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Asked by anon-254294 to Tiffany on 3 Jun 2020.
Question: To what extent is your work interdisciplinary?
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Tiffany Chan answered on 3 Jun 2020:
Hi! My work has always been very interdisciplinary – as is most of research nowadays! The boundaries between the sciences are quite blurred in real life; most of the ‘big’ problems require expertise across the fields. Whilst I studied Chemistry at university, I did my PhD working between Chemistry and Bioengineering. My project involved designing new drugs for brain diseases (‘chemistry’), developing drug delivery methods to deliver drugs into the brain with ultrasound (‘engineering/physics’), and testing potential drug compounds in cells and in mice (‘biology’). Recently, I have been spending most of my days growing cells – probably not what you would imagine a chemist to be doing!
Comments
Tom commented on :
I work as a research chemist, which despite the very narrow field title, means I get to work with a whole range of other disciplines.
In my team, I am responsible for designing new chemistries to help customers and clients develop cleaner and more sustainable chemical processes; for example, turning old rubbish waste into jet fuel!
In most cases, to achieve any substantial goal, more than one team or discipline would be needed – which is a good thing! I’ve gained many practical skills working with engineers, biologists, materials scientists, legal teams, finance teams and logistical teams to get projects done. One day I’m wearing a lab coat, the next its rigger boots and a jumpsuit, then its shirt and tie! This keeps the job exciting for me.
Matthew commented on :
Definitely agree that interdisciplinarity is a real boost to job satisfaction! As an Earth Scientist I use chemistry, maths and some physics daily in my research, while in my teaching, especially fieldwork teaching, there are many components of these together with biology. Because there’s widespread public interest in many Earth Science issues (e.g. volcanoes, fossils, climate change, earthquakes), I have often had unplanned chats with members of the public on these topics, sometimes in French and German!
Daniel commented on :
Most work is inter-disciplinary nowadays. I work for a chemicals company, and while my PhD was in chemistry, a lot of my colleagues come from a biological, pharmaceutical, and even physics background! Tackling problems from all these different angles always results in a creative solution. As an analytical chemist, working in a multidisciplinary environment is great, since developing ways to analyse things effectively underpins all of this and get to work with all these different people!
Aisling commented on :
I am a medicinal chemist and my work in very interdisciplinary! I am primarily a chemist, so my practise is working in a chemistry lab, designing and making medicine. But I also get to do a lot of biology! In order to design medicine for a disease (I work with cancer) I need to understand the disease so I know what to target. I also get to test my medicines on cancer cells, which is what a biologist would usually do. Some chemists prefer to do all of the chemistry and let the biologists do the cell testing, but if you are interested in doing the chemistry and the biology the option is there 🙂
Zoe commented on :
Most work seems to be these days! I work in structural and mechanistic biology but I have a background as a chemist. I need to be able to understand everything from plant genetics to protein expression and purification in E.coli and then biophysical methods that I might use to get information about my proteins. I also do a bit of coding as well as pure organic chemistry. Getting to work on all these different things keeps the work varied and I really enjoy it!
Maria commented on :
To a massive extent! I studied Physics originally, but my work as a medical physics researcher nowadays requires constant collaboration with clinicians, biologists, engineers, computer scientists and chemists, so I need to know a bit of all of those areas, which makes it all the more interesting. There is always the option of changing your focus more into any of those areas as well, which lets you choose your own path according to your preferences.
Kat commented on :
Completely. I am a Chemist by training and I work with Materials Scientists, Physicists, Engineers, and mechanics. The work I do in battery research is so complex and has many levels that it’s impossible for it not to be interdisciplinary in the tasks that I do myself. When I am developing new materials I need to consider what my equipment will look like and then the design of the battery. sometimes I forgot that I am a chemist to be honest – until one of the others asks a really basic chemistry question I am reminded of my training! Chemistry gives you a really good foundation of science knowledge but if you work in industry where you are trying to apply science to solve a problem, it will always be interdisciplinary. You pick up so much knowledge along the way and the other people that you work with are in the same boat.