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Hanno Erythropel completed his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2016. His thesis focused on designing, synthesizing and testing greener plasticizers. Today, he is an associate research scientist at Yale University, working on various Green Chemistry projects such as determining e-cigarette safety or reducing the environmental burden of pharmaceuticals.

Q: What do you value most about your time in the PhD?聽

From a scientific standpoint, I loved the interdisciplinary nature of my project which led me to learn a lot of new things. I came with a chemistry background but did my PhD in chemical engineering and also learned a lot about materials engineering. In addition, I was testing the biodegradability of the compounds I聽 synthesized and tested, which taps into biology. This is what I mean by the highly interdisciplinary nature of my thesis. In the end, I think I can say that felt pretty comfortable about mastering the techniques I acquired.

The other side was moving to Montreal. I had lived abroad before, but never in such a big city, nor a city that was so bilingual. It was pretty cool. I would speak French at home at night and English during the day. I always joke that my French is rather colloquial as I learned it mainly during social interactions, while my English is rather professional as I used it mainly during work hours.

蚕:听What were the biggest challenges for you throughout your PhD and what helped you to overcome them?聽

I think part of what was challenging was learning to write scientifically, because it鈥檚 something that I simply hadn鈥檛 mastered before. But I must say, I had really good mentorship from my supervisors who spent quite some time going over manuscripts, making edits鈥攏ot just writing a few comments left and right, but really going through and editing so I could see what had been changed and get used to some of those standard ways of saying certain things. I was mentored by Profs. David Cooper, Milan Maric, Richard Leask, and Jim Nicell over the course of my studies at 看片视频.

In addition, motivation ultimately is a factor for many people as well, and it certainly has been for me, too. It actually ties in with the writing part, too. We went ahead and published something during my PhD relatively early on, so that was a motivator. It was nice to see something substantial coming out. An outsider might say 鈥渨hether or not there鈥檚 a publication, who cares?鈥� but it鈥檚 nice to have. Your name is on it and it鈥檚 official that you can actually do this thing. So it was a good motivational help.聽聽

Q: You mentioned your supervisors helped a lot with writing. What other roles did your supervisors play during your PhD?聽

They certainly helped not only with writing, but with science in general. How do you phrase research questions? How do you tackle them and how do you analyze data? They helped with a lot of those basic research skills.聽

Also, coming from Germany, I was used to interactions with professors being very formal: you would make an appointment with a secretary, show up on time and knock on the door, etc. In contrast, one of my first interactions at 看片视频鈥攚hen I started, I think one of the first days鈥攚as both of my supervisors saying聽 鈥渨hy don鈥檛 we go over to Thompson house and have a beer and discuss your project?鈥� I wasn鈥檛 used to that. Although it was professional, there was also a personal relationship, so if there were issues, we could discuss those too. For someone coming from a foreign country to Canada, it can be challenging, so that was certainly part of the help they provided.

I would also like to mention that while my supervisors naturally played a big role for me, so did the colleagues I was privileged to work with. With the 看片视频 student body being as diverse as it is, I really enjoyed getting to know many people with all kinds of backgrounds and knowledge. That includes working directly with my fellow lab colleagues as well as the activities we ran through the grad student society in Chemical Engineering as well as university-wide.聽聽

蚕:听Did you have the chance聽to mentor students yourself during your PhD?聽聽

Basically every summer I got to supervise at least one undergraduate intern. That was another good thing I learned from my supervisors, actually. We would always make sure that interns had a project for themselves that could stand on its own. Of course, it would be related to some of the work I was doing, but it was a little independent project. It feels nicer when you have a clear question and outcome versus 鈥淚鈥檓 just going to help somebody for two months in the lab.鈥�

I think most of my summer students got to co-author at least one manuscript because they did play a role in getting that work done. So that was a nice outcome for them not only for having their name on something but also because it鈥檚 important for their future career.聽

Q:聽What kind of financial support did you receive during your PhD?聽

I had a MEDA (看片视频 Engineering Doctoral Award) so I got a stipend and my tuition paid for. That was nice鈥攐f course鈥� although, if I had done my PhD in Germany, I would have also been paid and I wouldn鈥檛 have had to pay tuition. So this was nice although I must say that I would not have done a PhD at 看片视频 if I hadn鈥檛 received a tuition waiver and a stipend. During my second year, I was also so fortunate to get an FRQNT merit scholarship for foreign students. That was a nice recognition of my work and also meant getting a little more pay than with the MEDA.聽

Q: Are there connections between the work you鈥檙e doing now and what did in your PhD?聽

The plasticizer work I did at 看片视频 was a rather specific application of green chemistry principles to one class of products. I was able to expand upon that here, thinking more broadly about green chemistry and green engineering. For example, together with a bigger team, we wrote聽聽on the achievements in the field 20 years after the first book on green chemistry came out. Montrealers will notice the nod to the city by looking at the total number of references in that article: 514. But then, of course, I also work on more specific projects here at Yale.聽

For example, I鈥檝e been working on the question of what kinds of ingredients are commonly used in e-cigarettes, and how these may interact with one another. Spoiler alert:聽. When I came here, they had built a custom 鈥渧aping-machine鈥� that could model someone vaping, and then collect the vapour that was generated. We can compare what鈥檚 in the liquid and what鈥檚 in the aerosol and compare the two. That鈥檚 obviously important鈥攜ou can say all you want about what happens inside the liquid, but you also need to prove that it reaches the user. That work was then used to inform toxicology and physiological studies on these compounds and products at large.聽

Q: Is there anything about your PhD experience that I did not ask you about that you would like to share for this project? Any cool stories?

There is one really cool thing that happened. At FRQNT they are highlighting scientific publications from Quebec researchers once a month in three different fields (鈥渏eune chercheur 茅toile鈥�), to which I submitted one of my papers and聽 won a prize. Part of the prize was a feature in the聽 scientific magazine for kids called 鈥楥urium鈥�. In every issue they would do a little story on the person who won that prize. Not only did they do a little interview, but they had a professional make聽a little comic out of my research! They did a really good job and I love this comic and still use it in presentations to date.聽

Q: One final question. If you go back to your younger self, is there something you wish you knew before starting your PhD?聽

Well, for the thesis, of course, I had to write a big literature review. When writing that, I was thinking 鈥渙h my God, the things I鈥檓 writing in here鈥︹�� If I had known those things before I started the PhD, I would have done a few things differently. I guess that鈥檚 something that many people experience, I would assume, and that鈥檚 OK. I did what I could at the time and now I know more. But if I can give any advice to new PhD students: you will really benefit from a thorough literature review early on. And when I say thorough, I mean it: I actually went back to some articles from the 1950s that were only published in German (this is where my mother tongue came in handy).聽

Other than that, I really enjoyed my time in Montreal. I don鈥檛 think there are many better places to do a PhD. I would do that the same again, for sure.聽