Chemistry is all about looking for solutions, and they'll be able to use that skill no matter what they do. Cowie is an internationally renowned researcher specializing in the field of chemical reactivity of transition-metal complexes that contain two or more adjacent metals. He's also a dedicated instructor and academic mentor, teaching a number of courses from introductory chemistry to graduate courses in his areas of specialization and supervising an enthusiastic group of graduate students. But he admits to feeling nervous before teaching his first class of the term, even if it's an introductory course. Still, he learns something in his own classes too.
Teaching provides the professor with a good review of the basics.
Cowie's own career path clearly follows his intellectual bliss. While he was fascinated by inorganic chemistry during his undergraduate years at McMaster University, his graduate studies saw Cowie specialize in chemical crystallography. It was only after taking a faculty position at the U of A that he returned to the study of synthetic inorganic chemistry, utilizing his background in X-ray crystallography as a structural tool. I recently came across a Centennial Scholarship application I had completed as an undergraduate in 1968, planning out what I then thought I'd like to do as a graduate student. Although I ended up doing completely different work in graduate studies, I realized that I had inadvertently returned as a professor to my original interests.