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 I grew up on a university campus in West Sumatra, Indonesia.My father, Nur Anas Djamil, was a Professor in Islamology at Institute of Teacher Training and Education (now State University of Padang ) in Padang. I first became interested in chemistry one day in 1984 when I was a senior high school student. I attended an additional course in chemistry subject. This course was taught by Drs. Tahasnim Tamin, a senior lecturer at Institute of Teacher Training and Education in Padang. I was interested with the beautiful concept of chemistry that he was taught with laboratory demonstrations and analogies. This lesson also of course could not be learned without dedicated teacher that one encounters
along the way.
The
next important lesson came as an undergraduate in chemistry at the Institut
Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia. In my three years as an undergraduate, I had
chosen to do research for my final project with Dr. Harjoto Djojosubroto,
Director of Nuclear Engineering Research Center, National Nuclear Energy Agency, in Bandung. He was interested in Neutron Activation
Analysis (NAA) of having received his Ph.D. in hot atom chemistry. We planned a comparative study on the determination of selenium in
human blood by neutron activation analysis
which took me the next two years to do. He also inspired me to pursue postgraduate studies. The most important event to occur during
this time was the meeting of Terry Terikoh, the woman, who was to become my
wife. Terry's support of my goals in academia is the biggest factor responsible
for the success I have had in my professional career.
In
September of 1993, I enrolled a new master program in material science and
engineering at Institut Teknologi Bandung and was fortunate enough to work with Dr. Bambang Ariwahjoedi who was a creative lecturer
and had many great ideas. Creativity is very important at that time because of lack of scientific instruments in our department. I finished a small final project in the topic of synthesis of hydroxylapatite bioceramics by means of precipitation and its
characterization. I received M.Eng. with cum laude in 1995.
 Having
batted zero for my professional career up to this point, I was ready for
Ph.D. research. I continued my postgraduate
studies in zeolite chemistry at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia under supervision
of Prof. Halimaton Hamdan. I tackled a project
on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic activity of ultra-large pore of aluminophoshate molecular sieves,
VPI-5, just recently successfully synthesized by Prof. Mark Davis and his
co-workers. After six months
experimental work, I failed to synthesize VPI-5. Everything in my thesis comes
from the last twelve months in the laboratory. Nonetheless, since we had another project on synthesis of zeolite from rice husk ash that both worked at once, I ended
up with three international publications together on the study of the structure, physicochemical properties
and catalytic activity of metal-substituted AlPO4-5. I also proposed and successful in synthesizing NaA zeolite directly from rice
husk and carboneceous rice husk ash. This
was an incredibly intense twelve months during which I did not sleep more than
five hours a night. I finally found out
what independently doing good science. It was an
exhilarating period. I finish my PhD project in two and half years in 1998.
I continue work as a postdoctoral
fellow for one year at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. I would like to acknowledge Prof. Halimaton who have supported and encouraged me throughout all of my scientific career.
 In
1999 I was fortunate enough to land a postdoctoral position with Prof. Bunsho Ohtani at Catalysis Research Center, Hokkaido University, Japan. Professor Ohtani
is at least partly responsible for my career in heterogeneous catalysis. I was fortunate enough to work with Professor Ohtani who was a truly inspirational scientist and personality. He had endless capacity to produce great ideas. In two years as JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Postdoctoral Fellow and continued stay as COE (Center of Excellent) visiting researcher at Catalysis Research Center for half year, we published a seminal paper on a new concept in heterogeneous catalysis termed “Phase-boundary
catalysis”. I finished my postdoctoral stay which was due to the talented efforts of Dr. Shigeru Ikeda in the Ohtani group. I will always be indebted to Prof. Ohtani for showing me how to do science right. It is a debt that I can never repay, but showing new researchers the joy of
chemical research is at least a small effort in this regard not to mention a
lot of fun.
 In May 2002, for one year, I joined the Ibnu Sina Institute for
Fundamental Science Studies, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia as Research
fellow and in 2003 I accepted my first academic position as lecturer
at this university. I
am very grateful having for the opportunity to work with
very helpful and pleasant collaborates specifically Prof. Dr. Halimaton
Hamdan, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zainab Ramli, Assoc. Prof. Dr.
Salasiah Endud and Assoc. Prof. Mohd Nazlan Mohd Muhid. My
research ideas such as bifunctional catalysis, amphiphilic catalysts, a new method to
quantify a mixture of hexagonal MCM-41 and cubic MCM-48 mesophases by 13C
CP/MAS NMR, iron-porphyrin encapsulated in poly(methacrylic) as catalysts in
the oxidation of benzene to phenol were
published in international refereed journals. In the future we will examine heterogeneous
catalyst designs for other important chiral reactions in organic
synthesis. My family and I enjoy living
in Johor Bahru area and are glad that we made the move.
Lastly, I want to say thank you to all my teachers and mentors listed here, I am nothing without all of you.
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