Mark Tuckerman

What aspect of your research on novel liquid electrolytes for battery applications are you most excited about at the moment?
What excites me most about this line of research is its inherent interdisciplinarity, lying at the interface between physical and synthetic organic chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, quantum simulation, and AI.  It is only through this unique combination of disciplines and the experimental and computational expertise we have assembled that we were able to demonstrate enhanced electrolyte performance via a careful selection of molecules capable of supporting the unusual charge transport processes we are proposing.  Having recently established a proof of principle, we can now begin a deeper exploration of chemical space in order to discover other compounds that could lead to additional enhancements and establish universal underlying trends in wider classes of liquid organic electrolyte systems. 

What has been the happiest moment of your research career so far?
There are many happy moments in a research career, but those that I find the most fulfilling occur when a student or postdoc in my group, after their years of hard work and dedication to their projects, land their ideal position and begin the journey along their own career path, be it in academia, industry, science administration, or somewhere else. 

What are the ideal conditions for good research in the Natural Sciences?
I believe that an open and inclusive research environment, where scientists are free to explore their own lines of inquiry but where collaboration is also encouraged, produces the best ideas.  In my experience, this is especially true in an interdisciplinary setting, as major breakthroughs are more likely occur when different perspectives and skill sets are brought to bear on a difficult problem that may otherwise elude a single, more narrow approach. 

What insight or idea from your work would you like to see become widespread in society?
My work in molecular materials has made me appreciate how innovative, successful solutions to difficult problems originate from genuine out-of-the-box thinking – precisely the kind of thinking that is stimulated in the type of interdisciplinary research environment I maintain in my group.  This is certainly how we lit upon the current research direction of our battery electrolyte project, as one example, and is how we have devised novel approaches for predicting molecular crystal structures as another, and I’m excited about the potential impact of these specific ideas within my field.  There should be little doubt that the same kind of creative problem solving and open-mindedness to different approaches and perspectives are also needed to tackle the complex, intricate problems that challenge all aspects of human existence. 

Looking to the future, how will your subject area have evolved by 2050?
The problems of designing and modeling electrochemical energy storage devices, such as batteries and fuel cells, involve capturing and optimizing processes occurring on multiple and wide-ranging time and length scales, from the making and breaking of individual chemical bonds to changes in the global morphology, solvent distribution, and chemical stability, all spanning at least fifteen orders of magnitude in time.   Describing phenomena across such a hierarchy of time and length scales remains a significant hurdle, and I expect new strategies to solve this problem will be devised over the next few decades.  I am convinced that AI will play a major role in such strategies, from compound design to upscaling of knowledge acquired at lower length and time scales to inform on phenomena at the larger length and longer time scales.  And if I may dream a bit, perhaps even quantum computing will have a role to play in the creation of new and more efficient computational frameworks.

What would you be today if you hadn’t become a researcher?
I have a great passion for music, which, at present, I can only pursue as a hobby.  If I hadn’t become a researcher, I expect I would have followed some sort of career path in music, possibly as an actual musician (I play piano…. or used to, anyway) or in some other capacity.  In the end, however, I have no regrets about choosing a scientific career over one in music and am happy that I can enjoy the latter merely as an enthusiast.
 

Who is your scientific hero/heroine?
I would have to go with Richard Feynman, and not just because the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics is useful in everything from physical chemistry to quantum field theory and figures prominently in our battery electrolytes project.  I find the pure joy Feynman derived from doing physics to be infectious.  Feynman was a brilliant lecturer as well as a brilliant scientist, and his passion for science and communicating science to students comes through in his lectures (see https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/flptapes.html for the archived recordings).  Indeed, Feynman has inspired and continues, posthumously, to inspire generations of young theoreticians.

Is there anything in/about Berlin that you can’t find anywhere else when it comes to your research?
As a New Yorker, this is a difficult question to answer.  I can definitively say that the research environment Berlin offers is every bit as stimulating as that available in New York.  This is also true of the cultural life in Berlin, which I am enjoying as much as what I typically do in New York!