The economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2012, the worst quarter since the economy crawled out of the last recession, hampered by the lower military spending, fewer exports and smaller business stockpiles, preliminary government figures indicated on Wednesday. The Fed, in a separate appraisal, said economic activity “paused in recent months.”
Still, economists said the seemingly bleak gross domestic product report was not a sign that another recession was looming. The preliminary data showed relatively strong spending by consumers and businesses, even as military spending posted its sharpest quarterly drop in 40 years.
Forecasters expect that growth this year will rebound to a still-anemic 1.5 percent, a little lower than the pace it has managed over the last three years.Soooo, that's not good news. That said, my morning Wonkbook e-mail was full of people telling me this was due to a blip in defense spending, a statistical fluke, etc., etc. I can believe that, but here's what I want to know -- if we're in a recovery, why are GDP predictions for 2013 lower than 2012?
Responsibilities
The Cardiovascular Metabolic and Endocrine (CVMED) Design Chemist provides scientific leadership in the medicinal chemistry group aligned to the CVMED Research Unit (CVMED RU). This individual is responsible for leading the medicinal chemistry effort on 2-3 projects within the CVMED RU in collaboration with the CVMED Biology Group and synthetic chemistry.
An outward looking focus is important given the network of resources within World Wide Medicinal Chemistry (WWMC) that will be leveraged to advance CVMED programs. These include, but are not limited to, structural biology, computational chemistry, chemical biology, drug safety and drug metabolism.
Collaboration with additional external academic collaborators will be necessary to advance the CVMED portfolio and drive discipline excellence within the CVMED RU and WWMC. This design chemist will be responsible for all of the molecular design for their assigned programs and will be directly accountable for their designs advancing projects from exploratory stages to delivery of clinical candidates that survive to positive proof of concept (POC). The design chemist is also accountable for working with synthetic chemists to ensure that design and synthetic excellence drive appropriate selection of target compounds and speed to FIH. (emphasis CJ's) The design chemist is accountable for driving a strong scientific agenda wherein internal research capabilities are integrated with a broader research network to drive new thinking and capabilities in design.
Qualifications Doctoral level degree, or equivalent with at least 5 years experience in the
pharmaceutical industry and 3 years experience leading design efforts on a project.
Strong working knowledge and track record of delivery in drug discovery - from exploratory chemistry to clinical testing.
The role is located in Cambridge, Mass and will require visits to the Groton Connecticut sites for face to face meetings. The frequency of these visits will be 6-12 times per year.
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| A fairly standard sight glass Credit: John C. Ernst |
Occasionally, the interface is so clean that it is impossible to see. In such cases, a conductivity measurement can be most useful to distinguish between the aqueous and the organic phase. It is also useful to sprinkle a pinch of Celite (diatomaceous earth) into the batch. The Celite tends to collect at the interface and helps to accentuate it. The Celite of course must be removed later by polish filtration, and so this is not recommended during the final processing steps.One of the things that I've mentioned before is that sometimes, it's actually quite difficult to see the reaction in the plant, because you can't see through the reactor walls like you can with a separatory funnel. You have all sorts of visual cues for a separation through a all-glass separatory funnel: you can typically watch the little bubbles of phases, the vortices, you can shine a flashlight into it (great trick, works like a charm.)
I'm curious if you've ever polled your readers/run a piece on the "disadvantages" of getting your graduate and undergraduate degree from the same research institution (from a top 10 program, in particular).
...based on life circumstances ([redacted], not wanting to be out of school for too long before going back, etc.), I'm looking at getting a PhD from the same place I got my BS. I've had a few years of research experience in another lab (same institution, though), and I'd be shifting fields somewhat from my undergraduate research focus.
Any thoughts from you or the readers regarding getting academic and/or industrial positions? Is it as simple as explaining the circumstances to a potential employer?That's a good question -- I don't quite know the right answer, but I suspect that if it works for you (i.e. you find a good group, that you did well during your graduate work), it does not pose a problem.
AAT Bioquest is currently seeking an accomplished synthetic chemist. This position offers an excellent opportunity for a highly motivated individual to perform cutting edge research work in developing biological assay probes. A primary focus of the role will be route development and final compound preparation as well as complex problem solving in organic synthesis. Major responsibilities will involve participating in the design and synthesis, purification and characterization of small molecules. Successful candidates will be motivated, creative, hands-on laboratory chemists with the ability to interact effectively with team members.
