Jonathan Barnes graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2004 with a B.S. in chemistry and earned an M.S. degree in chemistry in 2006.
This interview is part of a series conducted by the department called “UK Chemistry Alumni: Where Are They Now?” This interview was coordinated by Arthur Cammers.
Arthur: Jon, tell us a few sound bites about your time as an undergraduate working towards a chemistry degree. Remember that we put these student spotlights out there from time to time to give our current students examples of paths to take in their education? That’s your audience.
Jon: UK’s chemistry department is where I discovered my passion for chemistry. I started my freshmen year at UK thinking I wanted to major in biology and go to medical school. However, taking organic chemistry my sophomore year with Professors Art Cammers and John Anthony (and then later in Bob Grossman’s research laboratory) opened my eyes to a world where it’s possible “to make any molecule.” I found this liberating and therefore decided to pursue a career in chemistry, initially at a startup company in Los Angeles, but later at Northwestern (PhD), MIT (postdoc), and now in my own research group at Washington University in St. Louis.
Arthur: Do you keep in touch with friends from UKY, what about from your chemistry class? After graduation, does life accelerate to the point that undergraduate days get left in the dust?
Jon: I have stayed in touch with several other chemistry majors since my time at UK. In fact, the best man in my wedding was Chris Fitzwater, who I met in the chemistry department at UK! I’ve also kept in touch with other UK Chem graduates over the years, and it’s impressive to see how well everyone has done in terms of their growth as scientists and their careers overall.
Arthur: Do you have a strong memory from your undergraduate days that is safe to share?
Jon: The strongest memory I have from undergrad at UK is the way in which I met my wife, Melissa. We both took an extra introductory class on acting to fill credit hours and one day the teacher said we needed to pull names out of a hat to pick our scene partners. Melissa was not in class that day, but I distinctly remember waiting in line for my turn to draw a name and hoping it would be hers. Sure enough, I pulled her name out of the hat even though I was like seventh or eighth in line. She and I did a fun scene in front of the class and quickly became friends. However, it was not until after earning my Master’s degree from Grossman’s lab and moving to Los Angeles did we start dating. Suffice it to say, UK played a significant role in shaping my life in terms of academics, career, and my family.
Arthur: What got you interested in pursuing chemistry? Is that the first major you declared when you were coming in as a freshman? Did you have second thoughts or bounce around between majors while you were here at UKY?
Jon: As noted above, I originally came to UK thinking I would follow the pre-med track and major in biology. After taking organic chemistry and working in Grossman’s laboratory, I quickly changed my interests. Because organic chemistry is taught sophomore year, I changed my major to chemistry my junior year, which is later than usual. However, I am very glad that I did change my major and decided to pursue a Master’s degree immediately after completing my B.S. degree requirements. Obtaining an additional M.S. degree allowed me to start out in industry in Los Angeles at a higher salary than I would have been able to with just a B.S. degree.
Arthur: Did you always have a clear vision of what you wanted to do for a career?
Jon: No. I thought I wanted to go to medical school and perhaps become a surgeon. Even after getting my B.S. / M.S. degrees and working for a startup in LA, I never thought I would be a tenured faculty member at WashU 15 years later. Pun intended, my journey evolved “organically” and can simply be explained by a combination of following my passions and seizing the opportunities as they came across my radar.
Arthur: In general, what are you currently pursuing as an independent researcher? What would be the big problem to solve for you at this point?
Jon: My group specializes in synthetic polymer chemistry and stimuli-responsive materials. One project entails the design and synthesis of polymers that contain chain links in the form of molecular rings or macrocycles, whereas other projects involve developing hydrogels and nanoparticles capable of shrinking and stiffening in response to visible light for the purposes of drug delivery. Lately, we have started working in a new area on carbon fibers and are excited to pursue the chemistry and production of these strong, lightweight materials. Thinking about the first project on fundamental polymer architectures, the big problem we’re trying to solve is figuring out how to make a polymer chain look like an actual real-world everyday chain with mechanically interlocked links. This is very challenging to do on the molecular level and has therefore been a sort of Holy Grail in the field of polymer chemistry for several decades. My group recently published a paper in 2024 that demonstrated the successful synthesis of a shorter chain consisting of eight interlocked macrocycles with a discrete molecular weight approaching that of a low molar mass polymer. We are now investigating these types of molecules in polymer networks as part of our NSF-funded project.
Arthur: In which phase of your educational arch of development did you get psyched on what you are currently pursuing?
