Supawan Tantayanon: “I designed my own portable laboratory” | opinion

Supawan Tantayanon is Professor of Chemistry at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. In addition to her research in a number of applied chemistry fields, she pioneered the application of small-scale chemistry techniques in Thailand. Last year, she helped set up the first green chemistry and sustainability program in Southeast Asia.

In the early years of my career, I had to be in the lab all day, day by day, teaching. At that time, the world wasn’t very focused on security. In 1982 I returned to Thailand from the US and it was the same. We had hoods but not the usual ones because it’s an old building and stuff like that. So I felt like the situation was really bad. We try to avoid anything happening to the students, but we still had the same type of labs that we had four decades ago.

I felt like I wanted to do something like a screening of all the experiments replacing the chemicals with safer ones or maybe changing the experiment but still teaching the same thing. I applied for a scholarship from the Thailand Research Fund but they said “You have to do it with other universities”. So ok! We have worked with seven universities.

I was inspired to do small scale chemistry by Stephen Thompson at Colorado State University. He showed me the experiment of gaseous diffusion between an ammonia solution and hydrochloric acid. That’s amazing in a petri dish, it’s a very small space but you see movement. You will see a stream of ammonium chloride continuously falling from the lid to the bottom of the petri dish. That was really the first thing that made me go for the small scale.

I really want to get more students to learn science

I designed my own portable organic lab. Everyone said that because there is no one in Thailand and because I am the one who wants to do it, I have to be responsible for the design of the labware. OK, I did that. I wanted it to be as cheap as possible. And it should also be something that is comfortable and can be handled properly. I did a lot of prototypes before I got to what I decided to do. It took about two years including testing and adjustments and everything was made in Thailand.

Many schools cannot afford labs. And they leave out all these experiments – that’s sad! But with the small kit, you can still learn reactions, you can see the change, you can discuss, and you can teach students the right concept. I am very happy about it. I really want to get more students to learn science.

We have workshops for teachers to learn new techniques. then I ask them to design their own experiment using simple, local materials and we hold a competition. I do the same in other Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] Countries. The teachers who make the finals in each country can go to the Paccon conference (organized by the Chemical Society of Thailand) and we cite them as outstanding teachers. About 10 teachers from each country come to the conference. And then they talk to each other – even if there is a language barrier, but the language of chemistry is not a barrier. And they are friends. So that motivates her.

We offer a weekend program for professionals. They’re doing a research project, which has to be something they can do at their place of work. Some projects really work, like a project to print on polyethylene packaging. My student found a research paper that suggested polypropylene printing is better than polyethylene printing because of the structure. Ah, that’s interesting! Because the machine the company has can do co-injection. But they don’t have small instruments to play with. You can imagine with how many tons of material they have to research. My student said, OK, we’ll wait for a customer order to come in. And after the job was done, he put on a few more pounds with the copolymer. And it worked! I’m happy. And the company was happy too. They sent a sample to the complaining customer because the print quality was much better than the previous ones!

When I cook, I also sing

I like cooking. People are amazed how I cook. When I cook, I cook a lot, then divide it into portions and freeze it. That way, every night when I get home, I have my meals served quickly. I shop at the market every few weeks, clean, cut and pack them in portions ready for the kitchen. I get one out of the freezer in the morning and put it in the pot with the copper bottom. In the evening it is thawed and ready to cook.

I also like to sing pop songs English songs more than Thai songs. I like the Bee Gees – for listening; I can’t sing Bee Gees songs. I like the song If we stick together by Diana Ross, and also a point in time by Whitney Houston. When I cook, I also sing. When I work, I also listen to music.

Every year I take a family trip abroad. Except for the last two years because of Covid-19. That’s the only way everyone can come together. I’m the one who plans everything. My son, he is 40 years old now, he asked if he could skip a year. I said no you can’t. Even if you get married, you must bring your wife with you.