24/40 ground glass joints

A small list of useful things (links):

• If you haven't read this story about Brian Wansink, you really should give it a read. What a story. 
• Basically, thanks to a mostly terrible (now deleted) blog post, a small raft of papers around food/behavioral science have been retracted or corrected. 
• I really enjoyed this piece about long-haul moving truckers.
• (I guess I won't be looking at long-haul trucker as my backup career.) 
• What to know before starting your Ph.D. program, by Maggie Kuo (featuring a number of chemists)
• Nobel Prize predictions: from Sam, and Ash
• A fun post by Science Shenanigans about the Ig Nobels
• A couple posts from Sustainable Nano
• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest roundup at All Things Metathesis from Adam Johns
• Nice writeup by Neal Anderson of methods to remove ruthenium from metathesis reactions.

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! 

ACS Presidential Candidate Willie E. May on #chemjobs issues

I recently sent an e-mail to Dr. Willie E. May, who is currently running for the ACS President-Elect position to see if he was interested in answering last year's questions for ACS presidential candidates.

He responded yesterday. His unedited response is below:

1. Which ACS program do you think best helps the job-seeking ACS member? How would you improve it?

Interview and resume review workshops for chemists at any stage of their careers as well as programs for aspiring entrepreneurs are among the many valuable ACS programs for job-seekers. ACS appears to have made considerable effort to address unemployment among chemists, which is important, especially if weak spots develop in the market ahead.

ACS should put more energy into assisting the young people – who we are encouraging to pursue chemical science careers – to find gainful employment.

I was informed just last week of a staff reorganization intended to strengthen ACS job and career programs for members. I would like to get additional details before commenting further; it is probably prudent to allow time to see the impact of these changes and I pledge to track these changes.

2. Is it ACS policy to get more students to study in STEM fields, specifically chemistry? If so, how do we reconcile the fact that wages for chemists are stagnant? Does this argue against the idea of a STEM shortage and the need for more STEM students?

ACS policies are based on a recognition that the contributions of chemical scientists and engineers are essential in solving many of the world's pressing challenges. So there always will be a need for the best and brightest who want to be part of global solutions to become chemists and other scientists at the interface of chemistry. Unemployment of ACS members is still below the national average and dropped to 2.6%. Unfortunately, the salaries of many professionals have been stagnant. As ACS President-Elect, I would work tirelessly to help chemists get the best possible training for the available jobs and I would seek additional opportunities to promote and sustain the livelihoods of chemical science and technology professionals. I consider this to be a primary area of responsibility for ACS and the ACS President-Elect.

3. In the past decade, what was the one action of any ACS President that has had the greatest influence - good or bad - on members' employment and careers? Other than working groups and reports, what tangible steps would you take to increase the number of chemistry jobs in the US, and is this something you think is really achievable?

ACS has come a long way over the past decade in seeking to boost employment and careers of chemists, and the Society’s members, in particular. That’s because all our Presidents have endeavored to strengthen our organization and move programs and policies forward with respect to career enhancements for chemical scientists, engineers, technologists and administrative professionals. ACS also has an opportunity, that I would pursue, to raise awareness of and appreciation for the contributions that chemists can make in solving our society’s problems and advancing growth through innovative approaches.  See my candidate statement at: http://cenm.ag/willie-e-may and my website at: williemayacs.com for my ideas about building on this past work.

 4. One of the chief roles of the ACS is to advocate for chemists in the US Congress. Which of the following options would you prioritize, and why? (increased grant funding, more training in entrepreneurship for students, shifting funding from academia to more SBIRs or retraining postdocs?)

If elected, I would work with the ACS Board Committee tasked with advocacy and ACS staff to advance these three goals while regularly re-examining our priorities.  

5. It has been 8 years since the official end of the Great Recession. What should ACS be doing to prepare our members for the next recession? 

It is very wise for ACS – and chemists, more broadly – to prepare for both economic growth as well as less favorable developments. ACS has worked with many groups to ensure chemists are flexible and well trained for the future. As noted above, I would work to further enhance those programs. 

Thanks to Dr. May for his responses. Dr. Charpentier will have her responses published within 24 to 48 hours after it has been received.

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 117 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 117 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), academic positions (likely never.)

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 62 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 62 positions.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Quote of the day: getting decisions made

From Melanie Nelson's TinyLetter, a very good set of thoughts about decision making: 

...To keep projects on track, you have to know how to get decisions made. That is something that sounds simple but can be quite tricky, because what "knowing how to get decisions made" really means is "knowing what the decision maker needs to make a decision." This is not always obvious, even when the decision maker is yourself. I eventually realized that I needed some expert advice to make this decision, and now I have it.  

