WEBVTT NOTE Paragraph 00:00:02.570 --> 00:00:03.460 [Intro music] 00:00:03.460 --> 00:00:10.690 >> PETA: Today we are here talking to Dr. David MacMillan, 2015 Hamilton Awardee. Dr. 00:00:10.690 --> 00:00:17.510 MacMillan, thank you for joining us. So you are basically seen as a hero in our eyes, 00:00:17.510 --> 00:00:23.300 and therefore, if you were a superhero, what superhero would you be? What superpower would 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:27.949 you want to have and how would you use that superpower in chemistry? 00:00:27.949 --> 00:00:32.229 >> DAVID: Yeah, I would say that if it was going to be doing something in chemistry, 00:00:32.229 --> 00:00:38.039 it would have to be Future Man, whoever Future Man is. So Future Man would be someone who 00:00:38.039 --> 00:00:44.219 could look into the future a little bit, and see basically what are the ideas or the concepts 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:49.719 of things in chemistry, that people are not thinking about right now. That if you could 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:55.190 do them, it would be really useful, valuable - people would be excited about doing it. 00:00:55.190 --> 00:01:00.399 So it's just this idea I've been able to tap into what's about to happen next. That's the 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.849 part that's pretty cool. So for me, that would be Future Man, the guy that I would want to 00:01:04.849 --> 00:01:07.049 be, as dorky as that sounds. 00:01:07.049 --> 00:01:14.460 >> PETA: That is awesome. So, there is lot of discussion about photo redox catalysis 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:22.200 and how light a huge role plays in your organic analysis research. What is the inspiring factor 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:27.450 that made you feel like you should incorporate light in your research? 00:01:27.450 --> 00:01:35.159 >> DAVID: Well, I think initially, to be completely honest about it, it was not something that 00:01:35.159 --> 00:01:39.450 we sat down and said alright, we need to get light into our research. As soon 00:01:39.450 --> 00:01:43.829 as we do that, this is going to lead into this huge field, is going to be incredibly 00:01:43.829 --> 00:01:48.610 exciting. It was a case where we're trying to solve a completely different problem. And 00:01:48.610 --> 00:01:52.899 we came up with a way of saying, you know if we use photo redox, which really hadn't 00:01:52.899 --> 00:01:57.790 been used that much, if at all, for organic chemistry - it had been used a little bit 00:01:57.790 --> 00:02:01.509 in the eighties and a little bit in the nineties - we said if we use this, we should be able 00:02:01.509 --> 00:02:05.930 to solve this one very specific problem. And so we did it and it worked. And it was great 00:02:05.930 --> 00:02:10.310 and as soon as we did it, as soon as we started using light in photo redox, we started to 00:02:10.310 --> 00:02:13.750 realize there were all these other applications that we could start to use it for, which was 00:02:13.750 --> 00:02:18.890 good. And then two, three, four years later, we start to see all these other directions 00:02:18.890 --> 00:02:22.360 you can start to think about using it. At the same time, all these other people did 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:25.740 too and that was great. So there were all these different people around the world thinking 00:02:25.740 --> 00:02:30.380 about doing this, which made it really exciting because it's nice to be involved in a research 00:02:30.380 --> 00:02:35.510 program that you enjoy. There's lots of other people doing it too makes it really fun, because 00:02:35.510 --> 00:02:39.380 you can get together and talk about it, see all the directions that they have taken it. 00:02:39.380 --> 00:02:43.000 And so it wasn't really a case of we sat down and said from day one, yeah this is going 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:48.990 to be this huge area. It was more a fact that we study doing it and then realized there 00:02:48.990 --> 00:02:50.690 are all these different directions that we could take it. 00:02:50.690 --> 00:02:57.510 >> PETA: It's amazing. So other than photo redox catalysis, what other than that would 00:02:57.510 --> 00:03:01.230 you think is the grand challenge that chemists are facing today. 00:03:01.230 --> 00:03:05.510 >> DAVID: I mean I would say that of what we do, the grand challenge is the number one 00:03:05.510 --> 00:03:12.420 challenge is conversion of sunlight into chemical bonds. This idea of it, can you be able to 00:03:12.420 --> 00:03:16.590 take the energy from the sun and conserve it some way so that you can utilize it on 00:03:16.590 --> 00:03:22.600 demand for Earth. Right, that's one of the grand challenges and that's certainly something 00:03:22.600 --> 00:03:27.270 that a lot of people know about. In terms of grand challenges that no one discusses, 00:03:27.270 --> 00:03:33.450 and the ones I think about, my biggest interest I think will be a big deal for chemistry going 00:03:33.450 --> 00:03:38.350 forward, is the idea of how you take the basic units of all these molecules that we have 00:03:38.350 --> 00:03:44.460 right now and use them to inherently do coupling reactions or bond forming processes, that 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:49.060 no one is thinking about doing right now. We are chemistry in that we are fueled to 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:55.100 set up, is set up pretty well, where we have these specific functional groups that are 00:03:55.100 --> 00:04:00.270 artificially installed in molecules, so we can enable molecules to join together. And 00:04:00.270 --> 00:04:05.110 that's good, but it'd be so much better if you could take all the existing functionality 00:04:05.110 --> 00:04:09.400 and just use that instead. At the moment, the rules of chemistry are not written such 00:04:09.400 --> 00:04:14.050 that you can do that. So we want to go in and hopefully change some of the rules and 00:04:14.050 --> 00:04:20.500 allow us to really think about using nato-functionality to allow molecules to be brought together. 