The Varsity: Tell us a little about yourself.
Ted Sargent: The only thing that anyone needs to know about me is that I am but a spokesperson: I have the privilege of working with the most amazing team of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, research associates, and administrative support that one could possibly imagine. I have the pleasure of speaking about what they do and why they do it—and when they succeed, what it could mean.
TV: What first peaked your interest in nanotechnology?
TS: I got into the field through the tradition of compound semiconductor optoelectronics. This is the domain of making perfect crystals that result in highly efficient, pure lasers for fiber-optic communications.
What I loved about this field was the exploitation of intriguing physical phenomena, such as the quantum size effect, wherein physical dimensions are used to ‘tune’ the optimal properties of a medium towards useful, practical purposes. What I hated was the cost and complexity of building lasers, detectors, and energy converting devices within this materials strategy.
This is what stimulated an interest in ‘bottom-up nanotechnology, looking for cost-effective ways to build nanoscale materials using nature’s propensities for selforganization using chemistry. Fortunately, U of T is a world leader in the field of materials chemistry, an astonishingly fast-moving and dynamic field filled with highly creative people. My group is fortunate to build on material chemists’ astonishing results every day in our own research.
TV: Congratulations on the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology grant. Could you tell us about your current research projects?
TS: With pleasure. We have three projects we are working on.
The first is making highly sensitive detectors of light based on colloidal quantum dots, size-effect-tunable nano-material that can be simply spin-coated onto any substrate.
The second is building highly efficient solar cells that capture the sun’s full spectrum, including infrared, based on colloidal quantum dots.
Finally, working in collaboration with Professor Shana Kelley in the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Medicine, we are building chips that can detect disease, and at the earliest stages, based on gene expression profiles known to correlate with the early onset of certain types of cancer.
TV: In your critically-acclaimed book, The Dance of the Molecules, you address issues of human health, the environment, and communication. How will nanotechnology help us gain insight into these issues in the future?
TS: Nanotechnology offers a possible path to low-cost, large-area solar cells that could help us move past our dependence on fossil fuels. Also, it offers the potential for widespread, earlier diagnosis, and consequently treatment of a range of diseases. Through the advent of flexible electronics, it offers new ways of interfacing the human and the informatic—of sensing the world around us, rendering it in a peoplefriendly way.
TV: As one of the top researchers in your field, what are some of the upsides and downsides that you have encountered in your work?
TS: First, let me refute the premise of the question: there are thousands and thousands of highly accomplished researchers in nanotechnology around the world, and hundreds and hundreds of world-leading experts at U of T.
I have been incredibly fortunate in my career. U of T has, at all levels, enabled me to work concertedly towards realizing my dreams. It is a great place to work and an exceptional, internationally recognized brand. The people I work with are the best in the world at what they do. They could be anywhere, and they choose U of T.
U of T has an awesome research infrastructure: from materials analysis to fabrication to device characterization, the facilities are top-notch. And whenever we see any holes in our capabilities, there are people working hard to fill them through CFI, OIT, industry relationships, and other funding opportunities.
TV: What advice would you give to other aspiring researchers out there?
TS: Focus. In a worldwide competition to deliver on your research goals, the only way to have a hope of winning is to identify your strengths, reinforce them each day, and then strive with blinders on towards your goal. Every once in a while, smell the flowers, contemplate new directions, and pick one. But 99.9 per cent of the time, focus single-mindedly.
