Tej Salil Choski

The Clean Energy Synergy and Imposter Syndrome

Assistant Professor Tej Salil Choski at NTU School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CCEB) is someone who not only believes deeply in the future of clean energy, but is also passionate about educating and inspiring students to reach their fullest potential.

Studying Abroad

Prof Tej is no stranger to the international limelight of attending some of the best schools, completing his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, before being accepted into the prestigious Chemical Engineering PhD program at Purdue University and even completing his post-doctoral years at Standford University's Center for Interface Science (SUNCAT), specialising in catalytic processes.

He relishes his time in India, where he gained valuable industry and research experience, helping him discover his love for teaching and fundamental research. Coming from a University that focuses largely in translational research with strong industry ties, his education journey in the United States broadened his viewpoints on the potential that chemical engineer has to change the world. Watching how his fellow colleagues who were from the same department work on solar cells, reaction engineering to even pharmaceutics was also one of the reasons why he decided to further his academic career in Singapore due to the immense potential to collaborate and resources to develop better clean energy solutions.

The Future of Clean Energy

Globally, there has been much talk about climate change and reducing carbon emissions, with Singapore also aiming to have net zero carbon emissions by 2050. As most industrialisation practices still release carbon emissions, Prof Tej predicts there would be a 30% growth on a yearly basis as industries switch to cleaner manufacturing processes.

There are many start-ups engaging to conduct their proof of concept, from capturing CO2 in the air to convert into liquid fuel to splitting water with solar and wind energy to obtain hydrogen as a fuel source. However, the main challenges in this innovative industry is finding investors who are willing to take the risk to raise capital as building these plants are very costly and scaling-up may pose its own difficulties.

Diverse Team, Creative Solutions

During his PhD and post-doctoral years, he realised the importance of having a multidisciplinary team as not only will it allow experts of different fields to solve the common problem, but it also inspires new avenues through the cross-pollination of ideas. His team, consisting of researchers majoring in biotechnology, physics, chemistry, chemical engineering and computer science from 8 different countries are currently delving into three main directions of (1) converting CO2 into various chemicals, (2) generation and usage of green energy and (3) converting waste to values.

When asked about how he felt as a Professor, he mentioned how when his role shifted from a technical role to one that is more advisorial, he faced many difficulties as his prior research experiences did not prepare him to take on such a managerial role and consistently improves with feedback received from his team. He also tries to implement what his previous supervisors did for him and ensures he has weekly meetings with each of his lab members to ensure they are on track with their projects and career goals, while also tending to his teaching duties, writing grants to obtain funding, organising conferences and reviewing journals. With so many shoes to fill, Prof Tej notes how he has to have good time management skills and appropriately prioritise his responsibilities, but one thing he ensures he does his keeping up his reading habits.

The Habit of Reading

With the rise of the internet increasing the connectivity between scientists, millions of scientific papers and thousands of research journals are published each year, which more than often can lead to an information overload if one tries to keep up with all these new discoveries. Nevertheless, Prof Tej chooses his articles by first looking at certain classic journals that most chemical engineers would read, before reading into more multi-disciplinary journals that are on catalysis but from other disciplines such as material science and physical chemistry.

He tries to keep track of at least 20-30 journals, having his alerts on when a new paper gets published, though he amusingly remarks that it is difficult to do and he often simply reads the abstract unless it was interesting to him. In his own words, he believes that, "when one reads a paper, you are giving your time to the person, so how much time do you want to give to them? If your objective is to understand the purpose, can you summarise it in 2-3 lines?"

At the same time, he also notes that just focusing on scientific materials is not enough, and it is equally important to keep yourself updated with materials that expand your worldview such as The Economist or the McKinsey Reports which not only inspires him on his research directions but also understand how his work on catalysis could impact the world.

Dealing with Imposter Syndrome

Despite all his accomplishments where he obtained a 3.94/4.00 GPA during his PhD program at Purdue, Prof Tej admits that from time to time, he struggles with imposter syndrome, especially during his time at Standford. Wondering how to navigate this, he attended a workshop where he discovered that imposter syndrome amongst researchers happens more often than one thinks. Thoughts from "where do I stand" or if a research is "good enough" or if a discover has "made a big enough impact" haunts many frequently. This typically stems from the fact that as a researcher, you view the same material every day with the same perspectives, but it sometimes just takes an outsider to make you realise how important your work is.