Your Job performance will be reviewed within 12 month (sic) with an opportunity to become a staff research scientist.I would like to know, why not just have a probationary period and call this person a "staff scientist (probationary)"? Answer: probably money-related, i.e. so we can pay them less. In my opinion, calling these positions "postdocs" is bad, and needs to stop. A postdoc is supposed to be a learning/training experience and not an extended interview. /moralizing
By reducing chemistry’s spotlight to an argument about the good and the bad of chemicals, you lose the bigger, beautiful picture of chemistry. Argument outreach, lovable chemicals outreach, neither are affective because chemistry is not just about chemicals. Maybe it is not that big of an issue, most of what I read seems choir directed anyway. But as a member of that choir, I would like to request a different tune.As the author of the occasional post that cracks wise about the ignorance of chemicals and the public's chemophobia, I thought this might be a fun opportunity to talk to her about it. She also had a fantastic section in her post on chemophobia and parenting, which (as a parent), I was in profound sympathy with.
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| Credit: C&EN, ACS Starting Salary Survey |
...many other fledgling B.A. and B.S. chemical professionals have been struggling to find jobs in their chosen discipline. In the most recent American Chemical Society survey of new graduates in chemistry and related fields, in 2011, 14% of recent bachelor’s degree recipients reported that they didn’t have a job but were seeking one, up from 12% in 2010 (C&EN, June 4, 2012, page 36). In contrast, 9% of new Ph.D. grads said they were seeking employment in 2011, up from 6% in 2010.
Results of the 2012 new-graduates survey won’t be available until April of this year. In the meantime, a sampling of career services coordinators at universities across the U.S. reports that the employment landscape for new B.S. and B.A. chemists, biochemists, and chemical engineers hasn’t changed much from last year.
For B.S. graduates in the chemical sciences, the job market “appears to be even a little more challenging this year,” observes O. Ray Angle, director of University Career Services at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Among its 2012 B.S. grads in chemistry and biochemistry, 33% found jobs, 50% went on to grad school, and 17% are still seeking jobs and remain unemployed, Angle notes. In comparison, 43% of its 2011 grads found jobs, 47% went on to grad school, and only 10% were seeking jobs.The article is full of interesting stories of young chemists' (successful and less so) job hunts -- best wishes to them.
Although language in the report specifically highlighted the crowded market for Ph.D. chemists, in interviews with Science Careers, members of the ACS commission downplayed the idea of shrinking graduate student enrollment, focusing instead on the need for departments to broaden the range of skills they teach so that there is less redundancy among Ph.D. graduates. One of the major obstacles to young chemists finding jobs, they say, is that too many departments prepare students with the exact same sets of skills....
[snip]
..."Obviously, the biotech industry has collapsed in terms of employment, but that doesn't mean that chemists are not being employed," (Georgia Tech chemistry professor Paul) Houston says. "There is a large chemical industry, and there are still some very good jobs at the bigger chemical companies, but there are a lot of jobs at start-up companies and smaller outfits, too. So one of the things that we thought a lot about is what kind of training does a graduate student need to be successful in that kind of market."
[snip]
...Resistance can be found even in the commission's ranks. (Georgia Tech chemistry professor) Schuster, for example, does not believe that chemistry departments should reduce their graduate enrollments. "Opportunities in chemistry, viewed as the 'molecular science', are growing as disciplines such as biology and materials science become ever more 'molecular,' " he writes. " 'Population control' is not necessary or desirable. What is required is increased diversity of skills and perspective so that students see and embrace all of the opportunities of the 'molecular science.' "I respectfully remind Professors Houston and Schuster of a variety of facts:
UC Davis chemist David Snyder was arraigned this afternoon on three counts of reckless disposal of hazardous waste, three counts of possession of a destructive device or explosive, one count of possession of materials with intent to make a destructive device, and two counts of possessing or bringing a firearm onto campus. All ten counts are felonies.Dr. Kemsley notes the AP's report, where they talk to Dr. Snyder's attorney:
Snyder's defense attorney, Linda Parisi, said her client had the materials for research. "What happened in Dr. Snyder's apartment was an accident. He harbored no intent to build or detonate an explosive device," she said. "He is a chemist working on a variety of projects."I would really like to know a couple of things:
The Chemist II, R & D develops chemical products and product applications with some supervision and guidance in the design and test of various analytical equipment, subassemblies, and chemical formulations for use with Hach's systems for analysis.Yeah, that.
