2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 549 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 549 positions.

Have you had a Skype/phone interview or an on-site with a position on the Faculty Jobs List? Please add the date of the interview to the open thread. The open thread is here.

Do you see anything that needs correcting? Please leave a comment in the open thread, or e-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com

As the 2017 Faculty Jobs Open Thread has gotten longer, the Blogger software that this blog is run on has added a new wrinkle: when you initially load the thread, it loads only the first ~220 comments and then has a "load more" button near the bottom of the page near the comment box. Only after pressing that button about 7 times does it load the latest comments.

Finally, a web forum! Because the open thread has gotten more unwieldy, I have opened up this web forum ("Chemistry Faculty Jobs List"). Feel free to join/post!

Visiting positions: Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

From the inbox, two VAP positions:

Physical and Organic Chemistry Visiting PositionWhitman College, 2017-18 

The Department of Chemistry is inviting applications for two full-time visiting positions in Chemistry at the rank of assistant professor with expertise in (1) physical and general chemistry and (2) organic chemistry and general chemistry. Effective August 2017. Ph.D. required. 

The successful candidate for the physical/general chemistry position will offer courses in first-year-level General Chemistry lecture and lab, and junior-level Physical Chemistry lecture and lab. The successful candidate for the organic/general chemistry position will offer courses in first-year-level General Chemistry lecture and lab, and sophomore-level Organic Chemistry lecture and lab. The standard annual teaching load is five courses.

Full listing here. Apply here and here. Best wishes to those interested. 

BREAKING: ACS "expresses concern" on President Trump's immigration executive order

It's politics time, folks. Don't want to read it? I won't be offended.

Not your usual C&EN article opening

Also in C&EN, a fascinating and education article with a rather clandestinely-oriented beginning by Alex Scott: 

The international gem trade can be a shady business. In a quiet corner of a busy London pub, a trader, who asked to remain anonymous, tells C&EN about passing off synthetic gems, made in a manufacturing plant, as natural. 

“This is worth more than $500,000,” the trader says, flashing a hand upward to reveal a gold ring clasping an emerald the size of a sugar cube. “Well it would be, depending on whether you consider it real or fake.” 

The trader admits to buying synthetic gems—which can be 30–40% cheaper to produce than natural gems—and then selling them to jewelers as natural. The trader is unwilling to discuss specific deals, as this could bring some heat from previous customers. 

Scientists have been able to make synthetic diamonds and other precious gems for decades, but in the past couple of years, technologies such as the one used to make the London trader’s emerald are enabling the production of jewelry-quality synthetic gems that are identical to natural gems at the molecular level...

It will be interesting to see how the gemstone mining business will be disrupted by the synthetic gemstone folks. I admit I won't shed too many tears for DeBeers. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Lisa Jarvis on the new drugs of 2016. 
• I agree with the CW that the number of new drugs will bounce up, and will be somewhat higher in 2017 than 2016. 
• Because of negotiations with European regulatory officials, the Dow/DuPont merger is being delayed until late this year (article by Marc S. Reisch)
• In other DuPont news, early returns on the DuPont PFOA lawsuits are mixed.
• Interesting deoxyfluorination of phenols from the Sanford group/Dow. (article by Stephen K. Ritter.) 
• A rundown of the problems with the Samsung Note 7 (article by Alex Tullo.) 
• One of the independent laboratories was Exponent, an organization that occasionally hires chemists, I understand. 
• Everyone needs an article about whisky/whiskey. (by Bethany Halford) 

View from Your Conference Room: deer in the distance edition

Credit: Alex Goldberg, Edmonton, Alberta

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in with a caption, and how you'd like to be credited at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.)

ACS' thoughts about employment and how to increase member retention

Via the 2017 ACS Strategic Plan, here is their assessment of the "challenges and opportunities" related to ACS member careers and member retention regarding employment. They are bulleted in the original list, but for discussion purposes, I have decided to number them:

1. Despite increasing awareness of the importance of having an active safety culture in the workplace, some practitioners see safety as interfering with success.
2. Employers of chemists are increasingly diverse, smaller, and more service-oriented (for example, contract testing labs or analytical services versus research or innovation-focused companies). 
3. The wider mix of jobs held by chemistry-related scientists and the growing multidisciplinary nature of science is causing fewer scientists to identify themselves as chemists.
4. A mismatch exists between the current training of new graduates and the jobs available.
5. Chemistry-related companies increasingly require external R&D partnerships to innovate.
6. A general decline in association membership is occurring. Membership decisions are increasingly based more on personal return than support for the profession or greater good.
7. Members want more targeted, mobile, and video resources and messages.
8. Online technologies are being integrated with onsite meetings and courses.
9. Constraints on volunteers (including greater job demands, less time given by employers for volunteer activities, and expectations of 24/7 connectivity) warrant new tools and support to facilitate volunteers’ work and grow their ranks.
10. Customers increasingly expect services to be customized to their needs.
11. The millennial generation will shape future management styles, culture, and expectations.
12. Globalization and the changing demographics and needs of the chemistry enterprise are redefining diversity and offering associations opportunities to assist in that transformation.
13. ACS alliances to advance mutual goals -- including with ACS technical divisions, local sections, international chapters, and peer societies -- are increasing in importance.
14. The value proposition for membership has been disrupted by social, economic, and technological changes. This demands more targeted services, creative recruitment/retention strategies, and evaluation of alternative membership models.
15. Global industrial acquisitions, consolidations, and closures are expected to remain prevalent. Companies are focusing more on developing their core strengths and are looking to acquisitions to deliver growth and greater shareholder value.

I think a statement about mid-career chemists is missing, although #15 is an oblique reference. #2 sure sounds like a field with growing numbers and growing wages, yeah? Readers, what do you think about this list? 

Daily Pump Trap: 1/27/17 edition

A few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs this past week:

Mason, MI: Dart Packaging is looking for a B.S. chemist to be a product R&D manager. Looks to be food packaging related, 6 years experience desired.

