Our Emerging Investigator Series features exceptional work by early-career nanoscience and nanotechnology researchers. Read Luciano Colazzo, Christoph Wolf and Yujeong Bae's Emerging Investigator Series article 'Template-directed 2D nanopatterning of S = 1/2 molecular spins' (https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NH00375A) and read more about them in the interview below.