Ask CJ: is it possible to ask to move the start date sooner?

From the inbox, a technical question about offer acceptances and pension plans (redacted for privacy, edited for clarity):

I am looking at an academic job, and currently at a tenure track position with a pension plan. I know these are becoming harder and harder to get.  Without getting into the details too much, for a new position I am looking at, the state is going to switch to a hybrid plan soon [in late June].  

If the academic start date in the positing is for August, would there be any way to possible to push the official start date to [early June] (maybe teach a summer course or do whatever).  This start date would literally be worth 500,000 to 750,000 to me over the course of my retirement.  Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated.  I was thinking that a dean would have the power and authority to make this happen potentially, I really want to see what the forum thinks about this.

 Seems like a reasonable thing to ask, once the offer is made. Readers, what do you think? 

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy 2019. Back on Wednesday.

The 2017 Survey of Earned Doctorates is out

The 2017 Survey of Earned Doctorates is out. Here's the data on graduates in the 2017 academic year and their post-graduation plans. I've taken a screenshot, here's the data in PDF and Excel format.

A quick look indicates that the percentage of respondents who have definite employment plans is up 4% from 2016 (29% from 25%). The percentage of respondents who have no definite plans has decreased by a similar percentage.

Also of interest is the overall median basic salaries of new chemistry Ph.D. graduates who are not postdoctoral fellows (PDF):

Academia: 50,000
Industry: 93,000
Government: 65,333
Nonprofit: 75,000
Other: 50,000

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 260 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 260 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, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

28 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 9 new positions posted for December 15 and 19 positions posted on December 12.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 250 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 250 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

A Chemjobber Christmas tradition

A revised edition for a new year. Print it out and send to your family -- it works!

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 513 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 513 positions.

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

On December 12, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 472 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

How hard is it to get a NSERC postdoc these days?

From the inbox, a column on increasing graduate student funding by Professor Mark Lautens: 

...These early training opportunities give rise to skills that are needed to undertake our toughest scientific and social challenges. Given this clear value proposition, the case for far more financial support for our graduate students, from our research-granting councils and provincial sources, seems pretty clear-cut. 

Back when I was a graduate student, scholarship support was relatively abundant, and the top 25 per cent of students could count on being awarded a scholarship to undertake a postgraduate degree. The current situation is much worse, and the time is right to reverse the trend. 

Just a few years ago, only one graduate from our outstanding chemistry doctoral program was able to secure a postdoctoral scholarship. That support from our granting council helped them secure a faculty position at the University of Ottawa, after completing studies at MIT. While financing for scholarships has improved marginally in the past couple of years, the success rate and funds available are not nearly enough.

I've heard rumors that it's very hard for current graduate students in Canada to get a NSERC postdoctoral fellowship. Readers, is this true? 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 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.

The price of palladium is up?

Via The New York Times, this chemistry news:

Gold was long the most valuable of precious metals, until, suddenly, it wasn’t. 

Last week, an obscure and far less sexy rival called palladium swung ahead, for the first time in 16 years. Gold briefly retook the lead, but spot palladium prices have beaten out gold prices for the past three days. 

Palladium hit a record high on Wednesday before settling in at $1,255.12 an ounce at the market close in London on Thursday, according to data from SP Angel, an investment research firm. Gold was $1,243.02 an ounce. 

It is an impressive dethroning aided by economic shifts, antipollution legislation, union campaigns by mine workers and global trade negotiations. Until recently, palladium was perhaps best known for sharing a name with several popular entertainment venues and for powering the fictional arc reactor mechanism hooked up to Iron Man’s heart. 

Its primary purpose is far less glamorous: More than 80 percent of the world’s palladium is used in the catalytic converters that help vehicles manage their pollutant output.

I presume that the amount used in catalytic converters far outstrips the amount that's used in Suzuki couplings. It will be interesting to see if it continues its record run...  

View From Your Hood: Berkeley sunset edition

Credit: @christine_m_le

Via Twitter: "On hard days, I’m grateful for this beautiful view of @UCBerkeley from our lab #nofilter #viewfrommyhood"

(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.)

Chemist gets 7 years for poisoning

From the inbox, via the Kingston Whig Standard: 

A researcher in Queen’s University’s chemistry department who admitted two months ago to dosing a fellow chemist with a compound principally used to induce cancers in lab animals was given the equivalent of a seven-year prison sentence on Tuesday. 

Twenty-six-year-old Zijie Wang pleaded guilty in Kingston’s Ontario Court of Justice in late October to administering a noxious substance to a post-doctoral fellow in his research group with intent to endanger the man’s life or cause bodily harm and a related charge of aggravated assault arising from the same circumstances. 