Richmond, VA: Altria is looking for a B.S./M.S./Ph.D. chemist to be a flavor R&D scientist; looks to be both tobacco and non-tobacco related.

Brevard, NC: You know the drill.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) "1000+", 403, 9,045 and 11 positions for the search term "chemist."

LinkedIn shows 1,372 positions for the search term "chemist" and 14,832  for the search term "chemistry." Job titles from LinkedIn - first with quotes, and the second without: Analytical chemist: 179/223. Research chemist: 31/41. Synthetic chemist: 9/359. Medicinal chemist: 16/0. Organic chemist: 17/59. Process chemist: 9/37. Process development chemist: 5/5. Formulation chemist: 44/51.

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 69 positions

Doing my best to track down all open research-track medicinal chemistry positions. At the moment, the list has 69 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.

Check out the other bottom tabs on the list for various notations and side experiments.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (will likely be included about a year from now?), industrial postdocs (maybe someday soon.)

Coming soon: a process chemistry version - I promise! 

Job posting: research scientist, miRagen Therapeutics, Boulder, CO

From the inbox:

miRagen Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company founded to harness the power of microRNA (miRNA) biology. The company combines strong in-house expertise in microRNA biology and chemistry with external partnerships and academic collaborations that leverage best-in-class technologies.... 

Job Description: 

We currently seek a Ph.D. level scientist with experience in nucleic acid chemistry, encompassing all facets of solution and solid phase synthesis. The incumbent will lead internal discovery chemistry efforts, and be a key project team member and contributor, providing expertise related to innovative chemistries and enhanced product functionality. The primary responsibilities of the position include but are not limited to:

• The design and synthesis of novel monomers, linkers, phosphoramidites and bioconjugates
• The characterization and activity assessment of new compounds, through collaboration with the Biology/Pre-Clinical team...

Qualifications: 
Suitable candidates will possess a Ph.D. in chemistry, biochemistry, or related field with a minimum 5 years of industry experience in nucleic acid, medicinal or heterocyclic chemistry, or equivalent. Additionally, candidates should possess at least three years of supervisory experience, and demonstrated ability to work effectively in a cross-functional, project team environment.

Full listing here. Link to website to come. Best wishes to those interested.

Warning Letter of the Week: copy-and-paste edition

A dispatch from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the Sales Manager of Suzhou Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd in Suzhou, China: 

1.    Failure to transfer all quality or regulatory information received from the API manufacturer to your customers.
You omitted the name and address of the original API manufacturer on the certificates of analysis (CoA) you issued to your customers, and did not include copies of the original batch certificate.

For multiple API, you generated CoA by copying and pasting analytical results from the original API manufacturer, replacing the manufacturer’s information with your letterhead, then issuing these CoA to your customers. You omitted critical information including the original manufacturers’ names and addresses and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of laboratories that performed the testing.

Customers and regulators rely on CoA for information about the quality and sourcing of drugs and their components. Omitting information from CoA compromises supply-chain accountability and traceability, and may put consumers at risk.
2.    Failure to have a quality unit responsible for reviewing and approving all appropriate quality-related documents, including Certificates of Analysis.
Your firm has no Quality Unit. During the inspection, you provided no written documents describing the roles and responsibilities of a Quality Unit. You had no written procedures for quality activities.

Your salespeople signed your CoA under the title "QC Director." Without performing tests, your salespeople also signed under "Tested By." Your response states your salespeople will no longer sign under these headings on CoA. Your response is inadequate because you did not provide sufficient detail of your corrective actions, nor address the validity of CoA issued previously. 

Well, it's a small company, people wear a lot of hats, you know...

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 546 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 546 positions.

Have you had a Skype/phone interview or an on-site with a position on the Faculty Jobs List? Please add the date of the interview to the open thread. The open thread is here.

Do you see anything that needs correcting? Please leave a comment in the open thread, or e-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com

As the 2017 Faculty Jobs Open Thread has gotten longer, the Blogger software that this blog is run on has added a new wrinkle: when you initially load the thread, it loads only the first ~220 comments and then has a "load more" button near the bottom of the page near the comment box. Only after pressing that button about 7 times does it load the latest comments.

Finally, a web forum! Because the open thread has gotten more unwieldy, I have opened up this web forum ("Chemistry Faculty Jobs List"). Feel free to join/post!

Job posting: laboratory director, laboratory technician, South San Francisco, CA

From the inbox, Labdoor is looking for a laboratory director:

What You’ll Need:

• Master’s degree in Chemistry or Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with two (2) years or more managing a food or analytical chemistry laboratory. 
• Experience in GLP and QA. 
• Experience in sample preparation for quantitative analysis. 
• Experience using LC, HPLC, UPLC, LC-MS and/or CE, CE-MS for characterization and quantitation of samples. 
• Experience with ICP-MS and/or ICP-AES for quantitation of trace elements. 
• Willingness to work in an agile team.

They're also looking for a laboratory technician: 

What You’ll Need: 

• Master’s degree in Chemistry or Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry with two (2) years or more in a food or analytical chemistry laboratory. 
• Experience in sample preparation for quantitative analysis. 
• Experience using LC, HPLC, UPLC, LC-MS and/or CE, CE-MS for characterization and quantitation of samples. 
• Cognizance of weaknesses and willingness to learn new techniques and perform multiple tasks simultaneously. 
• Mastery of basic chemistry and analytical chemistry concepts such as titration, dilution, and speciation. 
• Willingness to work in an agile team.

Full listings here and here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Daily Pump Trap: 1/24/17 edition

A (very, very, very) few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs: 

"London, Shanghai or New York": Nature Research is looking for an associate or senior editor for catalysis.

Not from C&EN Jobs, but...: 

Cambridge, MA: Pfizer is looking for a chemical biologist at the entry-level Ph.D. level. "Ph.D. and postdoctoral experience required with experience in chemical biology or related area and a basic knowledge of organic chemistry." Gotta have that postdoc, apparently. 

