When the boss is wrong about chemistry

How do readers handle it when senior chemist managers routinely give bad (as defined by irrelevant, against literature precedent or simply wrong-on-first-principles) chemistry advice?

There are a number of tactics, all of which I have employed at one time or another:

• Ignore the bad advice. Keep doing what you're doing, show milestone success (however defined) and move on. 
• Nod noncommittally at the bad advice, run a few experiments to placate the manager, keep doing what you're doing. 
• Quiet, subtle resistance. Questions like "are there concerns about neighboring-group participation?" 
• Open, direct confrontation. "I don't think that's correct, and here's why..." 

Obviously, Tactic Four is to be deployed on a limited basis only. 

I'd like to hear reader experience and advice with these problems, if you have them. 

[When I hear incorrect chemistry counsel, it can really frustrate me and knock me off my flow. Speaking the chemical truth is important to me, and it makes me unhappy when senior people do not. (That was one of the really wonderful things about graduate school -- the likelihood that your professors knew exactly what they were talking about was better than 95%. In industry, it's... lower than that.) I should really learn to deal.]

UPDATE: Before anyone trots out the old, old joke about Rule 1 and Rule 2, I note I've been there already.

Job posting (?): freelance writer, Motley Fool

I was contacted by Motley Fool and asked to post ad for bloggers on biotech:

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As many of our successful freelancers can attest, that might just be a starting point for your relationship with the Fool. We keep an eye out for the best writers and analysts -- those who truly work with us as partners -- and offer writer contracts to the best of the best. And that can lead to even bigger things. 

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As most of you know, I'm not much of one for individual stock purchases. That said, I know plenty of my readers might be. Sounds like an interesting way to write about your investing hobby. Best of luck! 

Daily Pump Trap: 12/5/13 edition

Good morning! Between December 3 and December 4, there were 27 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 11 (41%) were academically connected and 7 (26%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources.

Monroeville, PA: PPG is hiring an experienced Ph.D. synthetic organic chemist for a position working on optical materials. 3+ years industry experience desired.

Cincinnati, OH: Well, that 55+ position B.S. chemist position I was talking about a week or two ago was posted on C&EN Jobs. Do I see that correctly that it is for $12.72/hour? Oh, dear.

Atlanta, GA: I have no idea what this UL technical manager position is about, although it probably has something to do with being an analytical chemist. Good luck!

Cincinnati, OH: Procter and Gamble is looking for a Ph.D. analytical chemist to be its atomic spectroscopy group leader.

Indianapolis, IN: Kelly Scientific posts a position for what can only be Dow Agrosciences; they desire a very specific kind of synthetic organic chemist:

Kelly Services is in need of Synthetic Organic Chemist to join the team at a top-tier agricultural company, located in the Indianapolis area.

Requirements: Must have Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, along with up to 10 years relevant experience in an industry or research setting OR Master’s degree in Chemistry and up to 5 years experience in an industry or research setting. Prefer experience with Discovery Chemistry, or heterocyclic chemistry.

**Candidates with a PhD would be considered over qualified for the position**

Most of the time, posting B.S./M.S. or "senior research associate" would be enough to stave off the Ph.D. resumes. To me, this is more anecdotal evidence of a Ph.D. organic chemist surplus. 

A Modest Proposal: ACS Download Christmas/New Year's Jubilee

If you're an ACS member, that means that you get 25 free downloads of documents from ACS Publications. Some people (like me) use some of them for work, some don't.

The benefit runs out at the end of the year. Wouldn't it make sense for the benefit to carry over? Or, if not, wouldn't it make sense for a group of enterprising ACS members to congregate online and, say, burn through them before the end of the year? Just askin'. 

A good point by Freddie deBoer: the median, not the star student

Freddie deBoer is a humanities graduate student and a commentator on politics from a left perspective. He's been writing on-and-off on the myth of a STEM shortage and has an interesting point in Medium, looking at Silicon Valley's latest push for MOAR WORKERS (emphasis mine):

I was talking about this issue with a friend of mine, a brilliant PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. We were walking by the quad during one of the big tech job fairs here at Purdue University, where some of the most powerful and profitable companies in science and technology come to entice Purdue students to apply for jobs. Purdue is a good school generally, but its reputation largely comes from its top-flight engineering and computer science programs. Looking at all of these billion-dollar companies spending time, money, and energy on developing elaborate booths, all to attract applications for employment, it was hard not to believe in the notion of a STEM shortage. 