Justice Allan G. Letourneau — after a period of deliberation following sentencing submissions in early November from Wang’s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, and assistant Crown attorney Janet O’Brien — decided the Crown’s recommendation of seven years, minus pretrial custody was the more appropriate term. Accordingly, he gave Wang enhanced credit on the 250 days he’d already spent in pretrial custody, counting it as equivalent to 375 days already served, and sentenced him to a further 2,180 days in prison, or a week and a bit short of six years. 

Justice Letourneau, in his reasons for sentence, which he did not read in open court, was not satisfied that Wang “has sincere remorse.”

Read the whole thing here. It's awful.  

Got a career dilemma?

I'm always game for writing answer requests for advice in my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 260 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 260 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, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

26 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 7 new positions posted for December 9 and 19 positions posted on December 7.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 250 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 250 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: inadequate investigation edition

A friendly note to the Executive Vice President of Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:

1.      Failure of your quality unit to ensure that quality-related complaints are investigated and resolved. 

Your firm received a complaint from a customer on June 6, 2018, after an unknown peak was detected during residual solvents testing for valsartan API manufactured at your facility. The unknown peak was identified as the probable human carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA). Your investigation (DCE-18001) determined that the presence of NDMA was caused by the convergence of three process-related factors, one factor being the use of the solvent [redacted]). Your investigation concluded that only one valsartan manufacturing process (referred to as the [redacted] process in your investigation) was impacted by the presence of NDMA.

However, FDA analyses of samples of your API, and finished drug product manufactured with your API, identified NDMA in multiple batches manufactured with a different process, namely the [redacted] process, which did not use the solvent [redacted]. These data demonstrate that your investigation was inadequate and failed to resolve the control and presence of NDMA in valsartan API distributed to customers.... 

...Your response states that NDMA was difficult to detect. However, if you had investigated further, you may have found indicators in your residual solvent chromatograms alerting you to the presence of NDMA. For example, you told our investigators you were aware of a peak that eluted after the [redacted] peak in valsartan API residual solvent chromatograms where the presence of NDMA was suspected to elute. At the time of testing, you considered this unidentified peak to be noise and investigated no further. Additionally, residual solvent chromatograms for valsartan API validation batches manufactured using your [redacted] process, with [redacted] in 2012 ([redacted], and [redacted]) show at least one unidentified peak eluting after the [redacted] peak in the area where the presence of NDMA was suspected to elute....

It's never good when other people can find evidence in your own data that you missed....  

Woman chemistry professor sues University of Arizona

Via AZCentral, this news:

A University of Arizona chemistry professor has filed a class-action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination in pay and promotions at the Tucson campus. 

Dr. Katrina Miranda, a tenured associate professor in the school's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, claims in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court on Nov. 29 that there's a pattern of systematic discrimination against female faculty members in UA's College of Science. "Dr. Miranda has suffered substantial pay disparities as compared to her male counterparts, and the university has failed to promote her in an equivalent manner to these male peers," the lawsuit says. 

Miranda has worked at the university since 2002 and received tenure in 2008. The Arizona Board of Regents is named as the defendant in the lawsuit, as the board oversees UA. 

...The lawsuit estimates Miranda was underpaid by $9,000 to $36,000 per year from 2016 to 2018 compared with male professors of "similar or lesser seniority and performance." Miranda was paid about $100,000 for the 2017-18 academic year, while a male chemistry professor made $130,500 despite joining the university and getting tenure the same year as Miranda, the lawsuit claims. Another male chemistry professor with one year of experience more than Miranda made more than $136,000, according to the court filing. 

It will be interesting to see how this proceeds in court. (Isn't professor pay at public universities public? I wonder at what point this lawsuit went from "I think this is unfair" to "I'm gonna call a lawyer.") 

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 502 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 502 positions.

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

On December 12, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 465 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 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.

Steel bolts

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• At Sustainable Nano, Nano-textiles: The Fabric of the Future
• The death of the kilogram (by XiaoZhi Lim)
• Good comments at In the Pipeline about AMRI/Lilly
• Good essay about grad school depression
• Thoughts from Stu Cantrill about promethium
• Neal Anderson on smelly impurities
• Interesting post on science poetry

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!

Job posting: Director of Science and R&D, Centuria Foods, Carson City, Nevada

From the inbox:

Centuria Foods is hiring a Director of Science and R&D for our new operations in northern Nevada. If you want to make a strong impact on a thriving company that is still in its startup growth stage, this position at Centuria may be for you.  It will be challenging as goals, roles, and projects will be shifting as priorities change based on internal and external factors. This means you can and will need to adapt quickly, prioritize and begin new projects based on your own initiative, and communicate effectively with colleagues that do not necessarily think or speak as you do.  

Please review the requirements below. We are admittedly looking for a rock star. But if you happen to have the listed skills, we want to speak with you.