Time for intern applications: Fair number of medicinal chemistry intern positions.

Faculty position: open search, medicinal chemistry, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

From the inbox:

Assistant/Associate/Full ProfessorMedicinal Chemistry and Organic SynthesisSchool of Pharmacy, The University of Mississippi 

The Department of BioMolecular Sciences in the School of Pharmacy at The University of Mississippi is seeking qualified applicants for a full time, 12-month, tenure-track position at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor. We seek candidates with expertise in the field of medicinal chemistry or the application of organic synthesis to drug discovery who possess a record of distinguished and innovative research (as evidenced by a significant publication record and the potential to secure extramural funding) and a commitment to excellence in education. Applicants applying for the higher ranks should have a nationally recognized research program with recurrent success in securing extramural funding and excellent teaching credentials.

Full listing here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Ivory Filter Flask: 1/24/17 edition

A few of the academic positions posted on C&EN Jobs: 

Brookville, NY: Long Island University is searching for a tenure-track assistant professor of organic chemistry. "A PhD in Organic Chemistry is a plus, but strong candidates with, or expecting, a PhD in other areas of Chemistry will be considered. The ideal candidate will have a research program that includes undergraduate participation and is capable of fostering collaboration with faculty in other areas such as Biology, Environmental Science, Forensic Science, and Health Sciences."

Singapore: Nanyang Technological University is performing an open search for a professorship in physical and computational chemistry. 

Los Altos Hills, CA: Foothill College is looking for a chemistry instructor. Offered $57,066.00 - $93,722.00. 

Whittier, CA: Whittier College is looking for a visiting assistant professor of biochemistry and general chemistry. 

La Jolla, CA: UCSD is hiring for a postdoctoral position to "develop and characterize molecules and formulations of fluorine-based imaging probes for in vivo cell tracking using multi-modal imaging techniques, particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)."

Autosampler vials

A list of small, useful things (links):

• Check out Leigh Krietsch Boerner's reviews of the best household cleaners.
• This NMR blog is pretty cool. 
• So's this one - and it's Canadian!
• The latest from the folks at Practical Fragments.
• The January 16 post from Stellen Fuer Chemiker
• A post on jargon from Benchtop Thoughts
• The latest from Slava Bernat
• I find this "citation cartel" story from Retraction Watch pretty amazing.
• Lots of good stuff from Prof. Yudin.
• Today I learned about the Mpemba effect from Carmen.
• Amazing lineup for a scientific workforce issue podcast including Paula Stephan.

Things I would have blogged about, if I were a better blogger: 

• Check out the top US cities receiving biotech VC funding (by John Carroll) Hope your city is high up on the list. 
• It's been covered elsewhere, but this story of a Harvard grad student is pretty amazing. (by Alison Cook of Retraction Watch)
• The price of doing a postdoc (this is a veeeeeery interesting article by Devin Powell)
• Does the GRE matter? (by Maggie Kuo)

Again, 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! 

Thea Ekins-Coward is suing the University of Hawaii

On March 16, 2016, Dr. Thea Ekins-Coward was working in the laboratory of Dr. Jian Yu at the University of Hawaii on a biofuels project with a high-pressure hydrogen/oxygen mix. Because the mixture was in an inappropriate tank and the system was not grounded, the tank exploded and Dr. Ekins-Coward was severely injured. Here is the longer C&EN article about the investigative report about the incident. 

Yesterday, she filed suit against the University of Hawaii. From the short article by Jyllian Kemsley:

...Ekins-Coward lost her right lower arm and elbow and “suffered abrasions to her cornea, burns on her face, and nerve damage to her ears with resulting loss of high frequency hearing,” according to a civil complaint filed with a Hawaii court on Jan. 9. 

Ekins-Coward worked for the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute. The defendants named in the suit are UH; Jian Yu, the principal investigator of the lab in which Ekins-Coward worked; and Richard E. Rocheleau, director of the institute. 

The defendants “negligently, grossly negligently, carelessly and recklessly breached their duty by providing unsafe and improper equipment, by failing to provide adequate training, by failing to follow safety codes, standards and regulations in laboratory safety, by directing Thea Ekins-Coward to undertake experiments that were inherently and unnecessarily unsafe, by failing to make reasonable inspection of the equipment, and by failing to warn of any inadequacy of the equipment or the possible dangerous condition,” the complaint says...

Here is a copy of the lawsuit. After reading it, the basic argument of the lawsuit seems to be:

• Dr. Yu approved the purchase of the incorrect equipment. 
• On October 7, 2015, Dr. Ekins-Coward asked for safety training on compressed gases and Dr. Yu did not give it to her. 
• On October 21, 2015, Dr. Ekins-Coward asked for safety training on the specific hazards of the gases that she was using and Dr. Yu failed to give it to her. 
• Therefore, they breached their duty to follow correct procedures. 

I presume this is an opening gambit in what will end up in a lot of fees to lawyers and ultimately a settlement.* I will be interested to see if the University of Hawaii will defend Drs. Yu and Rocheleau. Readers, your thoughts? 

*I still don't understand why the Sangji family never sued Professor Harran or the UC system. While I don't doubt that the UC system would have buried the Sangji family in lawyers, they would seem to have had as strong of a case as Dr. Ekins-Coward has here, and there undoubtedly would have been some sort of a settlement, as I presume there will be here. 

Some news

Also in this week's C&EN, the first of monthly columns about work and life in the laboratory from your humble blogger. The first one was titled "Trading Sleep for Results" - I hope you enjoy it.

Writing in Chemical and Engineering News is a huge honor and one that I am greatly excited about and humbled by. Readers, I have you (among others) to thank for this.

Have something you'd like me to write about? Feel free to leave it in the comments here, or at the "Bench and Cubicle" site at C&EN's website. 

