Peter Feibelman is a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories.

We asked Peter...

1) What is the best thing about your job?

Participating in an intellectual enterprise whose outcomes may make the world a better place. I like resolving experimental mysteries, and enjoy risking a prediction.

2) What projects are you working on at the moment?

How water behaves in close interaction with solids; growth of graphene and nano-clusters on it, on metal surfaces; synthesis of ammonia under mild conditions.

3) What is the most amazing single thing you could tell me about your field of research?

That relatively simple ideas, (often, but not always) worked out with modern computers and algorithms, yield faithful accounts of a broad array of physical & chemical phenomena, sometimes even before they have been observed.

4) What is the biggest problem or challenge you face in your field?

Scientifically, a chemically accurate approximation to Density Functional Theory would make it possible to attribute poor results to incorrect physical thinking, without the worry that the "ab initio" methods used were just too crude. Operationally, science is becoming ever more bureaucratic. I would benefit so much more from colleagues who had more time to be in their labs, generating results.

5) What, from your area of research, would you like to know the answer to in your lifetime?

My current dream is to know how, in an economically viable way, to synthesize a liquid fuel (e.g., anhydrous ammonia) from carbon-free ingredients (water and nitrogen), and renewable (e.g. wind, or PV) electrical energy.

6) What makes a good scientist or engineer?

Clear, prescient vision, and an inner compass. Brainpower helps, but many people are bright. Learning to frame problems well, and developing a sense of when an issue is not just important but ripe for solution, are indispensable.

7) Who are your scientific heroes - dead or alive?

History's remarkable surface scientists, of course: Einstein (the photoelectric effect), Davisson (Low Energy Electron Diffraction), Haber (the ammonia synthesis catalyst), Langmuir (adsorption), Bardeen (the transistor), Young, Binnig, & Rohrer (scanning tunnelling microscopy), Kohn (Density Functional Theory), Ertl (catalysis at the atomic level). And not least, Pauling.

8) How do you think scientists can make their work accessible to the public?

Learning to write would be a good start. I enjoy reading Paul Davies.

9) What is your advice for anyone wanting to be a scientist or engineer?

At the risk of seeming self-serving ... I'd say, read my book, A PhD is not enough! Basic Books, 2nd Edition (January 11, 2011), ISBN-10: 0465022227.

10) Any last comments...?

Returning to the 1st question ... on a personal level, being a scientist means spending your life with some of the sharpest thinkers around. Making a good living and owning nice stuff are worth striving for, to a degree, but living the life of ideas is a wonder. The opportunity is not there for many.