs and transportation for the top scientific projects. The mobility of graduated students is still seriously hampered by lack of a unified system of PhD scholarships