This week's C&EN

A few articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News (juuuust a little late in the week):

• Cover story: Predictions on U.S. science policy for the incoming Trump Administration and Congress. (by the Government and Business departments)
• This braided knot from the Leigh group is pretty amazing (article by Bethany Halford)
• What a tremendous tale from Jean-François Tremblay about a Chinese dye manufacturer that was literally dumping sulfuric acid waste in a river under the cover of night.
• ACS has a new public policy statement on safety in the chemical entreprise. (article by Linda Wang)
• Celia Henry Arnaud writes on the new requirements for ACS-certified degrees on macromolecular chemistry, among other topics. 
• I don't often plug Newscripts (it plugs itself), but this Matt Davenport piece on the art at the Basilica of the National Shrine is pretty great. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 77 positions

Doing my best to track down all open research-track medicinal chemistry positions. At the moment, the list has 77 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.

Check out the other bottom tabs on the list for various notations and side experiments.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (will likely be included about a year from now?), industrial postdocs (maybe someday soon.)

Coming soon: a process chemistry version - I promise! 

Time for some anecdata: industrial job search stats, 2016-2017

From the inbox, a set of job search stats for a single graduate student reader (we'll call them JA): 

Total applications: 108
Interviews: 8 (5 phone interviews, 3 on site (2 on-site interviews w/o phone interview))
Formal Rejections: 18
Outstanding applications: 90 

Industry R&D role: 55
Industry Post-Doc: 3
Industry Other: 38
Academia-related: 3
Sales: 4
Consulting: 3
Miscellaneous: 2 

Job secured: Industry Post-Doc

Anyone else? Contributions very much appreciated. Thank you, and best wishes to faithful reader JA.

UPDATE: A contribution from Adamantane.
UPDATE 2: A contribution from "ET." 

Daily Pump Trap: 1/19/17 edition

A few of the posted positions at C&EN Jobs:

South San Francisco: Genentech is looking for a B.S./M.S. process chemist.

San Antonio, TX: Food Safety Net Services is looking for a Development Research Chemist; posted salary 50-75k. Looks to be analytically related. M.S. required, Ph.D. preferred.

Beijing, China or London, UK: Two separate Managing Editor positions at ACS Omega.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) "1000+", 396, 8,503 and 9 positions for the search term "chemist."

LinkedIn shows 2,406 positions for the search term "chemist" and 14,591  for the search term "chemistry." Job titles from LinkedIn - first with quotes, and the second without: Analytical chemist: 171/216. Research chemist: 31/24. Synthetic chemist: 14/404. Medicinal chemist: 13/0. Organic chemist: 25/66. Process chemist: 12/36. Process development chemist: 4/5. Formulation chemist: 46/52. 

Punctuation is difficult

Core values are always hard. (link here)

Job posting: Production chemist, Hazel Technologies, Skokie, IL

Via Twitter, an interesting opportunity in Skokie, IL: 

Production Chemist 

Position Overview: 
At Hazel Technologies, production chemists work to run and optimize our product manufacturing. Applicants should have bachelor’s or master’s degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science or related field and a demonstrated capacity for independence in the laboratory. Previous industry experience is considered desirable, but not required. Production chemists work directly with our COO to optimize and scale new product processes. 

Responsibilities: 
1) Perform Product Manufacture for BerryBrite™ and FruitBrite™ product lines.
2) Maintain quality control for Hazel TechSM products.
3) Manage product and manufacturing input inventory.
4) Assist Hazel Technologies scientists in product and process development for new agriscience applications. 

Qualifications:
- BS/BA Chemistry, Materials Science, or Chemical Engineering
- 1-2 Years Wet Laboratory Experience

Link here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Study undergraduate chemistry in Japan

From the inbox, an interesting opportunity for undergraduates to study in Japan. The University of Tokyo has a Global Science Course, which offers a stipend and a scholarship for the final two years of undergraduate chemistry education at the University of Tokyo. 

Interested? Here's a pamphlet describing the program and a poster. Application deadline is April 7, 2017. Best wishes to those interested.  

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 540 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 540 positions.

Have you had a Skype/phone interview or an on-site with a position on the Faculty Jobs List? Please add the date of the interview to the open thread. The open thread is here.

Do you see anything that needs correcting? Please leave a comment in the open thread, or e-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com

As the 2017 Faculty Jobs Open Thread has gotten longer, the Blogger software that this blog is run on has added a new wrinkle: when you initially load the thread, it loads only the first ~220 comments and then has a "load more" button near the bottom of the page near the comment box. Only after pressing that button about 5 times does it load the latest comments.

Finally, a web forum! Because the open thread has gotten more unwieldy, I have opened up this web forum ("Chemistry Faculty Jobs List"). Feel free to join/post!

Faculty position: Assistant professor, radioanalytical chemistry, Queen's, Kingston, ON

From the inbox: 

The Department of Chemistry at Queen’s University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor with specialization in radio-analytical chemistry. The earliest starting date for the position is July 1, 2017, but later starting dates may also be considered. 

The successful candidate will be an excellent scientist who will establish an outstanding research program and will contribute to undergraduate and graduate teaching and supervision in the Department of Chemistry. The candidate will be cross-appointed to the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queen’s University. In exceptional cases, candidates above the level of Assistant Professor may be considered.

Full posting here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Daily Pump Trap: 1/17/17 edition

A few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs:

Longmont, CO: Matheson Tri-Gas is looking for a B.S. chemist to be a R&D scientist. Sounds pretty cool; 5 years experience needed. Also, a senior R&D scientist position. (M.S./Ph.D. desired.)

Fairless Hills, PA: A metals company is looking for an analytical lab manager; B.S. required, M.S./Ph.D. chemistry desired.

