When the Lab participants met up again in April 2010, Andrei spoke of his transformed approach to his research, inspired, he believes, by the Lab. “I felt I had changed. When I came back to my lab I saw it as a different place.”

He had decided to review data he had previously left to one side. He was sure there was something important there and he trawled them again over Christmas, unearthing concrete evidence to explain the mystery of why graphene transforms to the ‘symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing carbon cages’ we know as fullerenes. This has now been published in Nature Chemistry, and Andrei says he has other papers in the pipeline.

On hearing Andrei’s experience we were impressed, and a little taken aback, to think that we had played a small part in such significant scientific discovery. Risk taking was an important stimulant as was the recognition that you have to be true to yourself and challenge the status quo.

Andrei described the STEM Fluency Lab as “full on” and yet he found space for quiet and creative stimulation. Asked about his burning questions, he thought for a minute and commented that we currently understand scientific research to be about control and reproducibility. “What happens when you stimulate and create the conditions for the process to be out of control?”

How did PAL find Andrei? We were looking for a talented, curious and open scientist, someone prepared to question their own practice and to challenge the context in which they work. So we asked people who come into contact with many scientists through their research and one of the EPSRC mentors recommended Andrei as a talented research scientist, generous and keen to be introduced to new ways of seeing his work.