Fabienne Dumoulin Interview
Bade Endil: When did you discover your interest in science?
Fabienne: I don't remember that. My mother tells me when I was little that I asked, "Why, why?" This may have come from my curious side. Afterwards, my curiosity increased as I read more science and not literature.
Nil Karamüftüoğlu: What is your reason for choosing to progress in chemistry?
Fabienne Dumoulin: Now, in the last year of high school, I really liked biology and that's why I started studying biology. Then I realized I wanted to study medicine. I was a little late to study medicine, so I moved onto biochemistry. I also switched from that field to organic chemistry.
Bade Endil: Can you tell us about your work?
Fabienne Dumoulin: We mostly do synthesis. I always tell my students the synthesis are as follows: Synthesis is like cooking. You take two - three ingredients, mix them, heat them for a while, and something new emerges. It's nice if it shows up the way you want. These are mostly the things we do. We really need to cook something ... Then we need to clean the material we synthesized. For this we apply some purification methods, which takes quite some time. After this process, we write down the results we found and publish them.
Nil Karamüftüoğlu: What are the difficulties faced by the women scientists involved in science?
Fabienne: I would say by their age, and a lot of people now realize that. For young or underage women many issues have already been solved, however it was much more difficult for those who are 10-20 years older than us. As you can see, there are not many Nobel Prize-winning female scientists, but I am very hopefull for the future. I'll show you, there's a magazine in our field that we're now publishing it’s filled entirely with articles written by women scientists.
Bade Endil: As a successful scientist, what advice would you give to students who want to advance in science?
Fabienne Dumoulin: Being curious, maybe that's the most important thing. Comprehensive thinking, working and not giving up are also important.