When I mentioned that point to my friend, he laughed and said, “These companies are all trying to get the same 50 students.” This, more than anything, may be the source of the persistent STEM shortage myth: the inarguable value of being a star in a STEM field. There’s little doubt that people at the top of the food chain in computer science or electrical engineering or biomedical engineering, etc., often enjoy fantastic material and economic gain.  

But this is a banal point: it’s good to be a star. It’s good to be a star engineer in the same way it’s good to be a star musician or a star psychologist or a star writer. What public policy and politics demand is that we pay attention not to stars but to the median person. And the median American is facing a world of stagnant wages, the arbitrary nature of the employment market, and the constant fear of our financial system’s boom and bust cycle. The problem is that by definition, very few people get to be stars. I don’t doubt that the median Purdue STEM graduate is doing well. But Purdue is a top-flight STEM school, and half of our graduates will be below the median, and many who start those majors fail out of them, and the country is filled with schools who graduate STEM students who can’t get jobs. Basing our perception of the employment market on the outcomes of those 50 star students is pure folly.

I think Freddie's friend is probably right -- all those companies aren't trying to get warm bodies, they're trying to get star students. I think we've seen this with (my old nemesis) and Dow CEO Andrew Liveris, who was commenting about paying new chemical engineers $120,000 a year. Let's leave aside the question of whether or not it was accurate; it's likely that Dow has the money to chase the new star graduate and pay them a top salary, whatever the number. I wonder if those CEOs and their minions see what they're paying their new people and say, salaries are going up! We must have a shortage!

This doesn't excuse the behavior of the STEM shortage folks, but I wonder if it explains the nature of the distorted claims that they routinely make. 

Bonus Process Wednesday: The US Navy's newest chemical plant

From the Reuters wire comes news that the U.S. Navy is planning to actually be deploying the Field Deployable Hydrolysis System (that I had blogged about) on the MV Cape Ray to destroy Syria's nerve agents (emphasis mine):

The U.S. government has begun outfitting a ship in its reserve ready force with equipment to enable it to destroy some of Syria's chemical weapons at sea in the event Washington is asked to assist in the effort, a defense official said on Sunday. 

The Maritime Administration vessel MV Cape Ray is being equipped with the newly developed Field Deployable Hydrolysis System, which was designed by the Defense Department to neutralize components used in chemical weapons, a defense official said on condition of anonymity. 

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which supervising the disposal of Syria's chemical arms, said last week the United States had offered to destroy some of the components on a U.S. ship and was looking for a Mediterranean port where the work could be carried out.

Say, what's that boat ship doing over there? Oh, it's just neutralizing chemical weapons. (Does a Pfaudler warranty for a titanium reactor cover saltwater exposure?) The Washington Post says that 2 of the units will be installed on the Cape Ray.

(The Beeb has some nervous questions about it, specifically how Syria's chemical weapons are going to get from where they're stored now to the Cape Ray. Details, details.)

UPDATE: The Guardian says that a Danish ship will be used to transfer the chemical weapons from the harbor to the Cape May. Wow. 

Process Wednesday: Merck's prep-scale safety review

From the Organic Process Research and Development ASAP stream, a overview of Merck's internal reviews for safety at prep scale [1] (as defined as 500 grams to 5 kilograms). It partially stemmed from an incident with a serious hand injury with a diazonium salt: 

In 2009, the decision was made to formalize this process to complement the Pilot Plant review and better ensure the safety of all chemists running reactions on prep lab scale. An additional element of the new review process was a formal Hazardous Reaction Review, which applied to a much smaller scale than that employed in the prep laboratories. The necessity of this component was realized when a senior-level scientist in the department incurred a serious hand injury upon isolating a diazonium salt on less than 5 g scale.¹  

1. The published procedure he was following was somewhat ambiguous, only specifying not to use a metal spatula, with no indication of the serious hazards of isolating the diazonium salt. While scraping the material on the fritted funnel with a Teflon spatula, the material exploded, leaving the chemist with multiple lacerations requiring sutures to mend and nerve damage requiring surgery to fix.