Albuquerque, NM: Sandia National Laboratories is looking for a postdoctoral fellow:

The IBCTR Department has projects in the following areas: biological and chemical risk management and mitigation; biological and chemical security system analysis, design, and implementation; training in the areas of biological and chemical security, risk awareness; global, regional, and country-specific analysis and assessments. Projects span both analytical research and on-the-ground implementation around the world, including in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. These projects include execution of various hands-on technical training courses; conducting risk, threat and vulnerability assessments of chemical research and industrial facilities; design and implementation of chemical safety and security systems; research and analyze various topic areas associated with chemical terrorism.

Huh, sounds fun. 

Ivory Filter Flask: 1/17/17 edition

A few of the recent academic positions posted at C&EN Jobs:

Kirksville, MO: Truman State University is looking for an assistant professor of analytical chemistry.

West Long Branch, NJ: Monmouth University is looking for an assistant professor of chemistry; looks to be chemical education-oriented.

Aptos, CA: Cabrillo College is looking for a chemistry instructor; posted salary $53,646 to $82,288 per year. (B.S./M.S. required.) Also a chemistry instructor at MiraCosta College (Oceanside, CA).

Palo Alto, CA: Stanford is looking for an undergraduate laboratory manager? Funny error in the headline. Here's hoping the offered 90-140k salary is not an error, either.

Crawfordsville, IN: Wabash College, looking for two visiting assistant professors. One position is for organic chemistry, another is open.

Ithaca, NY: Ithaca College is hiring a Teacher-Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow to teach physical chemistry. (Insert traditional Chemjobber concern about these positions.) 

Rest in peace, Sheri Sangji

Eight years ago today, Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji died of her injuries sustained while running a reaction with tert-butyl lithium in the laboratory of Professor Patrick Harran at UCLA. My thoughts and prayers are with her friends and her family.

Job opportunity: life sciences project manager, Toronto, ON, Canada

A reader wrote in about a senior project manager position available at their company in the Toronto area.  They are looking for someone with a chemistry or biology background, and extensive experience with project management in the life sciences industry.  

If interested, send me an email (chemjobber@gmail.com) and I can put you in touch with them. 

The View from Your Hood: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Credit: Valentin Manzanares

From reader Valentin Manzanares: "We’re in a small startup incubator in Valais (mountainous part of Switzerland), so the snow is a given. Sunny weather, now, will flood the lab with enough light that we have to close the blinds…"

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in with a caption, and how you'd like to be credited at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.)

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 70 positions

Doing my best to track down all open research-track medicinal chemistry positions. At the moment, the list has 70 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.

Check out the other bottom tabs on the list for various notations and side experiments.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (will likely be included about a year from now?), industrial postdocs (maybe someday soon.)

Coming soon: a process chemistry version - I promise! 

Why's that glue factory truck here?

In the midst of a classic "skills gap" interview in The Buffalo News, an unintentionally funny comment from the executive director of the Buffalo Niagara Manufacturing Alliance:

Q: The Buffalo area has a strong industrial track record. Why is this such a problem? 

A: You also saw a major reduction in the manufacturing work force locally, so the industry may not have been seen as a sector people wanted to push their children toward. Manufacturing is essentially 50 percent of where it was 30 years ago. What’s happened is, we’ve ridden the horses that we had working and they’re ready to go to pasture. But we haven’t had any of those horses breeding and bringing in fresh, young talent.

Perhaps another metaphor would have been more appropriate?

(Also, it is fascinating to note that Mr. Coleman's analogy seemingly places the responsibility for workforce development on the employees, and not on the employer.)

Chemistry-themed Valentine's Day cards

Credit: Nick Uhlig

I still think these chemistry-themed Valentine's Day cards from Nick Uhlig are impossibly clever, with a fresh batch for 2017. 

Ask CJ: what are prospects for Ph.D. graduates of drug design/medicinal chemistry programs?

From the inbox, a good question: 

I'm a grad student [redacted] with projects and papers that have focused on drug design and medchem rather than the more "hardcore" total synthesis and methodology work.  Do you think I really have any chance of getting a pharma job in the current job market?
I've been asking various people in the industry and out and answers seem to vary wildly, some of the variability I'm sure is what year they are using as their reference in their mind.  Some say yes, though with much better odds at a smaller startup company.  Others say a flat out no, that you must have a postdoc, and the bigger the name brand lab you can get into the better (preferably in total synthesis or methodology). 

Great question. Since I'm not a medicinal chemist, I thought I would ask Derek Lowe. Here's our (very brief) conversation via Twitter.

Me: is the received wisdom still graduate students in medicinal chemistry programs are at relative disadvantage in hiring?  

DL: I think there's still some of that out there, but I think that it's gradually improved. Would be interested in more takes on it!

I suspect the number of data points is relatively small, so I can't imagine that there is definitive information out there. In lieu of that, I'd love to hear reader thoughts on this question, especially in reference to your company's recent entry-level Ph.D. hires. 

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 538 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 538 positions.

Have you had a Skype/phone interview or an on-site with a position on the Faculty Jobs List? Please add the date of the interview to the open thread. The open thread is here.

Do you see anything that needs correcting? Please leave a comment in the open thread, or e-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com

As the 2017 Faculty Jobs Open Thread has gotten longer, the Blogger software that this blog is run on has added a new wrinkle: when you initially load the thread, it loads only the first ~220 comments and then has a "load more" button near the bottom of the page near the comment box. Only after pressing that button about 5 times does it load the latest comments. 

Finally, a web forum! Because the open thread has gotten more unwieldy, I have opened up this web forum ("Chemistry Faculty Jobs List"). Feel free to join/post!

Sandia National Laboratories internships/postdocs

From the (Twitter) inbox, a note that there are a number of postings at Sandia. Here's a electrochemistry/materials science postdoc. This explosives engineering internship is fun:

What Your Job Will Be Like
We are seeking a SIP R&D - Undergraduate Summer

On any given day, you may be called on to participate with staff in experiments that involve explosives engineering. Tasks may include the application of general engineering principles, helping with test setup and execution, and general site maintenance. Daily activities will be hands on and performed in the field. 

