So, it sounds like you are already in a program at ****. Why do you want to leave so early in their program?
We are a computational lab, where we do a lot of programming in C and Perl. You have a good chemical background, but not a lot computing. I am sure you can make up for the lack of this, but are you still interested?
Also, I expect a lot of work out of my graduate students for them to learn, study, and perform research. In return, this rigor provides a very solid education/foundation for a student that helps them land promising jobs in the future. I hope this is still interesting for you.
This prof is telling the truth and interested in you.
One thing is, the prof is suggesting that he will be a tough guy, and you'd better take it seriously. Boss can be very tough if he told you in first place, then you're expected to handle it.