Question: What does the future in your field look like?

Charlotte Slade answered on 13 Mar 2025:

The future of surface science? It’s like we’re about to turn science fiction into reality! 🚀

Imagine tools that can:
• Analyze materials at such precise atomic levels that we can design solar panels converting 50% more energy
• Create batteries that charge in minutes and last for weeks
• Develop medical treatments so targeted they can attack specific cancer cells without side effects
• Build quantum computers using materials we can now understand molecule by molecule

We’re moving from just understanding materials to actually designing them from the ground up. It’s like being molecular architects, where we can literally blueprint how materials will behave before we even create them.

Climate change solutions, sustainable technologies, revolutionary medical treatments – they’re all going to come from understanding surfaces and materials at scales we’re just beginning to explore.

The most exciting part? The researchers just starting their careers now will be the ones making discoveries we can’t even imagine yet. Every breakthrough opens up entire universes of possibility.