无国特创新的故事：与Damien Debecker的几分钟
By:丹尼克拉克
今年，在未罗革说的内容中，雷竞技电竞竞猜我们正在专注于无国界创新的故事。作为一家公司致力于在组织和部门的思想领导者中致力于创新讲故事，我们已经开始了揭示越来越多的创新思想的故事，这些思维是镀锌变化和四个主要产业的增长：技术，医疗，科学和人类的影响。我们要求您提名在您的领域的思想领导者，他们正在推动创新，并且您继续提供！
Our next innovation story comes from Damien Debecker, Associate Professor at theLouvain大学。In our interview, we hear more about what it takes to be an innovator in research and the benefits of involving different disciplines in innovative work. Much like the award-winning sushi chef inJiro Dreams of Sushi, Damien dreams of ways to produce higher performing catalysts. So, pull on your proverbial lab coat and ready yourself for Damien’s science innovation story!
P.S. Keep sending in those nominations of others for us to highlight in our Untold Innovation series. You can complete ournomination form onlineoremail uswith their information.
Damien Debecker的创新故事
After obtaining his Masters in Bio-science engineering and a PhD in heterogeneous catalysis, Damien is now an associate professor of chemical engineering at theLouvain大学, in Belgium. He is managing a research group of 15 people who are focused on making new catalytic materials for more sustainable chemical processes. He is teaching process engineering, physical chemistry, and biorefining.
UC: What is your field of specialty?
DD:我是比利时洛维大学的副教授。我的专业领域是绿色化学，更具体地说，异质催化剂，这有助于我们以更有效的方式创造化学反应。绿色化学，或可持续化学，是我们尝试以更清洁的方式进行的化学品。它侧重于不使用或产生危险污染物质的过程。绿色化学原理可应用于化学扇区的所有部分，例如在药物化学或聚合物化学中。
UC：您的个人创新故事在哪里开始？
DD:当我成为一名学生时，我的个人创新故事开始了。我是一个非常好奇的孩子 - 总是对科学感兴趣。当我第一次说我想成为化学老师时，我可能是10或12年，而是在大学，我决定去参加工程。在我的工程研究结束时，我必须完成我的师父的论文。对于我的论文，我选择在他们使用异质催化剂的实验室中工作。我真的很喜欢那项工作，我决定去博士学位。我从不戒烟。这是研究 - 这是我每天开车。我也在教学，但真的，研究是早上唤醒我的研究。
“I have much more fun when I realize I’m exploring things that nobody else has explored before.”
I’m doing both fundamental research and applied research. Most of the time it’s really about bringing knowledge and new fundamental understanding on how to prepare the catalysts we’re working on or coming up with new ones that perform better than the ones we already know.
UC: Describe what that research looks like for you right now.
DD:回到异质催化剂，我大多是我知道工作并试图找到不同方式来制备和合成催化材料的反应，允许反应更好地工作。目标是具有更好的表演催化剂，但要做的是，我们首先需要了解这些催化剂的工作原理。例如，我结合了材料科学概念来设计新型催化剂，具有更好的表面组成控制。一切都在催化剂表面发生，这必须具有有趣的纹理。纹理可以涉及大，均匀的孔，这对于分子以更好地弥漫在这些催化剂中是重要的。
UC: What are the impacts of your research on the field at large?
DD:几乎整个化学领域使用催化剂。从石油化工部门，能源部门，食品工业和制药业向环境部门，估计我们在地球上购买或出售的90％的化学物质已经看到催化剂。对于甚至更广泛的角度来说，我们中的许多人在我们的汽车中与催化剂接触。
The latest line of research I’m developing is an emerging new line of research worldwide: the idea is to combine the classical inorganic catalysts with the biological ones, enzymes This research could have a big impact, especially in terms of green chemistry because those enzymes are made to work efficiently in green conditions like in water and low temperatures, but at the same time they are so fragile that they cannot be applied to many processes. The idea to combine them with more robust catalysts is really promising. What could happen is that those kind of hybrid catalysts could actually replace two or three steps in very complicated processes.
通常，在不同的反应器中产生药物的药物方法具有15或20步，其具有不同催化剂的不同条件。通过杂交催化剂，您可以通过减少一种具有一个杂交催化剂的反应器中的几个步骤，通过减少次数的步骤次数 - 将其余几步缩小到杂交催化剂并加强其。On top of that, we’re trying to get rid of our dependence on fossil resources with bio-based chemistry. We know we need plastics, solvents, the building blocks to make more complicated molecules, but now we’re trying to build them from plant biomass instead of the hydrocarbons we get from oil.
UC：您的领域必须从您的研究和创新过程中学习什么？
DD:我对创新的承担来自物质科学，异构催化转换器和与酶一起使用的生物学家之间的界面。我有机会接受异质催化剂培训，但随后与物质科学领域的人员合作。
“我倾向于相信我的工作很有趣，因为它弥补了这两个世界。“
many people who are primarily focused on designing new types of materials don’t always know what they will be used for. Working with people in different fields has broadened my perspective and created opportunity for me to have ideas nobody has had before. I’m just picking up competencies from different worlds and putting them together in innovative ways. The best part is that my friends in material science experience that benefit too.
“It’s all about multidisciplinary work, which is the most exciting way to do science.“
UC: What role do you feel that storytelling plays in innovation? Could you describe the importance of storytelling to your own work?
DD:这是必不可少的。谈到学术研究时，为了获得其他项目，获得资金，邀请多种人与我们合作，并有一个成功的职业生涯，我们必须发布。而且经常出现优秀的研究是因为讲故事不好。当我有点年轻时，我在实验室里做了研究，但现在学生和研究人员都是这样做的。mY工作几乎完全讲故事 - 我现在采取结果，并帮助将其融入可共享故事的形式。我也非常热衷于努力social mediaand写博客to explain my research in simple ways to get it out to a broader audience.
讲故事可以有点棘手曾在《科学》杂志上e when you have to write a scientific paper, you have to be rigorous and go into all the details. At the same time, you have to make sure that everything is understood by almost everybody. When I go to conferences and listen to other presentations, I often notice the lack of storytelling. It’s a big problem. People end up presenting very complicated pieces of information that only a few people can follow and understand. Because of this, I’m always trying hard to present my research in very clear, simple and engaging ways.
UC: What one piece of advice would you give to future innovators?
DD:In the scientific research field, I would say go for it, but only if you feel the urge to discover the result of the experiment you’re running. Some people can do good, precise work in the lab, but cannot be good innovators. Innovators are the people who dream about their research and wake up in the middle of the night and think about the next experiment before the first one is already done. So, listen to your gut feeling and if you feel excited, if you’re impatient to discover the results of your experiments, then follow the innovation path.To innovate, be curious about other disciplines and always try to see the potential for connection.
感谢您阅读Damien的创新故事。您可以在我们的情况下阅读更多关于我们无法解决创新故事系列的信息Untold Innovation Stories kickoff post。
And, don’t forget to nominate an innovator in your sector. Complete our在线提名形式oremail us。
*面试是不支持个人或businesses.