The process to go to prep scale seems fairly methodical:

Prep lab scale is defined as reactions run in a vessel >5 L, even if the actual reaction volume is less. Note that the largest vessel size available for Merck prep lab use is 100 L. All prep lab scale experiments that involve a chemical reaction are covered by this policy. The policy requires the chemist to do the following prior to running the reaction: 

(a) Discuss with supervisor.
(b) Complete a “Paper Assessment”: Consult literature, Bretherick’s,3 MSDSs. Consider reaction type, functional group instabilities, known hazards.
(c) Chemistry Assessment: Complete probe reactions, documenting exotherms, addition times, cooling used,
workup procedures, etc.
(d) Acquire Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) data on starting material(s) and product(s).4
(e) Submit completed “Reaction Review and Approval Form”.
(f) Obtain approval from both one SAC (Scientific Advisory Committee) designee and one EPSE (Environmental and Process Safety Engineering) designee before performing the experiment.

The authors note that they've found little delay using this process, with only one day's further testing on average. (They also note that more hazardous reactions have required longer turnaround times, which is understandable.)

The authors included some case studies with IBX, azide reactions and one (rather frightening-looking) decarboxylation, where an alternate route was found. Also, an example of a Blaise reaction, where the key to avoiding a runaway reaction was to look for reaction initiation, and not keep slowly adding starting material, if the chemist was not sure that the reaction had started:

A chemist experienced a runaway reaction at small scale when carrying out a Blaise reaction. EPSE found that this runaway can be easily reproduced if the bromoester is added rapidly. Calorimetry testing with slow addition showed that the decomposition was unusually vigorous, with an adiabatic ΔT of ∼200 K, and that there can be a delayed and autocatalytic initiation of the desired reaction. Approval was given to run this reaction on prep lab scale with the following provisions to prevent an overly vigorous delayed initiation: 

(1) After 3% of the acetate has been added, assay the batch for both consumption of starting material and formation of product (no quantitative assay was available for the intermediate). Do not add more acetate until confirming that the desired chemistry has been initiated.
(2) Repeat after the addition of acetate is 10% complete, and again after it is 40% complete.
(3) For deployment at pilot plant and manufacturing scale, investigate use of online instrumentation to monitor the reaction.

The last note I'll make about this paper is an interesting observation that I had not heard about aluminum pans in DSC measurements:

For safety screening, a special DSC cell that can withstand a significant amount of pressure is used. The standard crimped Al pan may leak at relatively low pressure, enabling the volatile components generated to escape the system. However, when a very rapid exothermic decomposition occurs at larger scale, the gases will often not have time to escape the system (even if it is not rated for pressure) before the remaining reaction mixture further reacts at higher temperature, which can lead to additional heat and pressure generation. In order to best balance resources and expertise, two to five chemists per research site were trained to run DSCs with the special cells. These cells are made of Hastelloy C rather than Al, as Al
reacts with many chemicals, thereby generating false positive or false negative results.

I don't think our pans are aluminum, but I had not heard that aluminum pans can deliver false positives or negative. Huh.

All in all, a worthwhile read.

1. Bassan, E.,Ruck, R.T.; Dienemann, E.; Emerson, K.M.; Humphrey, G.M.; Raheem, I.T.; Tschaen, D.M.; Vickery, T.P.; Wood, H.B.; Yasuda, N. "Merck’s Reaction Review Policy: An Exercise in Process Safety." Org. Process. Res. Dev., 2013, ASAP. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1021/op4002033

Ask CJ: How does a US-based B.S. chemist find a job in Germany?

From the inbox, a really interesting question (redacted to protect anonymity) 

I am beginning my search for a chemical related job in Germany. I graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry from [a well-known state university in the U.S.], and will be graduating in May 2014 with a Masters in [field related to biomedicine, etc.] I have good analytical chemistry based research experience along with a very good working knowledge of how American hospital emergency departments work as I have worked in one for about a year. I am very committed to learning German, which I began about one month ago. 

Since I will be graduating with my masters in May of 2014, do you have any recommendations on how to search/find potential employees who will take me beginning around June 2014? I have been doing research on the internet, and have found a few jobs which want to hire immediately, but I have not found any information on how to find a job for a few months in advance.

Most of the e-mail requests I get are from international readers, asking "How do I get a job in the US?", not the other way around. So, I suppose the questions that our reader is asking is:

• Where should I look for chemistry jobs in Germany? 
• How far in advance can I apply for these jobs? 