Based on that advice, I know I need to do a little more information gathering. Then, I'll need to mull it over for awhile (preferably while walking) and then by some magical internal process, I'll have a decision I feel good about. This fits my usual decision making process, which is "gather all the information and advice and let it stew a bit until my brain works out what to do." I'd tried to skip the "get expert advice" and "gather information" steps, and all the mulling in the world wasn't going to get me a decision without doing those steps.

It's funny to watch veteran decision makers make their decisions, because they won't even consider making decisions without the facts that they deem necessary. 

Warning Letter of the Week: honest QA manager editions

A love note from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the general manager of Shandong Vianor Biotech Co., Ltd:

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

Your laboratory analysis revealed that [redacted] lot [redacted] was subpotent. However, the certificate of analysis (CoA) provided showed that it was within specification. When questioned about why the CoA reported passing results even though the batch actually failed, your quality unit manager stated, “I made a mistake.”

3.    Your firm failed to clean, maintain, and, as appropriate for the nature of the drug, sanitize and/or sterilize equipment and utensils at appropriate intervals to prevent malfunctions or contamination that would alter the safety, identity, strength, quality, or purity of the drug product beyond the official or other established requirements (21 CFR 211.67(a)).

Our investigator observed what appeared to be rusted and corroded screws, [redacted] fluid and debris, and metallic mesh material on the product contact surfaces of [redacted] located in your facility.

Access to information during inspection
During the inspection, you initially barred our investigator from accessing a room identified as a laboratory. You eventually allowed the investigator to inspect the laboratory, but he found that it contained no equipment. You then stated that the laboratory was offsite at a [redacted] residence and that you could not give our investigator access as it was not a convenient time.

I think "I made a mistake" was a new one for a warning letter.  

EdX class in medicinal chemistry

From the inbox, Professor Erland Stevens of Davidson College is once again teaching his class on medicinal chemistry:

A free, seven-week course on medicinal chemistry starts on Monday, October 2nd on the edX platform. The course is offered as a collaboration between Davidson College and the Novartis Institutes of BioMedical Research. Nearly 50,000 students have enrolled for the past five instances of the course. 

The course covers the major topics of medicinal chemistry, including drug approval, common drug targets (enzymes and receptors), pharmacokinetics (half-life, clearance, volume of distribution), metabolism, lead discovery, and lead optimization.  The course also includes both weekly interviews with pharmaceutical professionals (many from Novartis) and lab exercises highlighting online tools for drug discovery. 

Any student who can read organic structures and identify functional groups should fine in terms of prerequisites (bio/chem/math).  Students who complete the course will be well equipped to listen to and follow a drug discovery talk presented at a conference or university.

Best wishes to those interested.  

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 296 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 296 positions.

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

Want to talk anonymously? Try the open thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 25 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 25 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

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

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread. 

Daily Pump Trap: 9/26/17 edition

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

Adrian, MI: Wacker is searching for silicone materials research chemist; M.S./Ph.D. desired.

Nashville, TN: Aegis is looking for a Ph.D. analytical chemist.

Buffalo, NY: DuPont is looking for an experienced polymer/organic chemist for a research investigator position.

Basel, Switzerland: Head of Catalysis for Roche sounds fun.

Job link dump: 

• Apple, looking for a materials chemist to join their "Panel Process and Optics (PPO) Engineering" team. 
• Dexcom (San Diego, CA) is hiring an M.S./Ph.D. electrochemist.
• "Two Pore Guyz" is an interesting name for a company; looking for a nanopore scientist.
• Who knew that the Cherokee Nation got into the staffing business? They are looking for a DEA chemist, I think.

Ivory Filter Flask: 9/26/17 edition

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

Montclair, NJ: Montclair State is hiring an assistant professor of organic chemistry.

Bozeman, MT: Montana State, looking for an assistant professor of inorganic (or bioinorganic) chemistry.

Lyngby, Denmark: The Technical University of Denmark is looking for a professor working on "Surface Physical Chemistry with emphasis on basic studies—as well as industrial applications—of surface forces and molecular design of functional polymer interfaces."

Beijing, China: Tsinghua, hiring "3 or 4" assistant professors.

Murfreesboro, TN: Middle Tennessee State is looking for an organic chemistry laboratory coordinator.

Los Angeles, CA: A UCLA-related company is looking for a postdoc:

A unique opportunity for a postdoctoral scholar is currently available at the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Our team has joined forces with Fuzionaire Diagnostics, a Caltech spin-out company from the laboratory of Nobel Laureate Professor Bob Grubbs.... 

...The synthetic chemistry candidate for this opportunity will work on novel methods for the synthesis of [18F]PET tracers to be evaluated for clinical translation at the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging....

 $45,000 to $55,000 offered. 

