Question: name one thing you dislike about your job ?

Michael Nolan answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Hi Saoirse,

Very insightful question – you have to separate “the science” from “the job”…
the science is the cool stuff on my profile, designing those new materials to kill pollutants or to make fuels, almost for free using sunlight.

The biggest problem with “the job”, and the answer to your question, is the fact that the whole enterprise of science and research is political. The days of people dabbling in science in their spare time (Einstein for example, Pascal, Fermat) are gone. Now you have to meet the demands of the people who provide the money needed to do science. They want particular aims and objectives so they can go to the politicians and show how “well” we are doing in making small advances. Proposing big advances gets you nowhere and in fact that happened me this year where I lost a proposal to fund my research for being too ambitious.

It therefore decides who gets the money and if you know the people who make the decisions, you are OK, even if your science is not so good.

So, this problem of politics is the single biggest thing I really dislike, but it does not stop me from trying to do important and good science. It is just another obstacle to be overcome, like the other obstacles you meet in trying to become a scientist. Getting past those obstacles takes determination and is totally worth it when you get to do good science and publish your work that other people will read and use – now that is satisfying.

Hope this answers your question, please keep them coming!

M