Roving research

摘要

Many scientists produce excellent results while remaining in the same position. But most of them achieve best results when travelling about. I am one of those. I obtained my PhD in Budapest, being supervised by Geza Zemplen, a carbohydrate chemist who used to work with Emil Fischer, regarded as the father of carbohydrate chemistry. I then decided never to work with sugars again: I thought that there were no longer any problems left to solve in carbohydrate chemistry. I then worked as a researcher in the pharmaceutical industry, both in Budapest and, after my emigration, in Melbourne. There I came across the biologically important chemical myoinositol, a compound then regarded as a member of the vitamin D family. Inositols are not sugars but are closely related to them, and their chemistry was then not yet well developed. I made a note that I should study their chemistry when I had a chance.