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:28.950 >> PETA: So I see that have written many papers - over a hundred, some of them chapters, some 00:04:28.950 --> 00:04:35.600 books - I would love to know how you balance your time with your personal life and work. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:37.880 >> DAVID: I make everybody else do all the work. 00:04:37.880 --> 00:04:38.370 [laughs] 00:04:38.370 --> 00:04:45.720 >> DAVID: No, basically, how do I balance my life, I think I'm in pretty privileged 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:54.780 position. I think I've been lucky to be surrounded by, throughout my whole career, amazing co-workers 00:04:54.780 --> 00:04:59.840 who drive the research to much great extents than I ever do, so they do that part. In terms 00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:04.630 of being the boards and consulting and all those other things, it's been remarkable to 00:05:04.630 --> 00:05:08.620 be involved in all these great people around the world who would bring you in and sit you 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:13.220 down and say give us your advice on these things or your views on that. And remarkably, 00:05:13.220 --> 00:05:20.490 they even listen to it sometimes. To me, it's not really a balance as much as it's a kind 00:05:20.490 --> 00:05:26.680 of fun, curiosity thing. If you think about it, for me, I love sports. So I spend a lot 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:31.250 of time listening to it, thinking about watching sports. And it's easy and you automatically 00:05:31.250 --> 00:05:34.810 you do it and you think about it because you enjoy it. And it's the same for chemistry, 00:05:34.810 --> 00:05:39.800 if you feel the same way which I do, and then you just do it without even thinking about 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.860 it. It's a fun thing to be involved with and it never feels like work, never feels like 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:49.110 a hardship. It just feels like something you are genuinely excited to be doing. 00:05:49.110 --> 00:05:53.840 >> PETA: So, do you have any advice to give to grad students who, you know, are planning 00:05:53.840 --> 00:05:55.650 on graduating soon? 00:05:55.650 --> 00:06:01.270 >> DAVID: My advice, and it's the same advice I give to people all the time is kind of simple, 00:06:01.270 --> 00:06:06.170 but it's do what you want to do and don't do necessarily what your advisor wants you 00:06:06.170 --> 00:06:12.920 to do or your lab mates want you to do or your mom or your grandma or anyone. Think 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:17.630 about what is really you're excited about, what it is that gets you up in the morning 00:06:17.630 --> 00:06:22.490 and sort of follow that and do that. And if you continue to just go after all those things; 00:06:22.490 --> 00:06:30.139 things will typically work out pretty well. I sometimes worry that people too often fall 00:06:30.139 --> 00:06:34.900 in a trap of doing what's expected of them and it's so much more fun to not do that. 00:06:34.900 --> 00:06:36.389 Just go wherever you want to go. 00:06:36.389 --> 00:06:43.160 >> PETA: That is true. Okay, so I have the big question. You have been here all of yesterday 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:47.790 and you're here this morning again with us. How would you describe your tours and your 00:06:47.790 --> 00:06:49.530 talk with students and faculty? 00:06:49.530 --> 00:06:55.200 >> DAVID: So, I came here, I've never been in Nebraska before, I had no idea what to 00:06:55.200 --> 00:07:00.790 expect. The thing that sort of caught me off guard was the energy of the place. People 00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:05.060 here are so like you - they're bouncy, they're jazzy, they want to talk, and they want to 00:07:05.060 --> 00:07:11.010 hear about things. There's a lot of excitement, people are incredibly friendly, but at the 00:07:11.010 --> 00:07:16.430 same time, really, really, easy to talk to. But the number one thing for me has been energy. 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:21.600 There's just been a real strong energy. Everyone you talk to here are excited about what they're 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:24.480 doing, they want to tell you what they're doing and they want to talk about what you're 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:29.000 doing too. So from that point, it's been, for me, a really fun trip. A really fun trip. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.210 >> PETA: So did you think that you were going to come and see cornfields? And then you saw 00:07:32.210 --> 00:07:33.160 all these huge buildings? 00:07:33.160 --> 00:07:33.430 [Laughs] 00:07:33.430 --> 00:07:40.410 >> DAVID: Exactly. So no, I came here, I had no idea what I was going to expect. And the 00:07:40.410 --> 00:07:41.690 architecture here is fantastic. 00:07:41.690 --> 00:07:43.200 >> PETA: It's amazing. 00:07:43.200 --> 00:07:47.560 >> DAVID: It's beautiful, right? All these different buildings and that was wonderful. 00:07:47.560 --> 00:07:51.580 And the other part was meeting the Hamilton family, which was pretty cool, I thought. 00:07:51.580 --> 00:07:58.060 It's really awesome when you can see people; that their father and grandfather spent so 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:03.419 much time caring about this place. And you can see that keeps going, keeps moving forward, 00:08:03.419 --> 00:08:07.820 that it's part of the fabric of this institution. And to see these people and interact with 00:08:07.820 --> 00:08:08.860 them, that was pretty cool. 00:08:08.860 --> 00:08:13.830 >> PETA: Well, thank you Dr. MacMillan, we are very happy to have you join us and be 00:08:13.830 --> 00:08:15.050 a part of our family. 00:08:15.050 --> 00:08:15.900 >> DAVID: Thank you so much, Peta. 00:08:15.900 --> 00:08:16.650 >> PETA: We wish you all the best. 00:08:16.650 --> 00:08:16.660 >> DAVID: Thank you. 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:22.660 [Outro music]