[PD] [ot] [!nt] \n2+0\ kraft.durch.freude+++++

[integer at www.god-emil.dk]

 How would you describe yourself?

 Aging academic.

 What first inspired you to go into your field? 

 I did not want to become a schoolteacher. 

 How did you get your current job?

 I was head-hunted.

 Why do you think your boss picked you?

 No idea.

 What do you enjoy about your work?

 Variety; getting experiments to work and giving clear answers.

 Are there aspects you would change?

 Get rid of paperwork/emails.

 What was your first scientific experiment?

 Establishing a cell culture of white clover.

 What were the results?

 Good.

 How did the experience increase your maturity as a scientist?

 I learned how to bully the storekeeper to give me more glassware.

 What was your high-school science teacher like?

 Hopeless.

 Did that inspire you?

 No.

 What is your proudest achievement?

 Getting the chair.

 What was your most embarrassing moment?

 I am not going to tell you.

 What advice would you give a younger scientist?

 Be very pushy.

 In what areas do you think you need advice yourself?

 Assertiveness training.

 What would you be if not a scientist?

 A gardener.

 Why that occupation?

 I like growing plants.

 Which scientist from history would you like to meet?

 Russian plant geneticist and seed collector Nicolay Ivanovich Vavilov (1887-1943).

 What would you ask him?

 What happened to him.

 Which living scientist do you most admire?

 I think that I am too old and wise to answer this.

 What was the greatest scientific discovery the last century?

 The structure of DNA.

 Why that?

 Because of its impact on all biology.

 What will be the great discoveries of this century?

 Eternal youth.

 What research goals do scientists need to set themselves?

 I think that educating the "rest of the world" about science is more important at the moment.

 How has the Internet influenced what you do?

 It has provided access to sequence and protein structure databases, which have revolutionized our work.