ACS Publications has cancelled individual subscriptions to ACS journals

From an e-mail to ACS members:

In order to better serve you, we have changed the subscriptions options for ACS Member Universal Access. We are now offering twice as many downloads at no charge.  You can now download 50 articles or book chapters from any ACS Journal or eBook, as well as the C&EN Archives.  Articles or chapters downloaded past the first 50 will now cost $25 per article or chapter.

Your weekly subscription to C&EN magazine will of course continue with no changes, and it remains available both in print and electronically. You'll also continue to receive significant savings on open access publishing, discounts on ACS books, and special members-only pricing for Articles on Command.  However, individual subscriptions to our ACS Journals will be discontinued as of January 1st.  (emphasis CJ's) For more information about these changes, please visit www.acs.org/2018benefits.

Why are we discontinuing the purchase of ACS Journals for Members?  We continually assess the member benefits in order to make sure we are providing the most value to the broadest base of our members.  An assessment of usage behaviors among members show that not only do they require broader access to ACS's entire portfolio of journals, members also required more than the annual 25 downloads we traditionally provided.  Many members augmented this through additional purchases. By increasing the ACS Member Universal Access benefit to 50 articles per year, we can reduce the additional expense of purchasing journals for the majority of our members. 

I think it's rather odd that they cancelled the individual subscriptions. Here's the math, courtesy of Prof. Scott Silverman:

2x as many free downloads (old 25, new 50), but then price per goes from $12 to $25. New system costs more starting at 74 downloads.

I don't know how this affects people overall. I suspect there were not that many people purchasing individual subscriptions to begin with, but I suspect that smaller companies were purchasing individual subscriptions to key journals to save some money. 

How many substrates are enough for robustness?

Also in this week's C&EN, a good article by Tien Nguyen about a "robustness screen" proposed by Frank Glorius: 

...Last month, researchers at the University of Münster proposed a screening tool that could help chemists figure out in a matter of days how well their reactions might work with functional groups on various substrates. Led by Frank Glorius, the team assembled a set of 15 commercially available additives that, when introduced to a new reaction, could tell chemists how well a sampling of functional groups responds to a particular reaction (J. Org. Chem. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.joc.7b01139). 

Glorius readily admits that the additives approach, which builds on a “robustness” method reported earlier by his group (Nat. Chem. 2013, DOI: 10.1038/nchem.1669), simplistically tests functional groups rather than whole substrates. So it can’t tell chemists how the size, location, or electronic nature of the functional groups in the context of the entire molecule will affect a reaction, which is information typically provided by traditional substrate scope testing...

Interesting responses:

...Responding to C&EN’s poll, Eindhoven University of Technology’s Timothy Noël says it’s a good thing that standards are on the rise. However, he says, smaller research groups may suffer because they lack the resources needed to achieve the “monster” substrate tables now seen in elite journals. Noël’s group recently published a light-catalyzed decarboxylation method with 58 substrates (ACS Catal. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.7b03019). The work was done by one graduate student and partly by a master’s student, which required a huge effort on their part, he says. 

Uttam Tambar, a synthetic chemist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, says the strategy for evaluating substrate scope seems to have changed over the past decade or so, since he was a graduate student. “The way we were taught is every substrate in your substrates table should teach you something about the reaction,” says Tambar, whose lab has also used Glorius’s robustness screen as a time-saving measure (Nature 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nature22805). “Now it’s almost become a numbers game. People want to shock and awe you with the quantity of the substrates rather than the quality of substrates.”...

 Gotta say, a list of "this reaction doesn't work with that" from the authors would also be helpful. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Fuel cell vehicles, by Mitch Jacoby
• Interesting article on fire forensics, by Louisa Dalton
• David Leigh's molecular machine is pretty cool. (article by Stu Borman)
• Fascinating advance in 3-D printing alloys (article by Bethany Halford) 
• US business spending on R&D was up in 2015 - good news. (article by Andrea Widener)
• Some random d00d yapping about Skype interviews.
• Looks like Peter Dorhout's presidential year will focus on safety and diversity. 
• Speaking of safety, I enjoyed this short editorial by current ACS president Allison Campbell.

View From Your Hood: Tower edition

Credit: St. Andrews Lynx

"One of my favourite fume hood views ever, from my former research position at Imperial. Sunlight on Queens Tower makes it look stunning."

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in (with a caption and preference for name/anonymity, please) at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.)

C&EN seeking sources: ten years after the Great Recession

From the inbox:

C&EN is seeking sources for an upcoming feature 

Were you laid off during the Great Recession in 2007 and 2008? Or, was your career impacted in some other significant way (lost grant funding, lost employees, shuttered your business, etc.)? If so, C&EN would like to find out how you’ve been doing since then for a feature story on the 10th anniversary of the economic recession. We’re looking for chemists from industry, academia, government, and self-employment. Please e-mail Linda Wang at l_wang@acs.org if you’re willing to share your story.   

This is an important topic - I am glad to see C&EN covering it. 

Who is being hired in Big Pharma med chem and process positions these days?

A question, precipitated by a recent missive to the inbox:

What is Big Pharma looking for these days in process/med chem positions, in terms of pedigree/publications? I presume that there are some who are getting in without postdocs, and some who are being hired with postdocs - what is happening more where you are?

Readers, what say you?

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 125 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 125 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), academic positions (likely never.)

Is industry better at dealing with sexual harassment than academia?

I haven’t been able to express my thoughts about Linda Wang and Andrea Widener’s cover article in this week's C&EN on sexual harassment in academia. (I should note here that Linda is my editor for the Bench and Cubicle columns that I write for C&EN.)

While we're doing full disclosure here, I should note my opinions on the issue: I don't have any doubt that sexual harassment has and does happen in academia. For any particular case of academic sexual harassment that is brought to light in the public, I am much more inclined to believe the accuser who comes forward.

I thought it was a well-researched, comprehensive and gripping article that forced the reader to confront the reality of sexual harassment in the chemical sciences. Each story demonstrated the impact of sexual harassment:  a woman student who is harassed by an male adviser will find themselves isolated, confused, doubting themselves, unable to communicate these issues easily with confidants, potentially ashamed to go their family and they will face a departmental structure that is incentivized to have that student disappear.

What I am most struck by in the article is the pervasive sense that academic departments and universities will continue to self-police. In my humble opinion, no academic process outside of a court of law can deliver a just outcome. After watching the UC system defend Professor Patrick Harran against the Los Angeles District Attorney to the tune of millions of dollars, does anyone think that universities will step up for those at the bottom of the academic hierarchy? I am not really one that is inclined to legislative solutions to problems, but I am certainly tempted by the article's mention of Rep. Speier's bill that would require substantiated cases of harassers to be reported to the funding agencies. If it's a bad idea, it's a useful one that will introduce some threat of accountability into the system.

Something that I was surprised at was this statement from "Elizabeth":

"Some people think industry is where the harassment happens,” Elizabeth says. “But in industry, creeps get fired."

On Twitter, there were a number of people who found this statement worthy of some skepticism.

I am certainly skeptical as well, but I think that it depends on what she meant by "industry." For the 40% of Americans who work at companies with more than 1000 employees, I have no doubt that HR departments (and the lawyers that birthed them) fundamentally expect and enforce a zero-tolerance perspective on issues of sexual harassment. For smaller companies? I also have no doubt that there are well-run shops where sexual harassment is not welcome, and there are some (many?) that probably have terrible cultures.

So I am inviting industrial readers: do you think sexual harassment happens less in industry? If so, why? (My guess: the power differential between employer and employee is never quite the gulf that it is between PI and student.)

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 54 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 54 positions.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

"Psssst, hey kid"

"Got some postdocs, too." 

Nominate a colleague for the prestigious National Chemical Technician Award

From the inbox:

Do you know an outstanding chemical technician who deserves special recognition? If so, please consider nominating that person for the 2018 National Chemical Technician Award.

Nominees must be currently employed as a chemical technician, and must have worked as a chemical technician for at least five years. Technicians hold a range of titles, including process operator, laboratory analyst, technologist, and research associate.

Nominees, who do not need to be ACS members, will be judged on their contributions in the following areas: technical achievement, leadership and mentoring, publications, presentations, patents, quality and safety practices, and professional and community activities.

Nomination packets must be received by the ACS Committee on Technician Affairs by Oct. 18, 2017.

The 2018 recipient will receive a $1000 honorarium, plaque, and a trip to the ACS national meeting in New Orleans, where he or she will be honored at a special luncheon on Sunday, March 18, 2018. 

For more information or to nominate someone, visit www.acs.org/ncta. Send questions to cta@acs.org.

Best wishes to those interested.  

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 268 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 268 positions.

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

Want to talk anonymously? Try the open thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

Faculty position: assistant professor of physical chemistry, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

From the inbox: 

The Chemistry Department of Whitman College invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Physical Chemistry, effective August 2018. The successful candidate will exhibit potential for excellence in teaching and will establish an undergraduate research program in physical chemistry. The successful candidate will offer courses in physical chemistry and general chemistry and will also contribute to the College’s general education requirement, with an annual teaching load of five courses. Additional duties include advising and mentoring students and participating in faculty governance at the department and college level. Whitman College is a highly selective liberal arts school that values both teaching and scholarship, offers a generous sabbatical program, and provides support for professional development, start-up funds, and benefits. 

Candidates must have a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. Postdoctoral experience and/or additional teaching experience is highly recommended.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.  

The Academic Staff Jobs List: initial post and open thread

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 18 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.that works, too.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? This post will serve as the open thread.

Sexual harassment in academia

In this week's C&EN, a cover story by Linda Wang and Andrea Widener on sexual harassment: 

It started innocently enough. He was a prominent chemistry professor at a major research university, and she was eager to make a good impression. “I was a pretty insecure grad student in my early years, and the fact that he was paying attention to me and interested in my work and how I was doing in his class was kind of flattering,” says Tara (not her real name). 

The professor was not her adviser. Nevertheless, “He invited me to lunch a few times and just sought me out quite a bit. And then he invited me over to his house to watch a movie. He didn’t do anything inappropriate. But after that night, I was like, ‘Something’s weird here; he has a family.’ And his family was away for the weekend.” 

Those seemingly innocent actions became increasingly inappropriate. “The culmination was when he wrote me a love note. It was a proposition note, I guess. It basically said he wanted to have an affair with me. I stormed into his office and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. This is offensive. I thought you were hanging out with me because I was talented.’ ” 

After that incident, Tara went out of her way to avoid the professor. “It was really hard,” she says, in part because his office was along the hallway she traversed between her lab and desk. Yet she didn’t report the situation to anyone. “I felt guilty, like I had somehow done something to have brought this on,” she says. 

Tara’s story is a common one in university chemistry departments nationwide, echoing the problems of sexual harassment in the larger science community and the nation. While chemistry hasn’t had a sexual harassment case come to national prominence yet, most female chemists can tell stories of harassment or discrimination of themselves or their colleagues. It may be among the reasons women aren’t reaching parity in chemistry Ph.D. programs and faculty positions. 

“It was one of the many factors why I ultimately was unsatisfied and uncomfortable in science,” says Tara, who completed her Ph.D. but decided to leave chemistry and is now working in an unrelated field....

Read the whole thing.

5 inch Draeger tubes

A list of small, useful things (links):

• A new blog! Welcome to "The Compounds Turn." 
• Nice first post on beets! 
• Melanie Nelson is offering her "How to Get a Job In Industry" webinar on September 20. Great use of $30, I feel. 
• Latest chemistry retractions are in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, I see. 
• Also, the Chinese Journal of Chemistry.
• Milkshake's story is complete, I note.
• Th'Gaussling and the eclipse
• The latest metathesis papers from All Things Metathesis
• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• Kat Day on black salve (Good Lord!)
• The Colorblind Chemist has an announcement.
• A chiral fragments poll from Practical Fragments
• This Vinay Prasad paper is causing quite a stir...
• Sam's got some pretty cool pictures there
• Seeing as how I am entering middle age (have been?), I enjoyed this post from Cloud
• Great little post from Philip Ball on chemistry, color and China.

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.

The best skills gap article you will read this week

From Crain's Chicago Business, just a fantastic statistical and anecdotal flaying of the supposed skills gap (emphases mine): 

...But when demand for workers spikes, wages climb, too. Except for a handful of job titles, there isn't much wage inflation in Chicago manufacturing. 

The median manufacturing worker in the Chicago metro area saw wages rise 5 percent from 2012 to 2016 to $33,000 a year, even as wages for all occupations rose 6.9 percent in that period. The average 151,000 U.S. manufacturing workers quitting their jobs each month in 2016, presumably to take higher-paying jobs, was still 27 percent lower than the number quitting before the recession. Taken together, the data suggest that employers aren't so desperate for talent that they're willing to raise wages. 

Yet the companies that have the easiest time attracting candidates are the ones that pay the most, says Anne Edmunds, regional vice president at staffing firm Manpower Group... 

...Employers may not be able to afford to raise wages if they aren't making a high-margin product, or if they need to invest in new machinery, says Jim Nelson, vice president for external affairs at the Illinois Manufacturers' Association. 

Anyway, higher pay won't improve the quality of applicants. Job-seekers need 10th-grade math and reading skills—"Too many people apply for manufacturing jobs who are unable to read a blueprint"—and they need to pass a drug test and show up on time. "Manufacturing is not the consolation prize for an occupation," he says. "It is a high-skilled, rewarding career." 

Except it's a career that in Chicago has a median annual wage of $32,860. That's higher than other occupations that draw from a similar worker pool, like janitorial services or low-skilled health care like home health aides. But unlike in manufacturing, wages in those fields have grown 10 to 15 percent in recent years to roughly $27,000.

It's a good article - read the whole thing.

Daily Pump Trap: 9/15/17 edition

A few positions posted recently at C&EN Jobs:

Topeka, KS: The Kansas Health & Environmental Laboratories are searching for an ion chromatograph chemist. $19.16 hourly; can vary depending upon experience and qualifications. B.S. desired.

Washington D.C.: Applications are being accepted for AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships. $75-100k offered.

Key West, FL and elsewhere: Interesting set of naval positions available with Excet. A corrosion engineer position (FL), an analytical chemist position (DC), a coating chemist position (DC) and a formulation chemist position (DC.)

Beerse (Ville), Turnhout (BE): Janssen is looking for experienced medicinal chemists for neuroscience work. Ph.D. in organic chemistry, 2-5 years experience.

Huh: Not every day you get an Indian position around these parts. Applied Materials (Mumbai, India) is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. senior chemist for semiconductor work.

Ivory Filter Flask: 9/15/17 edition

A few academic positions posted recently at C&EN Jobs:

Urbana, IL: UIUC, conducting an open-rank search focusing on "a special emphasis on analytical, inorganic, and materials chemistry." 

Queens, NY: St. John's University is looking for an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry. 

Austin, TX: Open-field search at UT-Austin for two assistant professors.

Amherst, MA: Amherst College, looking for an assistant professor of inorganic chemistry. 

Terre Haute, IN: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is hiring an assistant professor of organic chemistry and an assistant professor of analytical chemistry.

Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University is searching for an assistant professor of nuclear medicinal chemistry.

Nice name: There's a multi-university Actinide Center of Excellence? They're looking for postdocs at various universities (Notre Dame, Washington State, Oregon State, Minnesota, Northwestern.) Must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 160 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 160 positions.

(So it's been a while since the list has had a purging, so that's coming soon.)

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (likely never.)

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 50 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 50 positions.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Resolved: lying on your resume is dumb

From Twitter, a really good story from UC-Irvine chemistry professor Jenny Yang, told in a number of tweets: 

Crazy thing happened. A Prof. emailed me for a personal reference after interviewing someone for a job that seemed like a great fit. 

Only problem? I had never heard of this person. They said they worked in my lab from 2013-2014, year I started. Unlikely I'd forget someone. 

Just in case, I asked everyone that had been in the lab that year if they remembered this person. They did not. They checked notebooks too. 

One of my students TA'd this person but I never taught this person. Looking back at my emails, this person had asked if they could do research in my lab but I said I had no space.  

Anyway I told the Prof. this person never worked n my lab. Prof emails me the next week. 

Says this person listed the wrong name on CV. They worked for a Jenny Yeng that was only at UCI for 1 year, ran a small group, and somehow does the same research as me. I said there is no such person.  

Prof. said they talked to this 'Jenny Yeng' on the phone.  

Said glowing things about the candidate. 

So this person lies on their CV. Gets caught. Makes up a fictional person to serve as a reference.  

And it cost them a job. I sure hope they learn a lesson and decide to revise their CV and be honest.

I don't have much to say about this, other than the obvious: eventually, lies get caught.

Warning Letter of the Week: poisoning infants edition

A warning letter from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the CEO of Homeolab USA Inc.: 

During our inspection, our investigator observed specific violations including, but not limited to, the following.

1.    Your firm failed to establish and follow adequate control procedures to monitor the output and to validate the performance of those manufacturing processes that may be responsible for causing variability in the characteristics of in-process material and the drug product (21 CFR 211.110(a)).
Your firm released multiple lots of homeopathic in-process powder blends prior to attempting to validate your manufacturing process. You manufacture [redacted] homeopathic in-process powder blend mixtures which you send to Raritan Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Raritan), a contract manufacturing organization, to produce finished homeopathic drug products for the United States (U.S.) market. Some of your powder blend mixtures are manufactured from ingredients that pose potentially toxic effects. For example, your Infants’ Teething Tablet [redacted] contains belladonna. Raritan uses this powder blend mixture to produce finished drug products for infants and children, a population vulnerable to the toxic effects of belladonna. You shipped [redacted] lot [redacted] of Infants’ Teething Tablet [redacted] to the U.S. market before evaluating whether your manufacturing process was reliable and reproducible.

Your operators use a [redacted], an inherently variable process, to [redacted] produce in-process powder blends, including those made from toxic ingredients. You did not test the in-process powder blends for adequacy of mixing to assure uniformity and homogeneity prior to release and shipment to your contract manufacturer, Raritan.

FDA collected samples of your in-process drugs ([redacted] lot [redacted]) during our September-October 2016 inspection of Raritan. FDA analyses indicated that your in-process drugs were not homogeneous in composition.

Raritan used your powder blends to contract manufacture adulterated finished drug products that you marketed for use in infants and children in the United States. FDA analysis of finished drug products made from your in-process blends also demonstrated non-homogeneous composition. We acknowledge that the teething tablets made from your non-uniform powder blends were recalled.

For those who need some context, Hyland's Teething Tablets are (or were) a fairly common product in American drug stores. They are believed (incorrectly, I assert) to relieve teething pains in children. (I recall turning up my nose at these products because they are labeled as homeopathic.)

As it turns out, they weren't very homeopathic, and the health news website STAT had a long article in February detailing the many hundreds of children who were injured (and the 10 children who died) by the belladonna (a poison!) that was used as the active ingredient in these tablets.

As a parent and a scientist (and someone who works around the pharmaceutical manufacturing space), I am saddened and angered that non-homogeneous blending was the final hole in the Swiss cheese that allowed these poisonous tablets to be released to the public.

(Don't miss the "limited photography" section in the warning letter: "Your consultant impeded the inspection by preventing our investigator from photographing this piece of equipment.")

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Fascinating article on chlorpyrifos by Britt Erickson
• C&EN's annual survey of women in the corporate chemistry world (by Alex Tullo) 
• Don't understand quantum entanglement? Neither do I, but here's a decent piece that explains it. (by Neil Savage)
• Alex Tullo and Melody Bomgardner cover the recovery of the chemical enterprise in Houston.
• I thought this story of a retraction was pretty wonderful. (article by Stephen K. Ritter)
• Lilly to cut 3,500 jobs (mostly through early retirement) (article by Lisa Jarvis) 
• John Lechleiter, leading the way for chemist/CEOs!
• Incidentally, there is interesting method to his donation madness, I suspect. 
• L'Oreal sure gets sued a lot. (article by Marc S. Reisch)

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 238 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 238 positions.

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

Want to talk anonymously? Try the open thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

Staff scientist: Purdue University, energetic materials, West Lafayette, IN

From the inbox, a staff scientist position:

As Research Scientist located at Zucrow Labs, you will carry out research and administrative duties beyond the scope of individual students and post-docs in the synthesis, formulation, and characterization of energetic materials. You will utilize your expertise to improve the technical expertise of the College of Engineering Pre-Eminent Team in Energetic Materials, and develop new research avenues utilizing existing and improved experimental resources. 

Full listing here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Mercury on Houston shores?

I've been really busy this week, so I haven't had time to write about the Arkema situation (especially now that it has been mostly resolved). But I did want to note this little article from The New York Times about some mercury that washed up on a Houston beach: 

CHANNELVIEW, Texas — Public health officials are investigating a case of dangerous liquid mercury that appears to have washed or blown ashore here, east of Houston, in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. 

Bobby Griffin found the clusters of shiny silver mercury globules scattered across his San Jacinto riverfront property on Tuesday, a few hundred yards from the San Jacinto Waste Pits, a Superfund site that was inundated during last week’s storm. 

Harvey cut a path through industrial corridors, raising concerns about pollution and runoff. Public health officials are especially concerned about flooding at highly contaminated Superfund sites, designated by the federal government for clean up... 

...The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says that mercury is extremely dangerous, “with a few drops generating enough fumes to contaminate the air in a room.” It is less dangerous outside, but it poses a hazard if people pick it up or stand near it. 

Mr. Griffin, who earned a living renting out mobile homes on his land until the storm wrecked them all, first noticed a spray of silvery dots in the wet sand that clung to his bare toes on Tuesday. 

He called out for a New York Times reporter who happened to be on his property, looking for toxic contamination left behind after the storm, to come over.
Mr. Griffin, 57, picked up one cluster with his knife, tipped it into the palm of his left hand and watched it dance, split into pieces and come back together. 

“It’s all over here,” Mr. Griffin said, pointing to cluster after cluster. He said he had not seen the material before the storm came....

That doesn't sound like a good situation... time to get out the elemental sulfur?

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 155 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 155 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (likely never.)

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 41 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 41 positions.

What do you think should be here? The list will be short enough that I think polymer-oriented and formulation-oriented positions should be on this list.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Should chemistry majors learn to code?

Also in this week's C&EN, a Perspectives article from Professor Charles Weiss of Wabash College: 

...Software better geared to those earning chemistry degrees or conducting research is readily available. Common examples include MATLAB, Python’s SciPy stack, and GNU Octave. The last two are free, open-source packages. So why haven’t these become standard tools taught to all undergraduate chemistry majors? A key barrier to their adoption is that each of these packages requires some level of programming ability ... and computer programming is not part of the standard training for chemists ... but it should be. 

Learning computer programming is an invaluable skill for chemists, as it empowers them to do more with collected data and, ultimately, to be more efficient and effective scientists. A competitive edge today doesn’t necessarily go to the person who can collect the best data but to the person who can best process and analyze the data collected. This nuance involves automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, mining large data sets that don’t fit well in spreadsheets, and extracting information and trends too subtle or complex for people to discern without computers. 

I recently chatted with a fellow chemist who had interviewed for a job at a company. The interviewer asked whether this chemist knew how to program. The company maintains an extensive database of its research results obtained over the years, and research managers want their team members to have computer programming skills so that they can access this data and use it in their ongoing research. The interviewer also pointed out that computer programming is a skill that, unfortunately, most chemists joining the company do not have....

As always, I view claims about employability at arm's length. Until Professor Weiss can show me data indicating that chemists with coding experience are hired more often or with higher salaries than those without, I will view his assertion with some skepticism. Still, it seems very likely to be true.

Still, I don't think anyone would strongly argue against Professor Weiss' suggestion that chemists learn how to code. I think the far more substantive debate would be: what in the 4-year chemistry curriculum should be dropped in favor of coding courses?* Readers, what say you?

*My suggestion: add a coding module to each of laboratories in traditional 4-year programs (i.e. general, organic, physical, analytical.) Note: I Am Not A Chemistry Professor. 

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 196 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 196 positions.

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

Want to talk anonymously? Try the open thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

Postdoctoral position: synthetic chemistry/antibiotic design, Wuest Lab, Emory University

Via Twitter, a postdoctoral position at Emory University: 

Federally-funded postdoctoral position in the Wuest Lab at Emory University (Atlanta, GA) starting January 1st, 2018. Ideal candidates will have broad interests in multidisciplinary research focusing on antibiotic design and target identification. Research experience in either traditional organic synthesis or microbiology (bacteria/antibiotic resistance) is preferred however everything in between will be considered if there is research overlap.  

A strong publication record, evidence of independence, solid communication and writing skills, and ability to work in a collaborative atmosphere are essential. Our group is composed of a diverse student population with a range of skill sets which has been key to our success, accordingly we encourage applications from all backgrounds! Please submit a CV, Research Summary, and ONE PAGE overview of how your skills will advance the our research.

Interested? Contact Professor Wuest at wwuest@emory.edu

Best wishes to those interested.  

Daily Pump Trap: 9/5/17 edition

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

Owensboro, KY: Swedish Match North America is looking for an analytical chemist; B.S. in chemistry desired.

Golden, CO: TDA Research is searching for a research scientist. Ph.D. with 0-5 years experience, "Experience in one or more of these areas: coatings, corrosion, corrosion inhibitors, sensors, organic functionalized materials and/or material science"."

Rolla, MO: Brewer Sciences, searching for an intellectual property specialist.

West Point, PA: Merck is hiring a scientist in biomolecule process development; B.S./M.S. in chemical engineering desired. Also, they are looking for a scientist in high throughput process development.

Ivory Filter Flask: 9/5/17 edition

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

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University is searching for an assistant professor: "Outstanding candidates with research interests in analytical, biological, inorganic, organic, physical, and theoretical chemistry who complement rather than duplicate our existing strengths are encouraged to apply."

Stanford, CA: Stanford University is hiring an assistant professor; lotsa buzzwords in that ad.

Eau Claire, WI: The University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire is looking for an assistant professor of analytical chemistry.

Lawrence, KS: The University of Kansas is looking for two professors of medicinal chemistry.

Bakersfield, CA: California State University - Bakersfield is searching for an assistant professor of physical chemistry.

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: neurology-focused biotech startups (article by Chris Morrison) 
• Alex Scott covers Imperial College London's new chemistry/entrepreneurship initiative
• Welcome DowDuPont; time to split up DowDuPont! (article by Alex Tullo) 
• Nice to see former DuPont scientists striking out on their own (article by Marc Reisch)
• Gilead bought Kite Pharma (article by Rick Mullin)
• "Dispersant kept Deepwater Horizon volatiles from surfacing" (article by Jyllian Kemsley)
• Will be interesting to see how the dispersant debate plays out, long-term
• An unexpected amount of opinion about foam mattresses from letter-writers.  

Happy Labor Day

To my American and Canadian readers, a very happy Labo(u)r Day to you and your family. To people in the rest of the world, happy Monday! Back tomorrow.

1.5 inch by 2 inch Post-it notes

A list of small, useful things (links):

• Melanie Nelson is offering her "how to find a job in industry" seminar. ($25 - a pretty good deal, if you ask me.)  
• The latest metathesis papers from All Things Metathesis.
• Milkshake's fictional story continues.
• The Sustainable Nano blog on scientific jargon.
• Lots of interesting (German language) links over at Stellen für Chemiker.
• Great little remembrance from Prof. Markus Ribbe.
• A cool safety-oriented resource from Professors Alexander J. M. Miller (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Ian Tonks (University of Minnesota – Twin Cities)

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.