I have a few questions of my own, the main one being: what is the experience of the readership in getting hired in chemistry in Germany? How does it work, being an non-German citizen? 

Job posting: formulation chemists, Toronto/Guelph, Ontario

From the inbox, formulation chemist positions at Vive Crop Protection, a junior and a senior one. First position desires 3-5 years in the field, the second one requires a minimum of 5-8 years in a related field.

Here's one of the job descriptions:

We are looking for a Chemist – Formulations. The Chemist is part of the formulations research team and reports to a Senior Chemist and/or Team Lead. This position provides technical support of the company’s product development by conducting experiments, performing research and development activities and reporting on performance and results. This is a bench position helping development of new aqueous particle-based formulations of agricultural active ingredients.

Click on the links above for the contact e-mails. Good luck! 

Daily Pump Trap: 12/3/13 edition

Good morning! Between November 26 and December 3, there were 48 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 26 (54%) were academically connected and 10 (21%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources. 

Seattle, WA: Seattle Genetics looking for a B.S./M.S. senior research associate in process chemistry, 3-8 years experience desired.

Monroeville, PA: Axiall Corporation desires a Ph.D. inorganic chemist with 5-10 years experience for a Development Chemist II position; looks to be related to water treatment research.

Makeup?: Cosmopolitan USA is looking for a consulting colloid/surface chemist; $75-150/hr consulting rate?

Shamrock Technologies is back!: Not looking for a Scientist Friday this time, but still writing the ads floridly, desiring a lab tech. $35-45/hr, not bad.

Wilmington, NC: Gotta love this ad for Next Glass for a LC/MS chemist (M.S./Ph.D., 5+ years exp.):

Next Glass, Inc. (www.nextglass.co), is a Wilmington, NC-based company developing a wine and beer recommendation engine application (think Pandora for wine and beer).  The company is seeking a Senior Analytical Chemist excited about the prospect of creating methods for, and overseeing the testing of, 20,000+ plus bottles of wine and beer using a Thermo Fisher Benchtop Orbitrap Exactive LC-MS system, as well as other instruments.  The Next Glass team loves hard-working team players who want to contribute to demystifying the wine and beer selection process! 

Compensation: We pay top-dollar salaries (competitive with the pharma industry for Analytical Chemists) to attract “A” players.  The stock options aren’t bad either! 

Benefits: Family Health Insurance • Gym Membership • Fully-stocked Pantry • Lunches on Next Glass (you choose where, Monday - Friday) • $50/month for Wine and Beer Exploration • Unlimited Vacation • Massage Wednesdays • Company Credit Card

If this is really true, this is a great job for someone (or a potential way to earn yourself a sobriety coin.) 

Ivory Filter Flask: 12/3/13

Good morning! Between November 26 and December 2, there were 26 academic positions posted on C&EN Jobs. The numbers:

Postdocs: 0
Tenure-track: 18
Temporary faculty: 2
Lecturers: 4
Staff: 1
US/non-US: 21/5

Akron, OH: Looks like the University of Akron's college of polymer science and engineer is looking for a new dean. Wonder who they'll choose? 

Fairbanks, AK: The University of Alaska-Fairbanks desires two assistant professors of organic chemistry. 

Cookeville, TN: Tennessee Technical University, hiring an assistant professor of biochemistry. 

ست وظائف!: The Qatar University College of Arts and Sciences is hiring half a chemistry department, it seems, with plenty of lecturer and tenure-track positions. Good luck! 

C&EN on contract employees

C&EN's Linda Wang does an impressive job, as usual, in getting people to talk frankly about temporary/contract employment in the pharmaceutical industry. The article starts off with a terrible (and terribly common) anecdote: 

After being laid off in 2010 from the pharmaceutical company Roche, where he had worked for nearly 14 years, Paul Oleas thought it would only be a matter of time before he found another permanent position. 

But after six months of searching, and no full-time opportunities in sight, the pharmaceutical chemist accepted a six-month contract position with MAP Pharmaceuticals. At the end of the contract, Oleas was offered a full-time position. His relief was short-lived, however, as the company was acquired by Allergan, and Oleas was laid off again. 

