My name is Guillaume Delaittre (phonetically [gijom dəәlɛtr], for the non- French speakers). On the 1 st of March 2013 I took up a position of Junior Group Leader at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. My research will focus on nanostructured polymeric materials for biotechnological and biomedical applications. I have received funding from the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to create my position, hire PhD students and postdocs, and purchase scientific equipment, chemicals, and consumables. I am both quite excited and slightly anxious at the same time, I must admit. This is my first position as a fully independent researcher. I was born in 1979 and grew up in a small town not far from the Channel Sea in France (Friville- Escarbotin). I lived there until I had to move for my University studies. I had always been a very good student, without encountering any real difficulty. In the course of summer 1997 I was selected to enter a Classe préparatoire intégrée in ENSCL (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille), a system parallel to the classic University curriculum in France with the aim to recruit and train the best students to become Ingénieurs (a term that is often misleading for foreigners since it does not relate to pure engineering at all). I appeared to me later that there are excellent students in both systems. Anyway, I failed after the first year. I am still not sure what the problem was: suddenly living alone, overcoming shyness, or my intrinsic abilities? One thing is clear: I realized that it is difficult to succeed without working hard. I will always remember my Maths teacher there, Mr Marc Michaux, when he addressed my class in the last days: "For those of you who did not pass: please do not give up, I know you are also able to succeed, probably in a different way.". Now I realize that failing there was an important step for me in the shaping of my personality and my future. Subsequently I enrolled in the "normal" system, the University, and obtained a DEUG (diplôme d'études universitaires générales former two- year diploma) in Sciences of Matter with rather good grades, which allowed me to re- integrate the "elite" Ingénieur system. Although I could not gain acceptance into the top schools my application was often returned without a word I was selected by two institutions. I chose the Institut de Science et Technologie of the University Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris on the advice of my cousin (Christophe Champion, now a Professor of Physics in Bordeaux) who had just completed his PhD in this University: "At the UPMC you will have the chance to come across great Professors!". And it is indeed what happened. I was following the three-
year Materials Science specialty of the school and in my second year Polymer Science was taught. My Polymer Chemistry professor was Bernadette Charleux. Those who know Bernadette will easily understand why I then asked her to do my second- year internship under her supervision. My direct supervisor for this internship was a PhD student, Fabien Rousset. He was the craziest guy in the department. He probably still is the craziest guy I have ever met in a lab. I really loved this time, working on grafting polyoxazolines from poly(styrene- co- (meth)acrylate) backbones. It really gave me the wish to pursue my studies beyond applied sciences, which is the area that French Ingénieurs are usually working in, as opposed to fundamental research. In addition, the double title of Ingénieur and Doctor in France is often regarded as the best passport to a job in an industrial research and development setting. That means that by pursuing my studies towards a Doctorate I was leaving all doors open. The team of Bernadette Charleux in September 2007 After I completed my degree of Ingénieur with a six- month traineeship as junior project leader at Cray Valley and although I am not sure I did so well during my first internship in her lab, Bernadette recruited me for my DEA (diplôme d'études approfondies, forerunner of the Master degree in France). My topic concerned the implementation of nitroxide- mediated polymerization in emulsion through a straightforward batch ab initio process; this had never been achieved employing any activation deactivation polymerization method at the time. My direct supervisors were Julien Nicolas who anyone familiar with the Polymer Chemistry blog probably knows and Cathy Lefay, both PhD students at the time and academics now. Their passion, patience, and rigor greatly helped me to succeed in my project. Having worked really hard on my exams to obtain a fellowship, I was then able to continue with Bernadette and Maud Save (at IPREM, in Pau, France since 2007) on the same topic for my PhD. During my doctoral time many things did not work as they should have and it was often very frustrating but there was no way I was going to stop right in the middle of it. During that period I met a few important people (Lisa Houillot, now in BASF, and Jutta Rieger, CNRS researcher) who