That “‘small chemical explosion’ in a UC Davis student housing complex” wasn’t meth. The university researcher who set off the explosion, 32-year-old Ph.D. chemist David Snyder, was arrested over the weekend on explosives and firearms possession charges.Literature searches indicate that Dr. Snyder is a synthetic chemist, with a patent and a J. Med. Chem. paper to his name (and also a regional ACS conference poster.) He's apparently a postdoc, if you look at California state employee records.
...Chemists have often had an edge over those trained in the biomedical sciences because of the large number of research positions for chemists in industry. But in recent years, industry hires have lagged – in part because of mergers and acquisitions in pharma and in part because of a fragile economy...
What can be done to solve the imbalance? First, graduate programs should be required to tell students the truth about job placements. Second, the incentive to staff labs with graduate students and postdocs must be altered. Raise the ‘wage’ (that will get the attention of PIs); require faculty to develop alternative training tracks for students. In other words, make faculty understand that there is a serious cost to using graduate students and make them pay for part of it out of their research budgets and their time. Third, put more funds into supporting graduate students on fellowships and training grants and fewer funds into supporting students as graduate research assistants. Fourth, create incentives for faculty to staff their labs with permanent help rather than relying on temporary labour. Finally, if need be, lessen the coupling between research and training. While effective training requires a research environment, effective research can be done outside a training environment. If universities don’t have what it takes to exercise self-control, then turn some of the research funds over to institutes that are not in the training business. Abstinence is, after all, the most effective form of birth control.I think it's the fourth and fifth problems that are problematic for the long-term. How to (de?)institutionalize research (creating permanent staff, moving to research institutes outside of academia) without destroying incentives and creativity? I don't know if I have an answer to that, and I don't know if it's the right question.
Paula Stephan is professor of economics at Georgia State University, US, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is the author of the book How Economics Shapes Science.
...The next day there was going to be a big meeting. I forgot to say that before I left Los Alamos, Oppenheimer said to me, "Now, the following people are technically able* down there at Oak Ridge: Mr. Julian Webb, Mr. So-and-so, and so on." I want you to make sure that these people are at the meeting, that you tell them how the thing can be made safe, so that they really understand."
I said, "What if they're not at the meeting? What am I supposed to do?"
He said, "Then you should say: Los Alamos cannot accept the responsibility for the safety of the Oak Ridge plant unless _________!"...
...When I arrived, sure enough, the big shots in the company and the technical people that I wanted were there, and the generals and everyone who was interested in this very serious problem. That was good because the plant would have blown up if nobody had paid attneion to this problem.
There was a Lieutenant Zumwalt who took care of me. He told me that the colonel said that I shouldn't tell them how the neutrons work and all the details because we want to keep things separate, so just tell them what to do to keep it safe.
I said, "In my opinion it is impossible for them to obey a bunch of rules unless they understand how it works. It's my opinion that it's only going to work if I tell them, and Los Alamos cannot accept the responsibility for the safety of the Oak Ridge plant unless they are fully informed as to how it works!"Thankfully for Oak Ridge, they listened to Feynman. I don't often think to myself that "washing one's hands publicly" of a matter is an effective means of communicating chemical safety issues to the plant. But I sometimes wonder what would happen if I did so...
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| Orange text indicates text that is the same words. |
BOSTON (CBS) - A chemist from the State Crime Laboratory in Amherst has been arrested.
Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Sunday, Sonja Farak, 35, of Northampton, was arrested Saturday night and charged with allegedly tampering with drug evidence, possessing class A drugs and possessing class B drugs. Coakley said the two drugs were heroin and cocaine. Farak is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Eastern Hampshire District Court...
Coakley said she does not believe Farak’s arrest jeopardizes the reliability of drug certificates or puts into question the fairness of trials for drug defendants.
The Amherst Drug Laboratory stores and analyzes alleged controlled substances seized by local and state police. On Friday, members of the Amherst Laboratory contacted State Police to report a discrepancy in the controlled substance inventory held in evidence, according to Coakley’s office.
State Police say after an investigation they believe Farak removed a substance from a case that had previously tested positive for cocaine and replaced it with a counterfeit substance that no longer tested positive...One hopes that this was sort of fluky. (Hopes!)
