Nanomaterials
and Chocolate – Interview with Luisa De Cola
Author: Vera
Köster
Published
Date: 02 October 2012
Copyright: Wiley-VCH
Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Professor Luisa De Cola did
post-doctoral research in the USA, has held positions at universities in Italy,
The Netherlands, Germany, and France, as well as having guest professorships in
Switzerland, Belgium, and Spain, and she has been a visiting scientist in
Japan.
She talks in an interview for ChemViews
magazine to Dr. Vera Koester about teaching in these varied countries and
the increasing role of the internet in teaching, how she chose the
interdisciplinary area of nanomaterials as her research field, and a topic
close to her heart: chocolate.
You have a truly international biography and have now moved from the University
of Münster, Germany, to the ISIS in Strasbourg, France. Which languages do you
speak?
I speak a little bit of German; I
speak Italian, English, and a little bit of Spanish.
What does your research focus on?
My research deals with different
types of nanomaterials. In particular we are interested in porous materials
that could be rigid or soft, crystalline or amorphous, and in materials able to
emit light under different stimuli.
We are interested in the interactions of nanosystems with living cells. In
particular we are interested in their toxicity, and in their potential use for
imaging and therapy.
Also, we are interested in soft self-assembly systems and, especially, in the
luminescence of assembled molecules. Soft scaffolds, in which the emission can
be modulated upon the assembly process, are in my opinion a very interesting
class of systems and their use can be extended from biology to optoelectronics.
How did you become interested in Chemistry?
This is indeed a very interesting
story, because first I did not want to study chemistry. I started my career
studying biology. And then during my first year in biology, I got very
interested in chemistry, so I switched faculty. It was a difficult choice,
because I liked almost any science. I also was interested in physics. But
another love is cinema and I wanted to become a film director. – My niece is an
actress, so somehow it is in the blood of the family.
So you often go to the cinema?
Yes, I do, I love movies.
How did you find your research topic?
I was trained as a physical
chemist. I studied in Messina, Italy. Then I went to the US where I started to
do synthesis. I was a Postdoc funded by the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), so I started to be interested in molecules that could be functional, and
we were using phosphorescent molecules. In particular we were using luminescent
lanthanide compounds. And because I started with luminescent molecules, I got
in contact with Professor Balzani, University of Bologna, Italy. After I
finished my Postdoc, I went back to Italy to his lab. I stayed in Bologna for
twelve years and really enjoyed my time there, because I learned the
photophysics of metal complexes, but also how to run a group. I consider
Professor Balzani to be my scientific father.
From there I went on to more applied research. So at least something that could
be used, though doing new science. And I started to work on the creation of
molecules to be used as materials for optoelectronics, in particular for
organic light emitting diodes for TV screens or computers. This was a very successful
part of my research. I was in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at the time and had a
wonderful collaboration with Philips.
And from there, of course, we started to look at the properties of materials
and realized that with some modification these metal complexes could also be
used for diagnostics. And this is how I started this bio- and biomedical area,
which is now an important part of my research area. Also, because I received
the ERC advanced grant in 2010, this area is at the moment very much at the
forefront of my research group.
From simple molecules we progressed to work with the scaffold-like silica or
alumina silicate, but we are also looking at soft molecular containers and at
hybrid systems. The dynamic behavior of molecules versus rigid scaffold could
lead to properties which can be switched on and off, such as emission or
toxicity and, of course, this could open interesting approaches for the design
of labels or multifuntional systems.
This depends a little bit on the
country. In places like Italy and France there are many women in sciences and
the society somehow is structured so that women can work until late in the
afternoon, for instance. In Germany to be a woman scientist is more
problematic, because the society is not organized to have women working full
time. This is the reason why not so many women in Germany hold high level
positions in the universities and also in industry. This is true also in the
Netherlands or in Switzerland.
I do not think that there is a real discrimination. I mean I don’t think that
the men discriminate against women for positions or important tasks. It is just
a matter of being good. If a man is better, then they should take the man, not
a woman just because she is a woman. However, the fact that the woman can
become a mother, and therefore be less present at work, is a factor of
discrimination. Combining family and profession is not easy ...