Oleas is now in his third short-term contract position in as many years, and he’s accepted the possibility that he may never attain the sense of permanency he once had. “You have to roll with the punches,” he says. “And you have to try to make the best out of it that you can.”

Interesting comments on people with contigent positions:

Within the American Chemical Society membership, roughly 3% of industrial members who responded to the 2013 ACS Comprehensive Salary & Employment Survey reported being in a temporary or fixed-term contract position (C&EN, Sept. 23, page 9). Although this percentage has stayed relatively flat in recent years, new graduates, with a current unemployment rate of more than 12%, may in fact experience a higher rate of temporary work, says Gareth Edwards, senior research associate in the ACS Research & Brand Strategy department. 

Gold says that five years ago, Fairway Consulting Group wasn’t involved in providing contractors, only full-time employees. Now, he says, filling these positions brings in 15–20% of the company’s revenue. 

Similarly, Marc Miller, senior director of medicinal and process chemistry at life sciences recruiting firm Klein Hersh International, has seen an uptick in contract and temporary hiring. Approximately 20–25% of the firm’s placements are for contract positions, and he anticipates that percentage will grow. “I think you’ll see it move toward almost a 50-50 split between permanent and contract hiring into 2014 and 2015,” he says.

What is weird about contract positions is that my impression is that they are paid lower, not higher than full-time positions. You would think (and for some organization (i.e. hospital nurses), it is) that this would not be true, that the temps make more money to compensate them for taking on a more contingent position. That doesn't seem to be the case in the pharmaceutical industry, although perhaps I am wrong.

The professor quoted in the article echoes my concerns fully:

The growth of a contingent workforce worries Erin Hatton, an assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and author of the book “The Temp Economy: From Kelly Girls to Permatemps in Postwar America.” “Not only do these jobs not offer any sense of job security, these jobs also pay lower wages and offer worse benefits,” she says. 

Permanent employees could also be affected by the rise of contingent workers, Hatton says. “When workers are worried about being replaced by contingent employees, they’re more willing to accept lower wages and worse benefits packages.”

Quite so. Thanks to Linda for a worthwhile article, if a bit depressing. Best wishes to the permatemps, and to all of us. 

This week's C&EN

Little tidbits in this week's C&EN:

• Worthwhile article by Celia Arnaud on pre-eclampsia early detection.
• Dow pulls out of battery collaboration -- does anyone remember the brief bump in hiring for battery manufacturers in 2009 or 2010? (article by Melody Bomgardner)
• Maureen Rouhi talks about Kennedy's moon shot speech -- I didn't realize how specific he got. 

Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

Here we are again at another Thanksgiving (well, tomorrow, anyway). Once again, I am incredibly thankful to be part of an excellent chemistry blogging/Tweeting community.

To the people who read and comment on this blog, I am so incredibly thankful for each and every one of you. Your clicks, comments, tweets, and e-mails (especially the skeptical ones!) give me motivation and joy.

If you are in the US, may you and your family have a wonderful, happy Thanksgiving.

(And if you're not in the US, may you and your family have a wonderful, happy Thursday/Friday. Back Monday.)

Note on TMS diazomethane

Thanks to a tweet last night, I was reminded of the death of chemist Roland Daigle in 2009. Unbeknownst to me (even though I remember reading Jyllian Kemsley's article on the fines of Sepracor Canada that resulted from his death), there was a Clinical Toxicology report on what happened, including scale. I reproduce it here as a public service to chemists:

Fatal Occupational Exposure to Trimethylsilyl-Diazomethane 

Murphy NG,¹ Varney SM,² Tallon JM,¹ Thompson JR,¹ Blanc PD.³ 

¹IWK Regional Poison Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada; ²Rocky Mountain Poison & Drug Center-Denver Health, Denver, CO, USA; ³Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA. 

Background: Diazomethane (DM) is a highly explosive, toxic methylating reagent causing severe pulmonary injury. Trimethylsilyl-diazomethane (TSDM) is a less explosive analogue that may not be less toxic. We describe the first documented case of a fatality following TSDM exposure. 

Case report: A 46 year-old male pharmaceutical chemist presented to the ED with progressive dyspnea. At noon on the prior day, as part of a chemical analysis, he had mixed 2 mL of acetone with 25 mL of L-Malic acid to which was added TSDM dissolved in n-hexane. After 1 hour this mix was combined with an inert gas and a small amount of methylene chloride under a fume hood that was later reported to be nonfunctioning. 