offered me a lot of moral support. I realized the importance of regularly following the literature, especially as a way to gain inspiration. The numerous scientific discussions with Bernadette and Maud also taught me a great deal about how to properly conduct a study, critically evaluate results, and extract the very substance of it. I will always remember Bernadette telling me: "You have to learn to do things not always "last- minute" style!". I am still working on it. Towards the end of my PhD it was clear that I wanted to become an academic. I liked the freedom that this field offers, as well as the possibility to create (at least in chemistry) something new, even if I sometimes wonder whether it is still possible! Maybe I started to become a little more confident in my abilities since the results of my thesis were altogether making some kind of sense. I probably initially underestimated them but I now think it was for my own good. I still keep this in mind: be always very critical with your results. For my postdoc I wanted to work on the combination of polymers and biomolecules, certainly due to the rise of interest in this field. I probably sent about 40 unsolicited applications to researchers who seemed to match my interests within Europe and Australia. Finally three labs had positions available with funding provided I preferred these ones compared with those in which I had to apply for funding and were willing to hire me as a postdoc. In February 2008 I moved to Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) in the group of Roeland Nolte, co- advised by Jeroen Cornelissen (now in Twente, the Netherlands). This was an immense change for me, although one might think that the Netherlands and France are not so different. Everything was new: I was abroad, had to exchange in English all the time (the first two months were exhausting for that reason), the group was much bigger and more international, and everyone (even PhD students) worked quite autonomously. This last aspect was certainly very interesting. There I learnt to work with much less supervision and to be helped or to help without expecting anything in return. I made great friends (literally) and for sure some future collaborators. Various types of chemistry were studied in the Cluster of Molecular Chemistry in Nijmegen: pure organic, macrocyclic, supramolecular, and macromolecular chemistries and even chemical biology. Being there also helped me acquire a broader view of materials science. I was there for 19 months and, when my time was up, for personal reasons wanted to come to Germany, specifically in the area of the BW- HE- RP Dreiländereck.
Graphical abstract of Guillaume's latest Polymer Chemistry paper (DOI: 10.1039/C2PY20084H) I will stay honest here since I want to show that luck (or destiny, however you want to call it) is really a part of the game. While I was browsing the websites of upcoming conferences on a day of April/May 2008 I saw the name of Christopher Barner- Kowollik as an invited speaker with a strange affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. After some searching (internet is a good friend) I found out that he was moving from Sydney to Karlsruhe on the 1 st of July 2008 and that Karlsruhe was very close to the BW- HE- RP Dreiländereck. On that same day I prepared an email very honest, giving the reasons why I was scientifically interested in Chris' group but also why it geographically worked out for me and only saved it. On the 1 st of July 2008 I hit the "Send" button to make sure that Chris would remember me: an application for a postdoc on his very first day as a Full Professor in Germany! He replied in the next hour by "Yes, I'm interested. I know Bernadette very well!". LUCK? Happy coincidence. Chris was however just setting up in Karlsruhe and did not have the money to hire me but there was some time ahead to plan until the end of my first postdoc (a year!). For the first time in my life I had to apply for money, but of course we needed some ideas for that. Coincidentally Chris just got to know Martin Bastmeyer, a cell biologist whose team was developing inorganic organic polymeric microscaffolds for cell behavior studies. He wanted to gain control over the surface chemistry of these structures. I drove to Karlsruhe, met Chris for the first time in person (after talking twice on the phone) and went directly to meet Martin to discuss the project from scratch. I remember that I was rather nervous and considered it as a kind of test of my scientific abilities and creativity. Fortunately I came up with a few interesting ideas myself, which combined with Chris' and Martin's refinement, helped me obtain an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship for two years. On the exact same day I was granted the Humboldt fellowship I became aware that I also received a prize for my PhD thesis I felt like a very lucky man on that day!
A bird's eye view of the center of Karlsruhe, with its castle on the right and its fan- shaped urban plan After a break of a few months partly spent to learn German (one of the numerous advantages of being a Humboldt fellow) I started on the 3rd of June 2010 in Karlsruhe. The team was in the process of expansion at the time and another Humboldt fellow had recently started: Dr James Blinco, now a lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. For me, James is the kind of guy who pushes you to become better: he has always a smart (or funny) comment or suggestion to make. He was from the beginning a great source of motivation in addition to the pure scientific quest for discoveries. With Chris Barner- Kowollik, I learnt and am still learning how to focus on the core of projects. Not that my other supervisors/advisors did not teach me this but he pushes it to another level. This reminds me of the philosophy of Georges Whitesides: "Papers are a central part of research. If your research does not generate papers, it might just as well not have been done.". At the KIT my role evolved since, for some projects, I became unofficially in charge of PhD students. It is not always easy to be a "sub- boss", especially when dealing with very self- confident students, but this also teaches you how to handle different situations. I imagine that with the official "title" of group leader it will become easier to make students accept my guidance.
