Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Daily Pump Trap: 9/24/13 edition

Good morning! Between September 19 and September 23, there were 105 new positions posted on the C&EN Jobs website. Of these, 50 (48%) were academically connected and 38 (36%) were from Kelly Scientific Resources.

Devens, MA: Johnson Matthey Pharma Services looking to hire 4 chemist/engineer-types for process development, including a B.S./M.S. position with 3 to 5 years experience. 56.2-70k offered -- am I crazy for thinking that's a touch low?

Berkeley, CA: LBNL is looking to hire a postdoc for its Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis; looks to be materials-oriented, but I'm not sure I fully understand what this position is about:
Responsibilities:
  • Complement the high-throughput (HT) experimentation effort at JCAP South with a synergistic HT computational effort on materials structure prediction, solid phase stability, band structure and aqueous dissolution as a function of changing oxygen and water environment (pH and standard hydrogen potential) parameters.
  • Structure prediction of ternary and quaternary ionic systems, with the ability to evaluate thermodynamic stability of new phases from first-principles calculations.
  • Evaluate potentially metastable structures (e.g., likely to be synthesizable, particularly under the various non-equilibrium synthesis conditions in HT experiments).
  • Conduct rapid calculations and data mining of stable crystalline compounds in a given chemical phase space.
Beats me.

Ewing, NJ: FMC Corporation desires a senior Ph.D. analytical chemist (10+ years.)

Shimadzu: Another 3 positions. 

8 comments:

  1. ~63K at Johnson Matthey for 3-5yr associate ain't bad, especially as you're outside the I-495 ring where costs drop precipitously.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are plenty of Ph.D's who would've taken this money in a heartbeat.

      Delete
  2. LBNL add is written with someone specific in mind - the position is probably reserved for a guy they want to hire but they are required to advertise it...

    ReplyDelete
  3. LBNL is looking for the needle in a haystack - a new semiconductor material with just the right band gap and properties for combined light harvesting and water splitting. Lots of people are doing this and theyre trying to accelerate the discovery process by using computational methods.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome. For a more accurate, yet still concise description of the problem, taken from craig fennie's web page (http://www.aep.cornell.edu/people/profile.cfm?netid=cjf76) who incidentally is the *other* chemist who won the MacArthur genius award today:

      A number of properties need to be optimized in order to achieve the desired performance criteria. First, the quasiparticle gap (Eqp ) must be larger than 1.23eV in order to drive the uphill water splitting reaction (due to losses, this number is typically stated as Eqp>1.5eV). Second, the optical gap must be matched to the solar spectrum, i.e., in the visible Eop < ~2.5eV, in order to achieve high efficiency. Third, the subsequently created electron and hole pair must be separated and transported to the respective active surface before recombination takes place. Fourth, the chemical potential of these electrons and holes must be such that water is reduced and oxidized by the photogenerated electrons and holes, respectively, i.e., the relative position of the conduction (valance) band must be more negative (positive) than the reduction (oxidation) potential of water. An additional constraint is that the surfaces must also be designed to provide low energy pathways so as to minimize energetic losses.

      Delete
  4. Add to LBNL ad:

    * Heal the sick
    * Raise the dead
    * Elliminate the national debt

    ReplyDelete
  5. Add to LBNL ad:

    * Heal the sick
    * Raise the dead
    * Elliminate the national debt

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20