Qualifications We Require
The successful candidate must meet the following Sandia Student Intern Requirements: Official acceptance into an accredited university's undergraduate program, full-time enrollment during the spring term immediately preceding the internship (typically 12 credit hours), a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.2/4.0, and the ability to work up to 40 hours per week during the summer. U.S. citizenship. 

Qualifications We Desire

• Course work or experience in chemistry, physics, and/or mechanical, materials or explosive engineering or similar field
• One semester experience, or equivalent, of work in a hands-on laboratory, facility or field test environment
• Hands-on mechanical aptitude with simple hand tools

Gee, sounds pretty cool. Best wishes to those interested. 

NextProf Science: May 2-5, 2017, Ann Arbor, MI

From the inbox:

The University of Michigan will host NextProf Science, May 2-5, 2017, to encourage talented scientists and mathematicians with a demonstrated commitment to diversity to consider academia as a career. The workshop is aimed at helping participants develop strategies that will strengthen their ability to pursue academic careers.  

The workshops is targeted at scholars ready to make take the next step -- postdoctoral fellows and very advanced doctoral students. Underrepresented minorities and women are especially encouraged to apply. Travel, lodging, and meals will be provided for those selected to participate. Deadline for submission of all application materials is February 15, 2017. Learn more at: sites.lsa.umich.edu/nextprof-science.

Flyer here. Best wishes to those interested. 

An excellent rant about scientific recruiters

From the inbox, a really great rant about scientific recruiters from someone we'll call FX:

As a [45+] year old [advanced degreed] chemist who is about to be laid off again, I have been searching for new employment and getting lots of contacts from recruiters. The vast majority of my interactions with them are very frustrating. I would think it is obvious that someone whose resume shows [10-20] years experience as an [instrumental] spectroscopist is not interested in a temp job running HPLC for $20/hour. How does the scientific recruiting industry stay afloat when all its members seem so incompetent? 

I keep updated resumes at sites such as Monster, Linkedin, Indeed and Glassdoor. I have noticed some things about recruiters that find me through Monster. For the resume I keep there I used a unique email address and a Google voice phone number so I know when someone who contacts me came from Monster. If I modify my resume there, I am guaranteed to get a number of calls/emails shortly thereafter offering contract positions and unrelated offers such as selling life insurance. 

I am assuming that there is some service that recruiters can pay for which sends a daily list of updated resumes to them? I also notice even though the same resume is at the other sites, > 90% of recruiters contacting me have come through Monster.
These are also all for temp or contractor positions, never permanent. 

Is that just a reflection of the sorry state of the chemistry job market in [one of the 4-7 pharma-related metro areas that are not SF or Cambridge] or is it because most companies trying to hire a contractor will put it out to a recruiter rather than just posting on their career site and get the applications through there? Why is there not a roughly equal amount of traffic through the other sites?

These are great questions and great observations.

First, it's dramatically clear to me that the median scientific recruiter I've met in my professional interactions is 1) has never worked as a scientist, 2) is quite young and 3) does not have a professional-level understanding of the field. It's very surprising to me, as FX notes, one hopes there is a hidden reserve of incredibly bright, talented and perceptive scientific recruiters out there. On more than one occasion, I've responded to recruiters with "this position is wildly unrelated to what I do - you should be looking for someone who works in [other industry.]"

(We should all take a moment to remember the odd days of 2011 or so, when it seemed like every medicinal chemist on LinkedIn was connected to the folks at Klein Hersh International.) 

Readers, any ideas as to why scientific recruiters tend not to have an intuition as to which chemists would respond best to their entreaties? Any thoughts as to if Monster is particularly bad? (My answer: yes, I think it is.) 

A very interesting statement from immediate past ACS President Donna Nelson

Also in this week's C&EN, immediate past ACS President Donna Nelson has an editorial up about how best to work with the incoming Trump Administration. I thought this section was a very interesting comment: 

Considering recent cabinet appointments 

Some information about President-elect Trump’s future science policy can be gleaned from his cabinet picks. His appointment of successful businesspeople to some cabinet positions brings hope for policies that will stimulate the economy, stimulate industrial growth, and increase the need for employees. His cabinet appointments suggest a favorable posture for all energy sources, especially oil and gas, which would benefit downstream products and chemicals, increasing employment in the chemical sector. 

Our recent President’s Task Force on Employment in the Chemical Sciences (2015–17) compared the number of chemists seeking jobs with the disproportionately smaller number of jobs available. Members of the task force discussed ways to strike a balance, such as reducing the number of chemists by either dissuading students from seeking degrees in chemistry or reducing the number of foreign scientists coming to the U.S. to obtain degrees or pursue jobs in chemistry. Both of these solutions are problematic. 

Chemists have long assumed that growing the chemical sciences industries enough to significantly increase the number of available jobs is unattainable. We have not considered this a viable solution because, for many years, we viewed the jobs situation through a stagnant economy. But if the economy is stimulated, perhaps there will be sufficient growth in the chemical industry economy to enable this more desirable solution.

I think the words "if" and "perhaps" are doing a lot of work in that last sentence.

(It seems to me that "dissuading students from seeking degrees in chemistry" is one extreme of a broad spectrum of potentially useful actions. For example, I have consistently advocated for better, faster information. Better understanding and dissemination of data about the salary/unemployment levels and career paths of age cohorts and subfields would be sufficiently informative about the state of the market to allow students to make appropriate judgments.)

