View From Your Hood: Seattle sunset edition

Credit: Indrek Kalvet

Via a reader Indrek Kalvet: "The otherwise gorgeous view from our lab looking over the Seattle skyline and the Olympic mountains got a serious upgrade by this beautiful sunset."

(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.)

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 298 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 298 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.)

19 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 19 new positions posted for February 4.

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: 274 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 274 positions.

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

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: ship it! edition

In a letter from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the general manager of Hangzhou Guoguang Touring Commodity Co., Ltd.:

2. Your firm failed to establish an adequate quality control unit with the responsibility and authority to approve or reject all components, drug product containers, closures, in-process materials, packaging materials, labeling, and drug products (21 CFR 211.22(a)). 

Your quality unit failed to exercise its authority to approve, release, and distribute OTC drug products before all analytical testing was completed and reviewed. In addition, your firm approved and released OTC drug products that did not meet their final specification. For example:

• For [redacted] batches of [redacted], your sales manager was provided with test results from your contract laboratory that were out of specification [redacted] for [redacted] assay. The batches were distributed without the quality unit’s review of the failing test results.
• A batch of [redacted] (Lot [redacted]) was released by your quality unit on August 3, 2017, and was shipped on August 7, 2017, before your firm received the results of assay testing. 

In your response, you provided an updated standard operating procedure and the associated training records concerning the release of OTC drug products with inadequate quality oversight. However, your response is inadequate because you have not determined the root cause of this violation.

 Eh, the assay probably would have shown the material to be in spec anyway... ship it! 

In other news...

Serious fire at St. Andrews' University in Scotland.

This story of a reprimanded professor at the University of Minnesota's medical school is quite remarkable. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Mitch Jacoby on why glass recycling is less common in the US
• Interesting story on the turnaround of MFG Chemical in Georgia (by Rick Mullin)
• The pictures of the Cave of Crystals is just crazy pants - don't miss (by Emma Hiolski)
• Vaping flavoring chemicals are bad for you, who knew? (by Tien Nguyen)
• Lanxess is hit by IP theft (by Marc Reisch)
• This TSMC story about bad photoresists is just... irresistable? (by Michael McCoy)
• Fascinating story about a polyvinyl chloride accident in China (by Jean-François Tremblay)

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 559 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 559 positions.

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

On February 13, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 511 positions.

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

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current 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.

Postdoctoral position: self-assembling peptide design, Korendovych lab, Syracuse University

Via Twitter, a postdoctoral position at Syracuse: 

A postdoctoral position will be opening in the Korendovych lab at Syracuse University, subject to final approval by HR. The lab’s major foci include designing self-assembling peptides for catalysis (e.g. Nat. Chem. 2014, 303; ACIE 2016, 9017 and ACS Cat. 2018, 59) and minimalist design and directed evolution of protein catalysts (e.g. JACS 2015, 14905; ACIE 2013, 6246, Nat. Commun. 2017, 14876).  

Experience in peptide synthesis and characterization, familiarity with spectroscopy, biophysical characterization techniques, recombinant protein expression and ability to handle air sensitive samples are desirable. Most importantly, the Korendovych lab is looking for an energetic, motivated, critically thinking individual.  

Interested candidates should contact me directly at ikorendo@syr.edu.    

Best wishes to those interested.  

Job posting: two positions, Davidson College, Davidson, NC

From the inbox, two positions at Davidson College: 

VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN CHEMISTRY and INSTRUCTOR IN CHEMISTRY at DAVIDSON COLLEGE 

The Chemistry Department at Davidson College invites applications for a two-year visiting position in chemistry at the Assistant Professor level and a two-year visiting position in Chemistry at the Instructor level to both begin July 1, 2019.   

Details regarding the chemistry program can be found on the department website (http://www.davidson.edu/academics/chemistry). Please direct inquiries to Durwin Striplin, Professor and Chair of Chemistry, at dustriplin@davidson.edu.  Only online applications submitted to http://employment.davidson.edu will be considered.  More detailed information can be found on the employment site at Davidson College.   

At Davidson College, we believe the college grows stronger by recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff committed to building an inclusive community.  In order to achieve and sustain educational excellence, we seek to hire talented faculty and staff across the intersections of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, political perspectives, abilities, cultures, and national origins.

 Best wishes to those interested. 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 18 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 18 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.

Moisture balance pans

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• Marshall Brennan is hosting Chemistry Bumper Cars
• Sustainable Nano on chemistry and art in Morocco
• Prof. Yudin's latest
• Kat Day on the periodic table
• Cool "Up Goer Five" take on the periodic table

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!

LOL skills gap

From the inbox, a hilarious example of "skills gap" language (emphasis mine)

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is warning that the UK needs to fill an increasing number of science skills gaps in order to retain its prominent position for medicines and vaccines research and development.... 

...“We have long been concerned by the skills gap in clinical pharmacology, as identified in the ABPI’s report. These skills are crucial for leading research and clinical trials, and for ensuring the best healthcare for patients,” commented Dr Anna Zecharia, director of Policy at the British Pharmacological Society. 

To help address the situation, the trade association says it is working with allied organisations, including the British Science Association, to inspire more young people to pursue STEM careers, and is involved in the development of standards for a new high-level Clinical Pharmacology Scientist apprenticeship.

This situation is terrible, which is why we're (checks notes) talking to pre-college students about studying STEM, making sure that our solution is at least 4 years out?

(Also, there aren't enough clinical pharmacologists in the UK? Surely this is not a huge field there? (There were 120,000 medicinal scientists in 2016, clinical pharmacologists fall under this classification in the US. I can't imagine there are more than ???? 12,000 ??? clinical pharmacologists in the UK? with a need for ~400 new ones a year? Who knows?) 

Got a career dilemma?

I'm always game for writing answer requests for advice in my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 288 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 288 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.)

18 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 18 new positions posted for February 4.

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 13 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 13 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 270 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 270 positions.

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

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: different HPLC conditions and other test methods edition

An epistle from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the Chief Executive Officer of Soleo in Gyeonggi-do, Korea:

2.      Your firm failed to establish and document the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of its test methods (21 CFR 211.165(e)).
Your firm did not validate analytical test methods used to determine assay for the active ingredients in your drug product before release for distribution. Your notebook and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) report included different instrumentation parameters for the same active ingredient analysis. For example, in the HPLC report the flow rate and injection amount for biotin was [redacted] mL/[redacted] and [redacted] µL, while in the notebook these parameters were recorded as [redacted] mL/[redacted] and [redacted] µL.

In your response, you stated, “In the main component analysis, other components besides the main component will be subjected to quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis through an external analysis institution”.

Your response is inadequate because you did not provide sufficient information regarding the validation of your test methods, including a timeframe to complete method validation and which analyses your third-party will be conducting. You also did not provide an interim plan of action.

I guess "uh, we'll have someone else do the QC testing" won't fly as an excuse.  

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Microplastics (by Alex Scott)
• Cool story by Alex Tullo on new engine oils and their effects on MPG
• Interesting interview with the new president of Chemours (by Marc Reisch) 
• I'm no soothsayer, but I wonder if the spin-off of Chemours may be seen as one of the watershed events in environmental history of the last ten years...
• Not in a good way, mind you
• Important article on the slow-but-sure decoupling of admission to graduate school in chemistry and the GRE (by Bethany Halford) 
• Slowing in chemicals purchases in the 4th quarter (by Melody Bomgardner)
• "Committee on Ethics encourages member input" (by Judith Currano)