I strongly believe women should be encouraged to do science, because it is
important for society and also because I feel that women are very much into
sciences. I notice very often, even with my students, that women often have the
possibility to look for a different strategy. While men maybe stick to a single
approach or a single vision, women are more open to a new way of thinking and
able to connect things. In my experience, women are very successful when they
are really committed.
During your career you have taught students from lots of different countries.
Is studying chemistry getting more international or is it still that every
country has its own way of teaching?
First of all, I like all my
students no matter of skin or religion or habits or whatever.
Of course, there are schools that
are better than others. And also some countries are more advanced in terms of
the technology and techniques that the students learn compared with less rich
or developed countries. It is obvious that a poor country cannot have the
equipment and facilities that we have in Germany or the US, for example. But I
think this will not hinder a brilliant student. An intelligent and creative
student can catch up with technology much better than, let’s say, a not so
bright or motivated student living in a highly technological country. So I
think it is a matter of intelligence, motivation, interest, and curiosity. I
consider these as very important ingredients for a student to be successful.
In general, I would say education is not so different anymore. I mean everybody
studies from the same books and reads the same papers everywhere in the world.
So I think they are exposed to the same type of science. It is more related
maybe to the quality of teaching (labs and computers, facilities) which differs
in different schools.
Do you see that students use the internet more to learn?
Yes, the students use the internet
much more than before. And it is good because if you look at the internet, that
means you are curious about things and this kind of curiosity is good to have.
I notice, for example, that my young nieces use the internet in a very smart
way. As a scientist, looking at ChemistryViews or an interview or at
recordings from conferences is very, very nice, because sometimes you cannot
attend a conference and the students have no money to attend. The experience of
viewing the speaker, the author of a paper we have read, is completely
different to reading the paper. It is a much easier way of, let’s say, getting
an overview and a first feeling if you like that field or research or not. Of
course, to go deeper you have to read the papers, it is not enough to listen,
and you have to digest the knowledge yourself.
However, sometimes people learn only from Wikipedia and this is not what is
desirable. The students tend to accept everything they read without being
critical, without recognizing mistakes. This is where, of course, the teachers
and the professors have an important role in the student’s life. They should
guide them, force them to read more widely, and also make them more critical
towards what they are reading. So I don’t think the role of the professor will
disappear. Wikipedia will not suppress our teaching system.
On the other hand, I find the videos and in general many of the tools from the
internet very, very important for spreading the sciences. Especially I would
say at school level this is very nice. I hope and I wish that the teachers of
high and middle schools would use more of these tools than they do.
What else do you like besides sciences?
I have a big love that is
chocolate.
Ah, so do I.
I give seminars on chocolate. I
gave one in Strasbourg, France, recently for the International Year of
Chemistry (IYC). So this is kind of another research topic for me. I am a pure
experimentalist there. That means I try new chocolates all the time.
What kind of talk did you give?
I talked about the history of
chocolate, how cocoa reached Europe, for instance, and then about the processes
that transform the beans into the bar of chocolate you eat. The chemistry of
some of the molecules contained in chocolate is fascinating and I try to
discuss some of it.
I also showed the way you should
eat chocolate. There is a special way – like for wine – to appreciate the
taste, the smell, and the melting of the chocolate.
Can everybody attend these seminars?
Sure, these are open to the public.
So in Strasbourg, for instance, there were tele videos in different rooms and
they told me that more than 700 people listened to my talk! In the room there
were about 200 people. And more than 100 were high school kids. So this was
quite an experience.
This sounds very interesting! I would like to attend one of these.
Now that you have moved to Strasbourg you are in the right town, because there
is so much chocolate over here.
Yes. This will be a disaster for me
in terms of diet ...
The good thing in Germany is, of
course, you can get any type of chocolate there, but the Germans are not really
producing as much chocolate as the French or the Swiss.
Thank you very much for the interview.
