Professor Carl Schiesser
...there are so many inspirational individuals who have helped shaped the world as we know it.
Nelson Mandela for sticking to his convictions...Lawrence Bragg...for receiving a Nobel Prize at the
age of 25! (Edwin Hubble was pretty cool too!).
60 seconds with Carl
What do you enjoy most about your work and why?
It allows me to realize a dream ... to control and harness the energy of free radicals for the
prevention of disease, for the protection of our cultural heritage, the environment, and for the
construction of new materials.
Who inspires you and why?
This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many inspirational individuals who
have helped shaped the world as we know it. Nelson Mandela for sticking to his convictions. Eddie Mabo for challenging "Terra Nullius".
Mark Knopfler for playing exquisite guitar and Chrissie Hynde for her voice. Scientifically -
perhaps Lawrence Bragg, the Adelaide-born physicist, for developing X-Ray crystallography with his
father, for helping Watson and Crick, and for receiving a Nobel Prize at the age of 25! (Edwin Hubble
was pretty cool too!).
What has been your career defining moment?
This should be an easy question, but its not. I guess a "quantum leap" occurred when I established
a company to commercialise the outcomes of some research we were doing in the area of "chiral free-radical
chemistry". Ultimately, this venture failed, but I learnt an enormous amount from that experience - experience
that is proving useful in my current role as Director of an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence.
In three words, science is?
Nature's art form
If you could get the PM to fund any scientific research, what would it be?
Fundamental research in all disciplines. While the application of scientific discoveries to practical problems
is important, fundamental research is often undervalued because it is harder to justify to the taxpayer. It is our
collective responsibility as a society to ensure that the fundamental science that will underpin the technology of
the future is developed in a manner that avoids intellectual stagnation. This ultimately requires adequate funding.