The unemployment rate for ACS chemists fell from the all-time high of 4.6% as of March 2011 to 4.2% in March 2012. This number was still high, and CEPA was concerned.
The percentage of ACS chemists who experienced some period of unemployment during 2011 was 8.2%, down slightly from the year before, with a median length of unemployment of four months. Industry members had the greatest probability of a period of unemployment.
Some 12% of ACS member chemists said that in the prior three years they had accepted a position or compensation package that was less than their previous position in order to maintain employment.
In addition, 9% of chemists felt their current position was not in-line with their professional goals, 8% felt it was not commensurate with their level of education or training, 6% said it was not professionally challenging, and 6% said it was not related to the field of their degree.
The rise and fall of salaries for chemists measures the demand for our services and expertise. In 2012, salaries in real dollars declined for Ph.D. and M.S. chemists, while B.S. chemists kept pace with inflation. In addition, many members reported that they were “underemployed” and that some employers were hiring higher degree holders at “rock-bottom” prices.
Overall, the majority predicted their situation would be about the same in March of 2013, with only 25% expecting their employment situation to improve. Interestingly, postdocs and those currently unemployed were significantly more optimistic than those employed full-time or part-time.
The percentage of respondents employed in domestic chemistry-related manufacturing jobs continued to decline, while the share of nonmanufacturing jobs also showed decline. Self-employment remained stable, accounting for roughly 2% of respondents.There's some new information in there, so I'll be circling back to this. For now, do be sure to check out the slides that are attached with the report, including the still-irritating comparison of ACS members with construction workers and nursing home attendants*.
Community colleges are jammed with people who’ve already got college degrees, people trying to get practical degrees. The nursing shortage is no longer. Even the employers have said there’s no shortage of nurses now, because so many people were chasing those certificates and those degrees and those learning experiences.Thanks to @CoulombicExplosion, I see some confirmation for that opinion this week via CNN:
About 43% of newly licensed RNs still do not have jobs within 18 months after graduation, according to a survey conducted by the American Society of Registered Nurses. "The process has become more and more discouraging, especially since hospitals want RNs with experience, yet nobody is willing to give us this experience," said Ronak Soliemannjad, 26, who has been searching for a nursing job since she graduated in June.They interview Professor Peter Buerhaus, a registered nurse and a health economist, who has an interesting hypothesis:
Prior to the recession, about 73,000 nurses left the profession each year due to childbearing, retirement, burning out or death. But when the recession hit, spouses lost jobs, 401(k)s lost money, and facing financial uncertainty, fewer nurses chose to leave work, Buerhaus said. "Many of those nurses are still in the workforce, and they're not leaving because we don't see a convincing jobs recovery yet," Buerhaus said. "They're clogging the market and making it harder for these new RNs to get a job."My thoughts on the CNN piece:
Mass Spectrometry Post Doc responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:Here's the question that I have for Eurofins and anyone who might be considering this position -- how are the responsibilities any different than a junior/senior scientist position? If so, why are they calling the position a "postdoctoral fellow"? (This is a question that anyone who is contemplating an industrial postdoc should ask themselves.)
- Analytical method development and validation for target compounds in complex matrices utilizing LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS
- Additional research objectives will be to identify and implement novel analytical methods in support of product development within R&D
- Cross-functional interactions with R&D scientists with diverse backgrounds and experience.
- Position may require minimal travel within the continental U.S.
I thought we needed to do a better job of making eye protection cool/fun, so first, we ordered them some safety glasses like “real scientists” wear (for general use) in lab. I bought three varieties of glasses from my favorite safety company. Each pair was only about $2—well worth the investment.
At the next club meeting, we let the students choose what model and color they wanted. (To my surprise, the boys all wanted red frames while the girls opted for the black or clear frames.) Finally, in order to let the kids establish a personal connection to their PPE, we brought some knickknacks to let them personalize their glasses. These included rolls of colored tape and packets of jewel stickers that the kids could use to “bling out” their frames. This model had particularly wide frames that gave the kids a bunch of space to decorate.I think this is a really interesting idea with a potential application to training actual young scientists (i.e. summer interns or 1st year graduate students). Most university chemistry stockrooms will only have a few models of different kinds of laboratory glasses. Concerns about fit or comfort (or different shapes of faces) aren't really ever taken into consideration. Why couldn't young scientists get a fitting (or better yet) customization for their own faces for their lab glasses? (They could even maybe build prototypes and get them sent off for actual manufacture.)
