Developing Fascination in Science
Chances and Challenges
Zbigniew L. Pianowski
Institut de Science et d’Ingenierie Supramoleculaires
Universite Louis Pasteur
Strasbourg, France
At the beginnig was the...
BIG BANG
Complicated formulas came later:
HO
O
O
O
O
O
OH
CO2H
O
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.
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
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)
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)
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
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
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
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
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.
13th European Union Contest for Young Scientists
Fan-shaped
Schlieren-texture
SmA texture
Schlieren-texture (Nem)
N
O
_
N
O
O
N +
N
N
N +
O
OO
N
_
O
N
N
O
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
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
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
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.
X
O
Br
O
PPh 3
BuLi, 62%
X=OH
X=Br DIBALH
97%
Br
HO
OH
O
BuLi
76%
(2 steps)
1. HI, H2O
OH
2. SeO2
NaBH4, 80%
1) TsCl, 84%
2) PhMe 2SiCl,
BuLi, 75%
3) KI, Me 2CO 98%
I
Catalyst (1) or (2)
SiMe2Ph
ACCN, PhCH3
Tandem Radical
Cyclization
SiMe2Ph
O
(1) HSnBu3
H Sn
N
Bu Bu
(2)
Pianowski Z., Rupnicki L., Cmoch P., Stalinski K. Synlett 2005 6 900-904
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
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
ISIS – institute born of passion
Jean-Marie Lehn
Supramolecular
Chemistry
Nicolas Winssinger
Bioorganic Chemistry
Paolo Samori
Nanotechnology
Andrew Griffiths
Chemical Biology
Martin Karplus
Computational
Chemistry
Thomas Ebbesen
Nanostructures
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
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
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