Although he experienced no immediate mucous membrane irritation, 8 hours post-exposure he developed cough, pleuritic chest pain, hemoptysis, and progressive shortness of breath; by 15 hours, he presented to the ED in respiratory distress, hypoxic (PaO2 67), hypercarbic (PaCO2 46), and acidemic (pH 7.26). A chest radiograph showed an acute lung injury pattern. By 23 hours he required intubation. 

At 26 hours postexposure he developed profound bradycardia, refractory hypotension, and asystole. 

Case discussion: DM inhalation is known to cause fatal pulmonary edema without an immediate irritant prodrome and with a similar time course to this case. Structural modification of DM with an added trimethylsilyl group makes TSDM less explosive, but its propensity for lung injury is unclear. The chemical admixture as described in this case may have liberated nitrogen gas, but this should not have led to pulmonary injury; nitrogen dioxide should not have evolved. The toxicity may stem from residual DM present in the reagent or a direct effect of TSDM, its metabolites or breakdown products, or potential intracellular formaldehyde formation. 

Conclusion: The temporal relationship to exposure with inadequate ventilation and clinical effects similar to the analogue toxicant DM support a causal relationship between TSDM and acute lung injury. Additional safety data for this chemical is warranted, including experimental inhalation testing in animals.

The conclusion that I draw from this is not that chemists should not use TMS-diazomethane, but that they should exercise due caution with respect to the potentially fatal consequences of inhaling it. Work practices, engineering controls and PPE are all a part of that.

(Does anyone wonder if there's a misreporting of the scale of whatever test Mr. Daigle was performing? 2 mL of acetone and 25 mL (?) of malic acid does not make a ton of sense.) 

More Annie Dookhan fallout: crime lab chemist fired for not having chemistry degree

Another chemist has been fired from the Massachusetts state crime lab. Not for tampering (a la Annie Dookhan), but for having insufficient credentials and testifying falsely about it (via the Boston Globe):

The drug analyst who was fired for misstating her credentials allegedly falsely testified in federal court as recently as August that she has a degree in chemistry and possibly did so in dozens of state court cases as well, opening the door for a flood of new legal challenges related to the Hinton drug lab scandal.

The analyst, Kate Corbett, was fired by the State Police Friday for allegedly asserting that she holds a degree in chemistry from Merrimack College, though investigators determined that her degree is in sociology.

Corbett has not been accused of tampering with evidence, a charge that led to the conviction of Annie Dookhan, the woman at the center of the lab scandal.

But Corbett’s declarations in court that she is an expert with a chemistry degree could potentially derail convictions in those cases, say legal analysts, who say her testimony would be tainted.

The explanation is somewhat tragic, really:

However, State Police conducted background checks on the chemists’ education to ensure that the analysts met the agency’s standards for accreditation, and superiors learned of the discrepancies with Corbett’s education. 

According to a State Police report obtained by the Globe, Corbett earned a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Merrimack College in 2001, though she claimed on her resume that she obtained a degree in chemistry in 2003. 

A State Police investigation concluded that, in the two years after she first earned the sociology degree, she took enough credits that she believed would satisfy a chemistry degree. However, according to the State Police report, Corbett assumed she had earned a second degree without confirming it with Merrimack College. 

Also, according to the report, she would not have qualified for a second degree because she would have had to take an additional set of coursework to meet bachelor of science requirements.

I think her dismissal was the right response from an organization that is being seen as less than competent, charitably speaking. It's fairly apparent to me that her management is (yet again) at fault -- she started working for the lab in 2005. If her credentials were important (and it sure sounds like they were), then they should have been examined by her superiors.

Process Wednesday: on hiatus, 1 week

Process Wednesday will return on December 4, 2013. Count on it.

Up next will be this very informative OPRD ASAP on Merck's scale-up safety review, in case anyone's interested in reading it.

Also, today is as good as a day as any to point out that the venerable process chemist Quintus has a blog now, with lots of good entries, including this comment on a recent fun OPRD ASAP (the scale-up of a cubane diester!) 

Ask CJ: I want to go to graduate school to become an analytical chemist -- how do I do that?

From the inbox, a very interesting question from WD:

I'm [22-28], BS in chemistry, graduated with GPA < 3.0. I've had personal circumstances that prevented me from actually focusing on school during my whole undergrad. I'm at a much better place in life, considering further education. 