The MacroBEGE 2012 executive committee. From left to right: Guillaume Delaittre, Filip Du Prez, Christopher Barner- Kowollik, Pieter Espeel. How did I finally come to this position? On a late afternoon of November 2010 I was unlocking my bike to go home when Chris was exiting the building and asked me: "What would you think about staying here and starting your own group?". I was not expecting this at all I had been here for a few months, had no concrete scientific results yet, and had not thought of this as an option at all! Chris had the idea of creating a sort of sub- group (with no precise idea) and thought that of his then- current postdocs I was likely to be the most inclined to do that since all the others had already secured positions or upcoming fellowships. LUCK? Maybe. There was however no money (again!) and no space. Chris took care of finding the latter and I had a few scientific ideas in mind that could attract the former. I now had to apply for more important funding than just a postdoc position: money for a full group over three to five years. Thus I searched what the possibilities were and found that in Germany and Europe there are numerous. I invested a lot of time in writing proposals and planning budgets. I failed many times, sometimes very close. In the end, however, I obtained funding from the BMBF for five years. Indeed, on the advice of my future co- host, Uwe Strähle (neurobiologist and co- director of the Institute of Toxicology and Genetics at the KIT) who was interested in having me in his institute, I applied for a research prize in the frame of Biotechnologie 2020+, a national research programme. I was selected for the final round with three other applicants but finally did not win the prize. I sensed that maybe my project was a bit too crazy in the eyes of the decision panel. But a few days later I was contacted and told that my project had seduced the committee particularly the transdisciplinary character of the proposed research and that they would like to somehow fund my ideas: "Please contact Jürgen Hubbuch at the KIT.". Jürgen was one of the two principal coordinators of a large grant application involving several research centers and researchers, also in the frame of Biotechnologie 2020+. Coincidentally I had met him just a few weeks
before, seeking advice on my presentation for the research prize final LUCK? Surely. Jürgen was very open and accepted to include me: actually, since all the other co- applicants were already professors and had their own group, I was becoming the greatest part of the proposal budget since I needed funding for everything! Finally, after evaluation and many discussions, the funding was granted in January 2013: 27 months after Chris' initial proposition: Patience is another required quality in academic research. During this long process, my former supervisors helped me with their kind recommendations, young group leaders I did not know provided me with grant proposal examples, and Chris, Uwe, and Jürgen continuously showed me great support and reassurance. I also presented my project to several researchers of the KIT who gave me advice and agreed to collaborate with me: this was undoubtedly instrumental to the successful awarding of funds. Now, when I think about how I personally came to this point, I must say that I became a real fan of the field I chose to work in. Since my PhD, when I am not physically at work, I very often think about the current and possible future projects: my favorite locations for finding or developing ideas are the shower and my car when I am driving alone on the highway (a bit dangerous though!). Obviously there are usually too many ideas to be all worked on. I usually try to write everything, save it, and come back to it several weeks later. I can then discard what has actually not much interest or novelty. Most of these ideas still exist only on the paper since there has always been enough to do during my PhD and postdoctoral positions. I hope I will be able to materialize some of these ideas with my future co- workers and students. For sure I will be reasonably satisfied if I could just contribute a little to a certain field of research, as all my previous supervisors have done. Most importantly I want to be a happy researcher managing a happy team! To conclude, I know I often mentioned luck since I strongly think that being at the right place at the right time is important but of course a few qualities are certainly necessary. I actually gave this essay to read to a few of my friends (thanks!) and they all basically told me: "Come on, we know you were not just lucky! You worked really hard for that! The sleepless nights, the twelve- hours- a- day at the fumehood you went for it!" At least, if I had to advice younger researchers who want to become
academics which was one of the purposes of this essay I would say: be curious, patient, and respectful of other researchers. I would like to finish with a quote of a professor of Polymer Chemistry who, not so long ago at a conference in Obernai, told me with his Southern French accent: "On est chercheur à l'université, on est libre on n'a pas à se plaindre!". I AGREE.