UPDATE: Clarified language in last paragraph. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover story: It's the World Chemical Outlook issue, written by C&EN's business unit
• Prognosis: mostly okay, sounds like. Hope that's true! 
• A really interesting article about lint by Melody Bomgardner. 
• Alex Tullo writes about C&EN's Company of the Year for 2016: Evonik. 
• Opens with stories about tattoos and beards - did not know Alex's hipster game was that strong. 
• Pretty fun phosphorus analog of cyanuric acid. (article by Stephen K. Ritter) 
• Short article about both Chinese pollution and the Chinese business cycle and their interconnectedness by Jean-François Tremblay
• "In November, China had ordered the temporary suspension of production in the northern part of the country. Among those affected were some major Chinese drug manufacturers, including CSPC Pharmaceutical." First I heard of this. One wonders if various CMOs were caught up in this. 
• Interesting writeup of NOBCChE 2016 by Jeff Huber. 
• The mock crime scene/trial is a pretty interesting idea! 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 70 positions

The experiment is four weeks old! Doing my best to track down all open research-track medicinal chemistry positions. At the moment, the list has 70 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.

Check out the other bottom tabs on the list for various notations and side experiments.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (will likely be included about a year from now?), industrial postdocs (maybe someday soon.) 

Great line from this week's Career Ladder

Also in this week's C&EN, a very funny comment from Dr. Michael Okoroafor (article by Alexandra A. Taylor): 

1988: Starting out in industry 

After completing his doctorate, Okoroafor was hired by the UDM Polymer Institute as an assistant professor. At a conference, Bausch & Lomb spotted him and invited him to conduct polymer research for their eyewear group. “They basically doubled my salary. It was a no-brainer.”  

Okoroafor later moved to PPG Industries to work on Trivex Transitions lenses and attended Kellogg Business School’s executive development program at Northwestern University. Since then, he has moved into food and beverage packaging and has worked on numerous projects for companies such as Coca-Cola, Heinz, and McCormick. One of his favorites was the Coca-Cola Freestyle soda fountain that allows users to blend custom drinks. “The packaging was so onerous, so challenging, that I am really proud we were able to pull that one off.”

There should be a "make me move" option for LinkedIn. 2X my salary would definitely get the ol' gears turning.

Daily Pump Trap: 1/5/16 edition

A few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs this past week:

Still pretty quiet: Just two positions, this Genentech process chemistry (Ph.D., 0-3 years experience) position (thumbs up!) and this Indian (?) position ("research assistant executive" - a confusing title, for sure.)

Huh: Has anyone ever seen an explicit "reverse engineering" position in chemistry before?:

This Senior Research Scientist is a subject matter expert in polymer chemistry and reverse material engineering with a strong background in conducting sample analysis through various analytical techniques. 

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) "1000+", 378, 8,413, and 14 positions for the search term "chemist."

LinkedIn shows 1,997 positions for the search term "chemist" (no quotes) and 13,340  for the search term "chemistry" (no quotes). Job titles from LinkedIn - first with quotes, and the second without: Analytical chemist: 172/225 . Research chemist: 29/37. Synthetic chemist: 9/375. Medicinal chemist: 14/39. Organic chemist: 23/43. Process chemist: 9/33. Process development chemist: 3/7. Formulation chemist: 41/44. 

Cross-contamination worries in all fields

I admit to being just a bit obsessed with how errors happen in different fields, so I found this story of problems in a Dutch fertility clinic in the New York Times to be fascinating (as well as stressful for the families involved):

AMSTERDAM — Twenty-six couples in the Netherlands are waiting to find out if the s/p/e/rm* that was used to fertilize their eggs at a reproductive technology clinic might have come from the wrong men. 

...The oldest child who might have been conceived as a result of the possible mix-up is about a year old. All of the couples possibly affected have been informed and have been offered DNA tests, the clinic said. 

Primarily used in cases of male infertility, ICSI involves injecting a single s/p/e/rm into a mother’s egg. The technician, guided by a microscope, injects the s/p/e/rm using a glass pipette. The tip of the pipette is then discarded. 

The technician, upon completing the procedure, discovered that there was still genetic material on the tip of the pipette, Mr. Geurts said. She notified the supervising technician, and upon further investigation, they discovered that s/p/e/rm from a previous procedure had somehow gotten into the pipette — evidently because the technician had mistakenly used the wrong kind of rubber apparatus on the end of the pipette. 

Mr. Geurts declined to say whether the technician had been punished, calling it a confidential personnel matter.

Given previous problems with fertility clinic errors, I'm rather surprised that the problematic bulbs were anywhere near the laboratory.

*bowdlerizing not because I'm a prude (if the shoe fits! - ed.), but for corporate firewalls, etc. 

Warning Letter of the Week: loose fibers edition

A missive to Dr. Habil Khorakiwala, the Founder, Chairman and Group CEO of Wockhardt Limited in Mumbai from the folks at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research: 

2.  Your firm failed to ensure that manufacturing personnel wear clothing appropriate to protect drug product from contamination (21 CFR 211.28(a)).
Our investigator observed employees working in gowns that had unraveled stitching extending from hoods, zippers, and pants. Your firm approved these gowns for operations. Employees wore them while manufacturing sterile [redacted] USP API and sterile [redacted] API. Five of 10 garments released for use in aseptic production areas had loose fibers or other damage. Per your procedures, you should have discarded these garments. You determined that inadequate lighting and ineffective operator training were root causes.

Your response is inadequate because it does not include your assessment of washing, drying, ironing, sterilizing, or other operations that may contribute to sterile garment damage. It also does not address the need to limit the number of sterilizations. Our investigator noted that you sterilize gowns numerous times. These excessive sterilizations lead to breakdown of gown fibers.

Your aseptic processing gowns were inadequate to prevent contamination of your sterile products with particles and microorganisms shed from employees’ bodies. Your firm must use garments that are suitable for aseptic processing....

 There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip...

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 532 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 532 positions.

Have you had a Skype/phone interview (or an on-site) with a position on the Faculty Jobs List? Please add the date of the interview to the open thread. The open thread is here.

Do you see anything that needs correcting? Please leave a comment in the open thread, or e-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com

As the 2017 Faculty Jobs Open Thread has gotten longer, the Blogger software that this blog is run on has added a new wrinkle: when you initially load the thread, it loads only the first ~220 comments and then has a "load more" button near the bottom of the page near the comment box. Only after pressing that button about 5 times does it load the latest comments. 