As of today, I'm at my first "real" job-- [redacted] chemist at [redacted] -- been here almost one year... I do a lot of [synthesis.]  

...I've had some chances to tinker and work with analytical instruments here. I loved it, even though it was only working with IC and GC/MS.  

My ideal career would involve studying these instruments, coming up with better methods and improvements to the instrument, and generally be around them 24/7. Would I be able to gain this sort of knowledge/experience via M.S or Ph.D? I was around a few organic, inorganic grad students while in undergrad so I know what their work consists of, but I don't really have a clue on what analytical chemistry grad students do, or what sort of angle they tackle this big umbrella term, "analytical chemistry".

Personally, I think WD is eminently eligible for graduate school in analytical chemistry, perhaps a master's program? I would think that WD would need to do some independent study and do well on the chemistry GRE in order to shore up their case. A nice letter from one of WD's analytical colleagues would probably be helpful, or perhaps a letter from an analytical chemistry professor at their old school (one that has reviewed WD's current work experience and has positive comments.)

All of that said, I know next to nothing about graduate school in analytical chemistry. Analytical chemists -- now's your time! What should WD do next? 

Annie Dookhan sentenced to 3-5 years in prison

Via the Boston Globe, a sad end to this sordid tale (how's that for a cliché?):

Annie Dookhan, the drug analyst who tampered with evidence and jeopardized tens of thousands of criminal convictions, was sentenced Friday to three to five years in state prison, closing a sorrowful chapter for the woman at the center of a scandal that continues to plague the state’s criminal justice system. The 36-year-old mother of a disabled child, whose marriage fell apart in the months after the scandal, softly pleaded guilty to 27 counts of misleading investigators, filing false reports, and tampering with evidence. She must also serve two years of probation and undergo mental health counseling, if needed. 

After the sentence was handed down, Dookhan struggled to hold back tears as she whispered with her lawyer before being led away in handcuffs by court officers. Two family members, believed to be her parents, watched from the courtroom gallery. Attorney General Martha Coakley, whose office prosecuted the case, said in an interview later that the conviction of Dookhan was only one part of an ongoing investigation into the quality of drug testing at the Hinton drug lab, but she said it was needed to bring some accountability for her crimes. 

“Certainly one of the victims in this case, and the actions of Annie Dookhan, is the public trust,” Coakley said. 

Dookhan’s lawyer, Nicolas A. Gordon, would not comment after Friday’s hearing. He had asked Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol S. Ball to sentence Dookhan to no more than a year in prison. Dookhan admitted to filing false test results and mixing drug samples, and to later lying under oath about her job qualifications, but she said it was only to boost her work performance. 

Prosecutors had asked that Dookhan serve 5 to 7 years in prison, but Ball kept to her earlier decision that she would sentence the chemist to 3 to 5 years, finding that, while Dookhan was a “broken person who has been undone by her own ambition,” the consequences of her crimes were still “nothing short of catastrophic.”

Considering how many people were sent to prison without proper due process (well into the dozens or hundreds, I suspect), her sentence is comically insufficient. Harry Elston is on record (on Twitter) saying that she should be serving the sum total of time served by the innocent people that she sent to prison; can't say I disagree with him.

UPDATE: Here's Carmen Drahl's story on the sentencing at C&EN. Via Carmen and WBUR, the judge's sentencing opinion, which gives some insight as to her logic. 

Job posting: synthetic organic chemist, Guelph, Ontario

From the inbox:

Wellington Laboratories Inc. is an internationally known supplier of environmental reference standards for use in environmental analysis and toxicological research (http://www.well-labs.com). The company is comprised of a Reference Standards Division, a Research Division, and an Analytical Division operating in a modern technical facility in Guelph, Ontario. The company’s foundation is in its staff which provide a strong combination of synthetic/organic and environmental/analytical backgrounds. We currently have an opening for a Synthetic Organic Chemist in the Reference Standards Division.

M.S./Ph.D., looks to be entry-level. Click here for details.  

Daily Pump Trap: 11/26/13 edition

Good morning! Between November 21 and November 25, there were 43 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 19 (44%) were academically connected and 21 (49%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources.

Whoa!: NIST is looking to hire a director of its new Office of Data and Informatics; salary is $123,758.00 - 155,500.00. I'm guessing this is a fairly senior position.

Richmond, VA: Altria desires an assistant QA manager; B.S., 8-10 years experience desired.

Peninsula, CA: Thermo Fisher looking for a senior chemist, M.S./Ph.D., 3-7 years experience desired. Looks to be research towards the analytical chemistry of carbohydrates? Interesting.

Cincinnati, OH: A very different kind of senior chemist, via Monster:

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) has a position available at the U.S. EPA in Cincinnati. This position is with a government grant specifically for seniors over the age of 55. The position applies knowledge of general methods for organic and inorganic analysis of environmental samples, including chromatographic, electrochemical and wet chemical methods.  DUTIES: Operate lab instruments, ensure lab equipment is in working order and properly calibrated, analyze drinking water samples and data record keeping. REQUIRED: To be eligible for this government grant you must be over 55, B.A. /B.S. degree in Chemistry, and 10 years related experience in organic (GC. LC) analytical instrumentation.  Word processing and spreadsheet skills are highly desired.   Send resume to: see.hr@ncoa.org. No phone calls please.

What in the heavens is this about?  

Ivory Filter Flask: 11/26/13 edition

Good morning! Between November 19 and November 25, there were 28 new academic positions posted to the C&EN Jobs website. The numbers:

Postdocs: 2
Tenure-track: 17
Temporary faculty: 3
Lecturers: 3
Staff: 3
US/non-US: 27/1

Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University is looking for a professor of chemistry or biology to join their ranks at the associate or full professor level.

Pullman, WA: Washington State has postdocs open for analytical chemistry research towards biofuels.

Louisville, KY: The University of Louisville searching for a biophysical chemist for an assistant professor position.

Carbondale, IL: SIU is looking for 2 tenure-track assistant professor positions, one in biochemistry, the other in analytical chemistry.

Bothell, WA: The University of Washington has 3 lecturer positions open; they seem to be seeking "dynamic individuals." (Eyeroll.)

How is this a consultant position?: This seems like a fairly standard chemical engineering postdoc/staff scientist position at LSU, but it's labeled as an "information technology consultant." Weird. 

The latest ACS Form 990

The latest ACS form 990. Last year's post is here.

As you can see, the directors don't get paid. 

Not so for the officers of ACS, which are all firmly in the 1-2%. 

How their pay is structured, regarding bonuses and regular compensation.

The link between pesticides and genetics and Parkinson's disease

A really fascinating article by Lauren Wolf on the link between pesticides and Parkinson's. To me, this is the key passage:

Still, “the vast majority of us are not getting Parkinson’s, and the vast majority of people who work with pesticides don’t get Parkinson’s,” Goldman says. “So there’s obviously something else at play.” 

That “something,” today’s scientists believe, is genetic susceptibility. Along with Tanner and Kamel, Goldman explored this gene-environment interaction recently by surveying a group of male farmers. The researchers genotyped the participants’ DNA to determine which subjects had mutations in a gene coding for glutathione S-transferase T1. This type of enzyme is responsible for cleansing cells of foreign substances such as pesticides and protecting against oxidative stress. 

Men who were exposed to paraquat and who had nonfunctional glutathione S-transferase were 11 times more likely to have Parkinson’s disease than nonexposed men who had functional enzymes (Mov. Disord. 2012, DOI: 10.1002/mds.25216). 

Another recent study examined the association of pesticides, Parkinson’s, and mutations to a protein pump called P-glycoprotein. This macromolecule sits on cells lining blood vessels in the brain, defending a person’s gray matter by pushing out molecular intruders. 

Agricultural workers in France who were exposed to organochlorine insecticides and who had gene mutations affecting P-glycoprotein’s performance were three to seven times more likely to have Parkinson’s than those who weren’t exposed (Arch. Neurol. 2010, DOI: 10.1001/archneurol.2010.101).

I am always looking for the mechanism behind chemical/epidemiological studies. Genetic variation in how we deal with xenobiotics makes sense to me; when I say to my non-chemist friends, "you have a liver and it does its job well", there's something to the thought that well, different people have different livers.

[This will also lend itself to lots of #chemophobia-tinged scares, where members of the general public may/will diagnose themselves with inefficient/insufficient CYP450, etc. Can't win 'em all.]