Martin Klußmann, of the Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, heads a research group whose primary interests lie in oxidative coupling reactions and their application in the synthesis of complex products. 

 What inspired you to become a scientist? 

My curiosity, the drive to discover new things and the vision to help solve our environmental problems by studying a science that is connected with it, and a chemistry teacher who simply enjoyed blowing things up! 

 What was your motivation behind the work described in your ChemComm article? 

The feeling that it should be possible to connect certain substrates like amines and ketones by simply removing two hydrogen atoms. The prospect of making a natural product like hygrine in a single step provided an extra driving force for us. 

 Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work? 

Being a widely read platform for high-quality short communications of general interest made it ideal for our work. 

 Where do you see your research heading next? 

We are very interested in the mechanisms of oxidative coupling reactions. We will investigate them in more detail in the near future and hope that the results will help us to improve this intriguing class of reactions. 

 What do you enjoy doing in your spare time? 

Meeting my friends and family, cooking, playing complex board games. 

 If you could not be a scientist, but could be anything else, what would you be? 

An explorer in an undiscovered land.