Looking back at three generations of PhD research

There’s an inescapable sense of competition between generations, each one largely believing those before were out-of-touch and those after somehow had it easier. Certainly, society has evolved over the last 60 years, with advances in technology and the internet completely changing the way we operate day to day. But in the world of chemistry, are these differences as profound as everyone thinks? During my PhD I performed many of the old classics: Friedel–Crafts acylations, Fries rearrangements, Dean–Stark protections, all of which are well over 100 years old, suggesting that the cornerstones of organic chemistry remain the same.

Chemistry goes back decades in my family: on both sides three generations have been drawn to the subject, going on to pursue long careers in the field. In particular, I have followed the same path as my dad and my grandpa, both of whom also completed PhDs in organic chemistry – my dad in the late 1980s, and my grandpa in the late 1950s. Having heard stories about their time in the lab all my life, in many ways I think the experience hasn’t changed as much as people think.