Through these experiences, he acknowledges that a feeling is hard to get rid of, but it is all right to just be actively aware and realise that it's not possible to solve all your problems at once. At the same time, to recognise all of your contributions thus far and understand that even if those contributions are smaller, it will be part of a bigger solution in the future.

He relates this to a golf ball analogy: "A golf ball has hundreds of dimples. Each paper that we publish is adding a new dimple into the golf ball and overtime, perhaps in 10-15 years, you can see the impact that these new dimples that you have made." It may be difficult to know how big your impact might be in the short-term and it is vital that you take on a long-term perspective on the impact you will make. Even so, your paper might serve as an inspiration to another researcher and its is perfectly acceptable to gain a sense of fulfilment from these many small contributions and how far you have come. He comments how when he was an undergraduate, he wouldn't have believed that he would have such a fruitful journey in some of the most prestigious schools and given the opportunity to lead his own research team.

When asked who his sources of inspiration are, he feels that his family, parents and spouse were some of his biggest inspiration to bring him where he is today. Within the scientific world, he mentions his PhD supervisors (Jeffrey Greeley) and his team continue to inspire him to continue his research discoveries. He is consistently amazed at how his post-doctoral and undergraduate students tackle problems so creatively and continues to learn from them.

Big Picture Mindsets

Nonetheless, he is also unwavering in his "big picture mindset" and emphasises the importance of this as a student or a researcher. When learning new materials in lectures, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the complexity and intricacies of what you have learnt. Thus, he recommends it is important to understand how these seemingly random subjects relate to one another and try to contextualise them in the grander scheme of things. Perhaps even on a course level, how does your course fit into the broader vision of an engineer? Do you want to provide better solutions to a problem you feel is important to you or it could be as simple as wanting to help your community.

Having such a mindset is also important to being bold and it is crucial for researchers to have a lion-hearted spirit and a can-do attitude. Though the journey may be arduous, you must be willing to do that extra experiment, that extra simulation to keep going even when you feel like giving up. There would be many times you would face roadblocks such as when your experiments do not align with your hypothesis but it is paramount to keep envisioning your biggest goals and dreams.

However, he also notes that sometimes, it might not be possible to achieve your dreams all at once and it is absolutely all right to put a stop at times. Prof Tej views research as "your message" and the sole purpose of a research paper is to generate the evidence and data needed to reinforce that message, but not to expand it any further. Expanding the message is the task of a separate research paper.

Advice to Students

How do you get a big picture mindset?

In terms of research, although doing a PhD program will expose you to the broadness of the scientific world, it is still crucial to continuously relate what you are studying to what can be accomplished and always update yourself by reading more scientific and journal articles.

In general, understand how your current knowledge relates to everyday life is a stepping stone to expand your viewpoints. One can also get a third person to help you gain new perspectives and understanding of the material or on the problems at hand.

How does one decide between going into academia or industry research?

Deciding between these routes may seem daunting as an undergraduate or even more stressful as a PhD student, however, the most important is to expose yourself to all the opportunities provided to you by your Professors and your school. Take up that summer industry or lab internship and see if that seems meaningful to you. If still in doubt, Prof Tej breaks it down even future:

• If you like translational research, work in the industry

• If you like fundamental research and like to teach, work in academia

• If you like fundamental research but do not like to teach, work in governmental scientific institutions (like A* Star)

In his own experiences, most PhD graduates would venture into working in the industry, where in his PhD cohort in Purdue, only 3-4 out of 24 post-graduates continued their careers in academia.

How do you network with professionals in the scientific community?

An easy place start is through LinkedIn, where you connect with those you know and their 2nd degree connections. Another avenue is to attend conferences and he makes sure that each of his lab members attend at least one on a yearly basis as it does not only expose one to new scientific perspective but also to people with similar interested.

Nonetheless, the most important is following up with the new people you meet with and nurturing these newly built relationships is just as crucial as making new connections. Be present at conferences and continue interacting with them even after conferences.