Tibor Soós is from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest and has developed a cheap and practical method for the separation and recovery of trifluoromethyl substituted organocatalyst. 

What inspired you to become a scientist? 

As a kid, I was fascinated by nature and collected things such as rocks, bugs and butterflies. Then several books (especially the book Matter from R. E. Lapp) that I read made a profound impression on me and oriented my interest toward chemistry. Later, during my high school years, I became passionate about organic chemistry which even launched me to self-study textbooks from the university. 

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

In short, our goal was to strive for simplicity in catalyst recovery and recycling: Instead of using extremes in solvent polarity, and phase tag size and polarity, we tried to develop a "just right" methodology, geared towards the practical and cheap binary separation of an organocatalyst from organic compounds. Therefore, the outcome of our separation protocol can be viewed as an example of the renowned Goldilock's effect. 

Why did you choose ChemComm to publish your work? 

Our basic motivation was to reach the broadest possible audience. Therefore, I think that our results (e.g. the continuous U tube extractor) could be relevant for the wide-ranging readership of ChemComm. 

Where do you see your research heading next? 

We continue to broaden the field of application of this methodology for other relevant transformations. These efforts have already resulted in several surprising outcomes. Furthermore, I am highly interested in the development of novel reactions and catalysts. Therefore, we are working on the field of asymmetric bifunctional catalysis, developing novel, selective reactions using frustrated catalytic systems and exploiting the potential of SET reactions in organic chemistry. 

What do enjoy doing in your spare time? 

I love playing with my daughters and enjoy reading and listening to music. 

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

I am a bibliophile and I also love cooking and baking. So, I would run a bookstore with a small cafeteria. 

Interviewed by Mary Badcock