In my job, I make plans to make lots of stuff. When you make lots of stuff, you have to do it different than if you make little bits of stuff.
First, someone says they will buy lots of stuff from my team. Then, we plan to make the stuff in little bits. We find out how other people made the stuff in books; sometimes they tell people how they did it. Sometimes, we can do what they said they did. Sometimes, we can not. Sometimes, people made stuff in ways that make sense; sometimes, they did not. Sometimes, people made stuff in ways that can not be done when we make lots of stuff. Then, we have to figure out how to change it to a better way. Sometimes, there are many steps to make the stuff. We try to take away as many steps as possible; each step takes time and money. We make the stuff in little bits.
We also make sure the stuff is good enough. There are lots of ways to make sure the stuff is good enough; we ask the person buying the stuff how to make sure the stuff is good enough.
We say ahead of time how we are going to make the stuff, and how good it is going to be. We have people to make sure the stuff is as good as we say that it is going to be.
Then, we give it to another team that actually makes the stuff, along with our plan. We tell them about the plan. They follow (sometimes) the plan and they make some stuff, more than we made. They dry the stuff, and we make sure the stuff is good. Once that is done, they make LOTS of stuff. When that happens, my team and I can worry. We stay up all night sometimes to make sure the stuff is good. After they dry the stuff and we make sure it's good, we send it to the people who are buying it and they say it is good.
Then, they give us money. Sometimes, they ask us to make the stuff again. Sometimes, they do not.
Making stuff is always fun, but making lots of stuff is even more fun, but it can make you very nervous.Readers, how do you think I did? If you want to try it, here's the link to the text editor that will tell you when you went outside of the list.
Mechanochemistry has been used for the solvent-free preparation of BH3 for the semiconductor industry. Such ultrahigh-intensity grinding can lead to internal temperatures above 500 °C, and vibratory ball mills were used for the solvent-free preparation of calixarenes.
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| Planetary Micro Mill model “Pulverisette 7” (classic line) (Fritsch GmbH) |
KF-Al2O3 (5 g, 32 wt % of KF), 4-bromoacetophenone (2, 5 mmol, 1.106 g), phenylboronic acid (1, 6.19 mmol, 0.755 g), Pd(OAc)2 (0.18 mmol, 3.56 mol % 0.04 g) were added to the grinding beaker (volume: 45 mL) together with an adequate number of milling balls and placed inside the Planetary Micro Mill model “Pulverisette 7” (Fritsch GmbH). Another grinding beaker filled with a similar batch was mounted on the opposite position of the rotating disc. The mixtures were subsequently milled with the respective rpm and time. The crude product was immediately extracted with 2 mL of deionized water and 3 mL of ethyl acetate.From their conclusions:
When carrying out the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction with high rpm at adequate reaction times and grinding material one can obtain quantitative yields. The following order of the investigated parameters regarding their positive influence on the formation of 3 [CJ: the Suzuki product] can be derived : rpm > milling time > size of milling balls > number of milling balls > grinding material.So it doesn't appear that there are any examples on kilogram-scale as of yet that I've found -- I'm sure I'll find an example soon enough!
Workers’ share of the Social Security payroll tax, which had been temporarily cut from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent for two years, was immediately snapping back to the higher level.
The result is smaller paychecks for all wage earners, with the country’s economic recovery still sluggish and unemployment stubbornly high. A worker making $50,000 in 2013 will take home $38.46 less per two-week paycheck, or $1,000 per year.A look back tells me that I didn't expect the payroll tax cut to be extended, and I was wrong. Well, I guess my payments to my bookie will be a little lower this month. (kidding kidding) Here's hoping that the extra money is going straight into some pharma retiree's pocket for a job well done.
I recently took advantage of a slow period at work to scan my part II thesis (from [CJ edit: the 80's]) and my Ph.D. thesis (from [CJ edit: the late 80s]). Both of them (and in particular my Ph.D.) contain unpublished results that may none the less be useful to someone (particularly if they are investigating [CJ edit: synthesis of a unique alkaloid], which does seem to crop up in the literature from time to time), if only to save them from repeating the same experiments.
So my question is, do you know of a suitable place on-line to deposit such information?I frankly have no idea, although I note that there is no chemistry Arxiv. Readers, a little help?
