A few of the position posted recently at C&EN Jobs:
Billerica, MA: EMD Serono is looking for a Ph.D. medicinal chemist.
Billerica, MA: EMD Serono is looking for a Ph.D. medicinal chemist.
San Diego, CA: Eurofins Advantar Laboratories is looking for an experienced B.S. chemist.
San Luis Obispo, CA: Promega, looking for a B.S. manufacturing chemist once again.
Silver Spring, MD: FDA is looking for a postdoc to perform NMR research into drug mixtures. 60-80k offered.
Also...: FDA is looking for "staff fellow chemists"? I can't quite figure out what those are...
I applied for a FDA fellowship several years ago, in the Office of Food Safety, and I did get as far as a phone interview. The posting on the ACS job board initially listed the position as permanent, but when I got the phone call, I was told it was for a staff fellowship. The supervisory chemist I spoke with told me the job involved reviewing all the documents that companies send into that part of the FDA, for compliance with FDA food regulations. He then casually added that he had money for the position for 3 years, and after that he didn’t know if he’d have more money or not. I hadn’t realized that it was more like a regulatory post-doc than a permanent position. He didn’t know what the fringe benefits were, other than health insurance.
ReplyDeleteIn a follow-up email thanking him for the interview, I asked him if there would be any issues with me having earned my Ph.D. more than 5 years previous. I had the dates of my degrees on my resume, so he would have known how old I was.
Well, I never heard from him again. I’m assuming that like other federal government fellowships, a person can’t be more than 5 years out from having earned their Ph.D in order to apply.
I did find this on the FDA website that has some information on staff fellowships, though it also calls them service fellowships:
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WorkingatFDA/FellowshipInternshipGraduateFacultyPrograms/ucm395780.htm
For a relatively young person, who wants to get involved with government-type work, I think these are good opportunities. It a real shame that older persons (or just slightly older persons) are shut out of these positions.