Finally, a web forum! Because the open thread has gotten more unwieldy, I have opened up this web forum ("Chemistry Faculty Jobs List"). Feel free to join/post!

Daily Pump Trap: 1/3/17 edition

A (very, very) few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs:

Welp: Not very many positions at all in the new website, but that's probably just the beginning of the year (we hope.) Over at other websites....

Gaithersburg, MD: MedImmune is looking for Ph.D. medicinal chemists to perform research into antibody-drug conjugates.

Cambridge, MA: Blueprint Medicines is looking for an experienced Ph.D. computational chemist.

Also...: Nimbus Therapeutics is looking for a director of computational chemistry.

Faculty posting: Assistant, Associate or Full Professor, NMR Spectroscopy, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

From the inbox: 

The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, Department of BioMolecular Sciences is searching for an assistant, associate or full professor for a fulltime, 12-month, tenure-track/tenured position. We seek candidates with expertise in innovative use of NMR and other spectroscopic techniques, natural products sourcing and bioactivity evaluation, with applications in particular to the four key areas of research in our School of Pharmacy, cancer, cardiometabolic disorders, neuroscience/drugs of abuse and infectious diseases. The candidates should demonstrate a distinguished and innovative research program (as evidenced by a significant publication record and the potential to secure extramural funding) and a commitment to excellence in education. The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to graduate education in NMR. Applicants applying for the higher ranks should have a nationally-recognized research program with recurrent success in securing extramural funding and excellent teaching credentials.

Full posting here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Ivory Filter Flask: 1/3/17 edition

A (very, very) few of the academic positions from C&EN Jobs:

Huh: It's a new year and a new C&EN Jobs website... But there are no new positions.... but over at HigherEdJobs.com...

West Long Branch, NJ: Monmouth University is looking for an assistant professor of chemistry.

Aberdeen, WA: Grays Harbor College is a 2-year college; they're looking for a tenure-track faculty member in chemistry.

Geneseo, NY: SUNY-Geneseo desires a lecturer in chemistry; it's a 3 year contract. They'd like someone who could teach biology and geology courses as well.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University has two postdoctoral positions in the laboratory of Professor Herschel Rabitz. 

CJ's terrible, bad, huge miss predictions for 2016

Via an e-mail with a friend, my predictions for 2016, written on January 18, 2016:

1. GDP (as measured by the US Conference Board) will average less than 2.4% for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2016.
2. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls will increase less than 2.5% for 2016.
3. Seasonally adjusted U3 unemployment will go no lower than 4.9% and will, at some point in 2016, be higher than 5.5%.
4. Seasonally adjusted U6 unemployment (broadest measure) will go no lower than 9.0%.
5. The highest monthly number in 2016 for the Case-Shiller 20 city index will be lower than the annual average for 2015.
6. There will be two or more major R&D site closures in Big Pharma.
7. There will not be a major (how to define?) outbreak of Ebola.
8. Hillary Clinton will be elected President.
9. Cruz, Rubio or Bush will be the Republican nominee.
10. The Democrats will capture the Senate. 

Wrong: #2, #3, 5, #6, #8, #9, #10

Jury is still out: #1 (need to find these numbers, but I think I'm right for Q1 and Q2, wrong for Q3)

Correct: #4, #7

Anyone with bold predictions for 2017? Falsifiable predictions, please.

UPDATE: Hey, I was right about the S&P 500! 

This L'Oreal suit seems bad for them

Also in this week's C&EN, an article by Marc Reisch on a lawsuit between a startup and L'Oreal: 

Celebrities Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lawrence went blonde using it, and now L’Oreal is charged with stealing it: the formula for Olaplex’s Bond Multiplier, a product that protects hair during bleaching and color treatments. 

The bad blood emerged late last year in a suit filed in federal court for the Central District of California. In it, start-up firm Olaplex charged L’Oreal with violating a patent covering hair protection ingredients discovered by a University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), chemist and a former student.... 

...According to the Olaplex suit, polymer chemists Craig J. Hawker and Eric Pressly developed the chemistry for Bond Multiplier in Pressly’s garage. Hawker is a ­professor in UCSB’s department of chemistry and biochemistry and winner of the 2013 ACS Award in Polymer Chemistry. ACS is the publisher of C&EN. Pressly, who currently works for Olaplex, got his Ph.D. in materials science from UCSB and was a member of Hawker’s research group. 

Olaplex introduced Bond Multiplier to stylists in early 2014. Later that year, a L’Oreal-owned firm started to distribute it. Sales were so strong that L’Oreal tried, unsuccessfully, in early 2015 to hire Hawker and Pressly. It then offered to buy Olaplex, the suit alleges. 

By May, talks had advanced and L’Oreal had signed a confidentiality agreement giving it access to Olaplex’s proprietary information. But by September negotiations fell apart. Shortly thereafter, the suit charges, L’Oreal created three “knock offs that it hoped would mimic Olaplex’s success.”

There's something odd to this story, in that I presume that huge multinational corporations don't decide to get into IP disputes with startups unless they can think they can get away with it -- and outside of this lawsuit, it seems like they have. It will be fascinating to see how this ends up proceeding. 

This week's C&EN

New year, new articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Incoming ACS president Allison Campbell lays out her priorities. 
• Looks like EPA is taking plenty of time to approve new chemicals via the new TSCA (perhaps unsurprising?) (article by Britt E. Erickson)
• This methanol plant using carbon capture technology in Louisiana is pretty interesting (article by Melody M. Bomgardner) 
• Rick Mullin provides a typically insightful look into French fine chemical firms.
• More soon on Linda Wang's piece on parental leave in graduate school. 
• Fun Perspectives article from Professor Mala L. Radhakrishnan of Wellesley on using poetry to teach chemistry.