Jon: I’ve thought about the polymer chain synthesis problem since graduate school after meeting the then future Nobel Laureate Jean-Pierre Sauvage, but didn’t decide to pursue it until we had devised a clear path for the methodology in my independent research group at WashU. Now, we’re one of the best in the world at making these types of molecules and studying them in polymer networks. I really became interested in hydrogel chemistry and stimuli-responsive soft materials when I was a postdoc at MIT, learning under the tutelage of a brilliant up-and-coming polymer scientist by the name of Professor Jeremiah Johnson, my postdoctoral research advisor during my time there. Lastly, the carbon fiber project idea was born out of my interests in following the new space industry, particularly companies that launch rockets that are primarily made of or reinforced with carbon fiber. About a year ago, I started getting more curious about how carbon fiber is made and what polymers are used in this process. I started from square one by reading review articles, published literature, patents, and any and every YouTube video I could find until I eventually could write proposals like an expert in the field. Now, we’ve progressed so far that we have a patent-pending new methodology that we are pursuing and will start spinning our first carbon fibers in my lab this summer!
Arthur: As a professor, you see a lot of students starting and coming up through the curriculum. What advice do you offer them in general to be successful in chemistry? Perhaps … what do you wish someone had told you?
Jon: I generally tell students to follow their passions and continue to work hard in pursuit of their dreams, some of which may not even be realized yet. The logistics usually take care of themselves so long as you don’t lose your determination. In my case, I never in a million years thought I would do my PhD working for a future Nobel Laureate, nor did I think I would be sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to be a postdoctoral fellow at MIT. I just didn’t think these experiences were in the cards for someone like me, coming from a middle-class family and attending public schools my whole academic career. These institutions – Northwestern and MIT – seemed so far away from my reality, but I continued to be curious, work hard, and never give up. These traits combined with the right mentors along the way, like Professor Bob Grossman at UK, Dr. Shenda Baker at Synedgen, Inc. (the company I worked for in LA), Sir Fraser Stoddart at Northwestern, and Professor Jeremiah Johnson at MIT, all helped me grow as a scientist while building up a stronger belief in my abilities. The key is to not be afraid to take the leap and possibly fail. Either way, you give it your best shot and from there you can live with the results, good or bad, while enjoying the journey along the way.
Arthur: At what point in your career did you start to feel like a scientist? It took me a while … I was circumspect about my expertise to explore new things after the doctorate. It was during the postdoc with daily reading and constant reconsideration that I finally started to believe. What do you think about self-doubt? Is there a way to turn it into a lever arm or a tool?
Jon: Even though my training at UK was the foundation of my future successes, I didn’t really start feeling like a scientist until I took a position at Synedgen, Inc. in Los Angeles after earning my B.S. / M.S. degrees in chemistry at UK. It was at this startup that the professional aspect of my training was realized and that I could “play ball” intellectually speaking with other scientists from Ohio State, UCLA, Berkeley, etc. to name a few of the pedigrees of my co-workers at the time. During the nearly 3.5 years in industry, I realized that I was smart enough and hardworking enough to do science at the highest levels. This newfound confidence led me to apply for graduate school at only a handful of top schools. The thinking at the time was that if I didn’t get Into any of them, then I would stay in industry. If, however, I were accepted at any of them, I would go back to school to pursue a PhD. I was fortunate to have been accepted at Northwestern, my number one choice, but rejected by MIT (I made up for this later by doing my postdoc there!). Once at Northwestern, my eyes were opened in a big way. This is largely due to my mentor, Sir Fraser Stoddart, who is one of the best scientific scholars and ambassadors for chemistry that I have ever been around. In his lab, I had the freedom to think and innovate and try without fear of failure (which there was a lot of). I saw how big the world of chemistry was in his lab since it was like working at the United Nations! What I mean by this is that there were researchers from all over Europe and Asia in addition to the US-based researchers that created an amazing melting pot of scientists with a vast diversity of ideas. It was at Northwestern, with Fraser’s unwavering belief in me, that I realized I could find the intellectual gaps in the literature and my fields of interest such that I could start to ask bigger questions and design experiments to try to answer these questions. My experience at MIT further reinforced this feeling, and from there I decided that I was going to pursue an independent career in academia, to “see if my ideas are as good as I think they are.”
The most important thing I’ve learned through all this is that the so-called imposter syndrome that we all feel never truly leaves. You just get better at coping with this feeling of inadequacy and continue to be fearless while leaping into the unknown with an open mind towards learning something new every day!