Petrochemical fire blocking the Houston Ship Channel

Via Reuters, this update on an ongoing situation: 

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Fallout from a petrochemical fire outside Houston continued for a sixth day on Saturday, with emergency workers struggling to remove volatile fuels from exposed tanks and ship traffic disrupted on the nation’s busiest oil port. 

A fire that burned for three days broke out last Sunday at Mitsui & Co’s Intercontinental Terminals Co site in Deer Park, Texas. It damaged or destroyed 11 giant tanks each holding up to 3 million gallons of fuels used to make gasoline and plastics. 

On Friday, flames again erupted for an hour and halted efforts to remove volatile fuels that leaked when a containment wall breached. There were no injuries reported on Friday.

According to this Houston Chronicle report from Sunday, the fire is out, but the Ship Channel is still closed. It will be interesting to see if this incident has any repercussions - I suppose I don't know what the baseline is for incidents with petrochemical fires in the Houston Ship Channel. 

26 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 18 new positions for March 19 and 8 for March 17.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 290 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 290 positions.

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

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

What was your company's patent award?

Via Twitter, a great question:

Hey @Chemjobber have you ever done an unofficial survey of what chemists get from their companies (if anything) for granted patents? Would be interesting to know how that varies by company

This was one of the typical responses:

Two of the three companies I was co-inventor I got nothing, the third gave us crisp dollar bills. 

I am also curious about which companies put associate/non-PhD level chemists as co-inventors - inventorship seems to vary by company. 

I particularly liked this response:

We got a silver dollar when patent was assigned. It was part of the IP contract that the company "bought" the rights for $1. There was also a plaque for the research hall and one for each inventor. All presented during quarterly award meetings. Peer recognition is a huge prize.

Readers, what's your favorite patent badge of honor?  

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 16 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 16 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 575 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 575 positions.

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

On March 13, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 528 positions.

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

Want to chat?  Here is a link to the March through April (?) open thread.

Here is a link to the January through March 2019 open thread. Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

2018-19 Chemistry Bumper Cars is at Marshall Brennan's site.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 31 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 31 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.

The weirdest article you will read today

From a friend of the blog, this odd Daily Beast piece with a chemist who worked for ISIS: 

“ISIS was looking for scientists,” said Ahmed, a 36-year-old follower of the so-called Islamic State who holds a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry and drug design. And Ahmed was looking for a chance to put his scientific knowledge to use.... 

...While Ahmed started his work for ISIS by spreading this research and interacting on web forums on behalf of the group in 2015 and 2016, he fully intended to join the lab in Mosul upon his graduation and was confident of his ability to create the desired chemical and biological weapons. At the time, he believed ISIS was already an established state and would continue to expand. 

“I would upload and [my research] would get read by the high command of the Caliphate,” he told us. “They were interested in my posts and asked how we can acquire these chemicals. I also summarized books from a Russian website. There are loads of [scientific] journals I could access on the web and it’s not classified.  I told them everything was in my summary, but also told them, you must have a real lab.” 

...He hoped to branch out from poisons and plagues to explore new technologies for delivering them. “I learned in the engineering world they [ISIS] were interested in anti-aircraft missiles and drones. They complain about coalition jet fighters destroying their troops on the ground. The admin on the website, there was a guy on the website who provided links from a British university to make drones from organic synthesis to make the whole body of the drone. It was some kind of solution, liquid phase synthesis, polymer science. We have already developed anti-aircraft missiles. We were going to use them.”

This is just a weird one, and I'm not convinced (or at least I'd like other corroboration) that ISIS got as involved in chemical weapons research as this fellow (who seems not so reliable) says....

View From Your Hood: blurry Midwest edition

A recent photo while on the road. (Sorry, it's not very good. Send in your pics! They'll be better than mine.)

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in (with a caption and preference for name/anonymity, please) at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.) 

"We offer competitive salary based on qualifications."

Via friends on Twitter, this perplexing ad:

Organic Synthetic Chemist with PhD Degree
Sun Innovations Inc - Fremont, CA 94539  

$50,000 - $60,000 a year 

A Silicon Valley high-tech company has an opening for a Material Chemist with the following qualifications:

1. Advanced (e.g. Ph.D.) degree on Organic Chemistry or Material Chemistry, with good synthesis training and skills
2. Some R&D or product development experience on synthesizing organic and organometallic molecules or materials;
3. Familiar with the various organic synthesis methods and processes, experts in using and keeping/running chemistry lab and tools.
4. Knowledge of fluorescent materials and dyes, familiar with relationship of molecular structure and optic properties of molecules
5. Good communication skill, both verbal and writing;
6. Energetic, highly motivated and independent in conducting R&D
7. 2-3 relevant references

We are developing advanced optical materials and devices for the display technologies of the future. We offer a very pleasant and excited small working environment along with the opportunity to be exposed to cutting edge science and technologies. We also offer the potential of significant career growth as a leader in a high tech company, as well as great entrepreneur experience in developing and commercializing advanced technologies in Silicon Valley. 

We offers excellent benefits, including medical insurance, paid holidays and vacations, retirement saving with company matching. We offer competitive salary based on qualifications. 

Job Type: Full-time
Salary: $50,000.00 to $60,000.00 /year

That's... not very much money for the Bay Area.  

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 313 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 313 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.)

41 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 15 new positions for March 12, 11 new positions for March 9, 19 new positions for March 5 and 6 for February 28. 

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 14 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 14 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 285 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 285 positions.

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

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread.