The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 468 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 468 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On November 21, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 441 positions. The latest weather report for the Faculty Jobs List is here.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's the current open thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

‘My friend, sorry, you must wait.’

An amusing aside in a New York Times article about luxury brands and their supply chains: 

Parterre, the British fragrance house, created its own on-site botanical garden at Keyneston Mill in Dorset, England, to grow the aromatic plants that would form the cornerstone of its limited-edition fragrances. Much the same instinct underpins the rise of cottage gardens at high-end hotels like Borgo Santo Pietro in Tuscany, Italy. Its Michelin-starred restaurant relies primarily on the organic farm attached to the property, which includes a dairy and an apiary. 

“They are securing the sources of their competitive advantage,” said Mario Ortelli, a luxury analyst with Ortelli & Company of London. “If your supplier works with 10 other luxury brands, and you’re not the most important client? When you ask for extra quantities, he can tell you, ‘My friend, sorry, you must wait.’”

It'd be interesting to know if Parterre purchased its own extraction as well? 

Kalrez o-rings

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• Do check out the Organic Chemistry Jobs Company List - I think it's a neat idea
• At Sustainable Nano, Zack's Nano Adventure
• Ash, on an AI-in-chemistry poll
• xykademiqz on postdocs
• naturalproductman, on "The Synthesis of 12alpha-Hydroxy Steroids"
• Interesting essay on professor semi-retirement, by Richard C. Larson (submitted by friend-of-the-blog James Ashenhurst)
• 133 people have died from being pulled into a wood chipper in the last 9 years? (by Celeste Monforton)
• Interesting essay on alcoholism in graduate school (by Elizabeth A. Marchio)

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

Job posting: Director, Chemical Laboratory - NMR Lab, Auburn University, Auburn, AL

From the inbox:

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University seeks to fill the position of Director of Chemical Laboratories for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Lab. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: (1) operating and maintaining the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry's 250 MHz, 400 MHz, and 600 MHz NMR spectrometers; (2) maintaining the computers and software needed to run the NMR instrumentation and data processing stations; (3) running samples and assisting researchers with data analysis and experimental design; (4) supervising a graduate student who will assist in the operation of the laboratory; and (5) billing for services pertaining to the NMR spectrometers.   

The following are minimum qualifications: (1) a Ph.D. from an accredited institution in NMR Spectroscopy, Chemistry, Biochemistry, or a closely related field, (2) five (5) years of experience in analyzing (bio)chemical molecules and coordinating lab operations, procedures, and instruction, and (3) knowledge of laboratory techniques, safety procedures, and teaching principles. 

Full job posting here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 246 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 246 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The Organic Chemistry Jobs Company List

Over at Organic Chemistry Jobs, a pretty neat new list: the Organic Chemistry Jobs company list.

29 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 14 new positions posted for November 14 and 15 positions posted on November 12. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 245 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 245 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Coke dissolves road dust?

Via the New York Times, this odd little article about using food as cleaning agents, including the classic 101 uses for Coca-Cola: 

...Speaking of sticky things, our reader Peggy offers this suggestion: “I use a product called Goo Gone but its main ingredient is orange oil. If you have no Goo Gone, rub a piece of orange on the gunk from stick-on labels and Bob’s your uncle.” 

Ketchup — yes, it’s a vegetable, just go with us — can be used to polish brass and copper. But if you’re out, and you happen to have a pineapple handy, you’re in luck. 

“Whenever I trim a pineapple, I grab a saltshaker and whichever of my copper bottom pots needs tarnish removed: Sprinkle salt, rub with pineapple peel — Voilà!” wrote another reader.... 

...We noted that Coca-Cola can be used to clear a slow-moving drain, clean a toilet bowl and remove motor oil and grease from clothing and pavement. You all had many uses to add. Bill writes: “If road oil and dust have made your windshield smeary, pour Coke on it. The windshield comes clean,” and Thomas added, “Coke rejuvenates old windshield wiper blades.”

Orange oil as a handy solvent makes sense to me, but ketchup to remove metal oxides? Also carbonated sugar water for motor oil?  

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: "Making biologics on demand" (by Celia Henry Arnaud)
• This Mark Peplow piece on a rather unfortunate situation at the University of Manchester is worth a read 
• Rick Mullin with two articles on Hovione 
• I really enjoyed this profile of Diane Villax
• Anne McNeil's new website: DiversifyChemistry (article by Linda Wang)
• Finally time for antisense oligonucleotides? (article by Ryan Cross)

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 458 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 458 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On November 14, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 429 positions. The latest weather report for the Faculty Jobs List is here.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's the current open thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

"I Want Miracles"

Via the New York Times, a truly heart-wrenching story of health care among the poor in China: 

Do-It-Yourself Drugs 

China in recent years has become the world’s largest home of internet users. Many Chinese now shop almost exclusively in internet bazaars that offer everything from groceries and hot meals to jewelry and cars. They can also buy pharmaceuticals — even the raw ingredients to illegally make drugs themselves. 

Many start on forums devoted to patients and their loved ones when they can’t get answers anymore. The two most popular are “I Want Miracles,” which is dedicated to helping people with lung cancer, and “Dances With Cancer.” The forums combined have just over 440,000 members. 

“This is the current state of health care in China,” said Chen Yun, who runs “I Want Miracles.” “Every doctor is just too busy, and there’s no way that they can explain many things to you clearly. But if you want to figure it out, you just have to learn by yourself.”... 

Desperate to help his mother, Mr. Zhang did a basic search: “What to do after patient develops drug resistance on Iressa?” He happened upon “Dances With Cancer” and an active participant and a longtime cancer patient called “Bean Spirit,” who wrote a manual on how to make drugs at home. 

Mr. Zhang, who previously worked at a pharmaceutical factory but was not involved in making drugs, started on his own version. He bought the ingredients for AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso, a lung cancer drug. He spent just over $150 for a month’s worth of ingredients, plastic capsules and an electronic scale. 

“The raw ingredients are worth more than the price of gold,” he said. 

When the drugs stopped working for his mother, Mr. Zhang began making others. He started having sleepless nights, worried that he would not be able to find the ingredients each time a drug stopped working.

This is a really awful story (regrettably, the ending is not much better.) I haven't been able to find "I Want Miracles", but I have questions, e.g. are they obtaining actual API, or are they actually manufacturing raw materials? (I hope it's API, for their sake.)