Lab Philosophy

Mutual respect and trust between everyone is built with great transparency in our lab. We have regular group meetings to promote discussion about research progress, obstacles, and rethinking project direction, as well as literature seminars for discussion and knowledge transfer between group members in a friendly environment. Constructive criticism, an essence of scientific research, will be encouraged in all the meetings and everyday life. 

Mental health is an important contemporary issue. The work force at IoCAS is often composed of people of different genders, ethnic groups, and backgrounds. Therefore, it is of pivotal importance to create an inclusive environment that welcomes everyone. Dr. Hou has experience working in lots of different ethnic and cultural environment, ranging from places in Europe to middle east and eastern Asia. Through the experience it appears that cultural and regional differences can lead to misunderstanding, and sometimes even weaknesses that could be used in a bad way. In out lab, abusive behavior will be strongly prohibited. “Lubricative” events and measurement will be applied, for example, ensuring an English working environment, encouraging introductory cultural events and nonscientific seminars, and cultural get-together meals/parties. Dr. Hou will also keep an eye on each member’s mental health and provide or refer to (professional) help when necessary.  

Our laboratory is designed concerning several advanced safety aspects. To name a few, enlarging door window size, reducing blind spots, installing water sink at the door (so that one can easily wash one’s hand before leaving the room), and ensuring up-to-date hoods and ventilation types/placements etc. Dr. Hou will continuously remind coworkers of safety measurements and double check if everyone has taken (renewed) institutional safety training, such as wearing protective equipment, keeping cleanness in public and personal spaces, choosing less risky alternative chemicals/reagents, proper disposal of waste, and keeping an eye on avoiding spreading contaminants etc. 

Considering safety, equity, and efficiency, our lab has several evolutionary measurements: 

1. No water. Water usage in laboratories has safety concern of potential leakage. Especially, heating overnight reactions would require continuous water circling for condensing refluxing solvents. Unsupervised water usage will be avoided as much as it can be. Traditionally, reactions are often conducted at solvent boiling points for a better control of reaction temperature. Contemporary heating plates with temperature feedback control can easily maintain a temperature fluctuation of ±1 °C, meaning that heating solvent to boiling point is no longer needed. Therefore, air-cooled condenser will be sufficient for most of the cases and will be generally implemented. Also, solid state and microwave reactors will be introduced since they do not require a condenser and could also reduce reaction time and solvent usage.

2. No oil. Using oil as heat mediator has safety concern of potential overflood caused by thermal expansion and oil pot breakage. Furthermore, heating oil to high temperature can lead to its decomposition destroying glassware, and oily glassware is hard to clean so that precious materials would be contaminated. Oil heating bath will not be used in the laboratory. Instead, metal heating baths/beads will be used. They have the additional advantage of a more efficient heating.

3. No silica dust. Silica is used every day in synthetic organic chemistry laboratories because of the central role of liquid chromatography in sample purification. Silica is, unfortunately, a threat to people because it is used in the form of fine powder that easily floats in air and will be inhaled by people. It is especially the case when using an open column for flash chromatography. Usage of unpacked silica gel/dust will be reduced to the farthest extent by replacing hand-column chromatography with MPLC.

4. Centralized and automated. Column chromatography consumes most of the time for researchers working in synthetic organic chemistry laboratories. There are thus many advantages replacing hand-column with MPLC. Firstly, it can centralize and activate the lab space for material purification in laboratories and stimulate interactions between lab members. We have built our lab with "sharing everything" in our mind. Secondly, in view of the descending of men-power in chemistry field of Taiwan, the way more efficient automated MPLC compared to hand-column will be a project-saver and maintain our competitiveness with world-class research groups. Last but not the least, using MPLC avoids direct dealing with large-sized column packing, maintaining pressure by (a strong) hand, and handling massive amount of eluting solvent. All three require some physical strength. With the help of MPLC, we will create a more friendly environment for people of different genders, physical abilities, and ethnic groups.