By Brenden Nel

Got a passion for science? Well, working as a chemist may be for you. While it may be Greek to the rest of us, chemists play an important role in developing vaccines and medicines and research a number of the medicines and compounds that make our every day life a lot more liveable. The most prominent research facility is the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, otherwise known as the CSIR and Brenden Nel found synthetic organic chemist Moira Bode who explained her passion for the science lab.

The basics

A Chemist has many titles, but it can entail either a research or active position and requires some study. The commencement salary for a research position where the incumbent has a PhD degree, is in the region of R200 000 per annum.

Job description

While it may sound very complicated, a synthetic organic chemist makes complex organic molecules from simple starting materials. For example, most drugs that we buy from the pharmacy are organic molecules that would  have been made by a synthetic organic chemist. The chemist starts with a target molecule (the compound they want to make) and a synthesis must be developed to make that compound from readily available starting materials. The first step will be to design a synthetic sequence on paper that, according to the chemist`s knowledge, should work. This knowledge is based on the chemist`s own experience of similar reactions done in the past or reactions that have been performed by other chemists and published in a research journal. The next stage is to actually test  the reactions in the laboratory one at a time to see if they work. In many cases this will be the first time that specific reaction has ever been done and part of the work is confirming that the compound that has been made in that reaction is the correct and desired compound. This needs to be performed for each step in the synthetic sequence until finally the desired compound is made. If a reaction doesn`t work, then alternatives must be tried until one that does work is found.

For example, in my work at the CSIR, one of the projects I am working on involves the synthesis of known antiretroviral compounds (ARVs) such as AZT and stavudine. We are trying to make these compounds by using a more cost-efficient route so that they can be produced cheaper. In this way more people could receive antiretroviral treatment with

Another of my projects involves designing and making completely new compounds that will possibly be protease inhibitors, also active against HIV.

Pros and cons of the job

The pro is easy, as my job is very interesting and every day brings something new. It is not repetitive and requires that new skills be developed on an ongoing basis. The cons are that it can be extremely frustrating at times if reactions don`t work and finding funding for research work is often difficult and time-consuming.

Required studies or experience

The starting point for this career is a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Chemistry (BSc, 3 years) followed by an honours degree (BSc Hons, 1 year). For a research career at least a Master`s degree in Science must also be completed (MSc, usually 2 years) and preferably a PhD in organic chemistry (usually 3-4 years). Otherwise, an obvious requirement is a deep interest in science and discovery.

Personality types

In order to do this type of work a person must love science and must thrive on learning new things. They must also not be the kind of person to give up easily!

An average day

Most days will start with planning the synthetic reaction that is to be done on that day. This will involve working out how much of everything one will need and finding the required glassware and preparing the solvents that are going to be needed. Once all this is done, the reaction can be started and will often need to be watched to make sure it remains at the correct temperature required for that reaction and to make sure that nothing goes wrong. Once the reaction is complete, then something called “work-up” is done, where the products and any remaining starting material are recovered from the reaction mixture. At this point, purification of the product is carried out and this is followed by something called NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) analysis to find out what the structure of your product is. If the right product has been made then you celebrate, if not, it is back to the  drawing-board.

Best thing about the job

There is always something new going on and the job doesn`t involve routine work.

Worst thing about the job

One of the most difficult aspects is trying to secure funding for the research and I would regard this as the worst thing about the job.