Strong applicable scientific knowledge:  Must have hands-on experience in large scale separation science, including the principles of partition, distillation and chromatography. An understanding of cross flow filtration and countercurrent chromatography desired.  

Problem solver: Must show adaptability to handle the random issues that plague complicated equipment.
cGMP: Is well versed in cGMP regulations as per ICH Q7 guidelines.
Aptitude for solving problems when working with equipment: Having experience in the construction and/or maintenance of large scale process equipment is preferred.
Safety is key: Have knowledge of state and federal OSHA regulations, and must demonstrate a commitment to safe practices.
Communication skills: The successful candidate must be able to translate complex concepts to non-scientist colleagues.
Leadership skills: Will be expected to lead the hiring for personnel in his/her group and train and manage them to excel.
Curiosity: Can cite past accomplishments showing natural curiosity to learn new subject matter and solve hard problems.
Startup experience: Can thrive in the controlled chaos of a startup environment
Preferred background: BS/MS process engineer or chemist from the biotech, pharma, or petrochemical industries 

CompensationMarket or above market salary depending on experience
Stock options at one of the strongest industrial hemp CBD companies in North America
Full health benefits and vacation

Link here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Job posting: fermentation scientist, C16 Biosciences, Somerville, MA

From the inbox:

Fermentation Scientist 

C16 Biosciences seeks an outstanding chemical engineer to lead our fermentation-based bioprocess efforts and to successfully scale this process from the bench to demonstration scale. 

C16 Biosciences makes lab-grown palm oil. Palm oil is a bedrock component of the modern economy ($60B/yr market size, found in 50% of consumer goods), but its production drives massive amounts of deforestation, extinction, and greenhouse gas emissions. We provide a sustainable alternative to palm oil by using microbial fermentation to convert sustainable carbon streams into lipids which match or beat the performance of palm oil.  We are a Y Combinator and venture capital backed company based in Somerville, MA.  The successful candidate will lead the development, optimization, and scaling of our full bioprocess.  

The primary focus in this role will be to lead the fermentation of sustainable carbon streams using C16 Bioscience’s proprietary microbial strains. Responsibilities include: 

• Lead, design and execute fermentation optimization and scale up experiments 
• Prioritize, plan and direct projects to ensure cost-effective and scalable bioprocess
• Define and analyze data from fermentation runs, incorporating results to improve bioprocess
• Optimize lipid extraction and purification from fermented biomass
• Manage downstream processing and derivatization of microbial oils
• Develop and optimize conditions for product validation
• Lead scale up of bioprocess and transfer to manufacturing, including development of and effective application of SOPs
• Proactively identify new partnerships and grow existing relationships with CMOs
• Develop and manage technology transfer to guarantee effective, accurate high-impact CMO pilots

Requirements:

• Degree in Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Biological Engineering, or related field
• >5 years experience working on fermentation bioprocess development

Full ad here. Best wishes for those interested. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 251 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 251 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, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

30 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 11 new positions posted for December 3 and 19 positions posted on November 30. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 245 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 245 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

The 2017 ACS Form 990

This was 2017's form 990. (Here are the other ones: 2016, 2015 and 2014.)

ACS executive director Thomas Connelly made $893,157 in 2016. Looks like he made $991,787 in 2017. 10.9% increase, must have been a good year.

Whoa: Rhine River shuts down BASF plant

Also in this week's Chemical and Engineering News (by Alex Scott):

Problems caused by low water levels on the Rhine River have gone from bad to worse for German chemical companies. 

BASF says it has closed its toluene diisocyanate facility in Ludwigshafen, Germany—several hundred kilometers up the Rhine from the North Sea—because record low water levels are preventing barges from delivering enough raw material. BASF says it had to shut the polyurethane chemical plant despite transferring as many shipments as it can from the river to pipeline, trucks, and rail. Restarting the plant will depend on improved water levels, BASF says, adding that it has no plans to shut any other plants. 

The low water is affecting many German chemical companies dotting the Rhine as well as firms further upriver in Switzerland. Rather than recover from low flow during a dry summer, river levels have continued to drop...

Uh, wow.  

This week's C&EN

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

• The Year in Pharma
• Don't miss Lisa Jarvis' article about Civica, a consortium attempting to solve chronic shortages in generic drugs
• I think this topic is fascinating and undercovered. 
• Is it market failure? or just a response to the difficulty of manufacturing a highly-regulated product? 
• Variability in Alzheimer's genes? This is bad, yeah? (by Megha Satyanarayana)
• Self-driving lab instruments? Students learn to use them. (by Sam Lemonick)
• The 2018 #RealTimeChem Week Awards (by Dorea Reeser)

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 486 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 486 positions.

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

On December 5, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 456 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 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.

What will 2019 look like for layoffs?

Many of you heard the news about Bayer AG's layoffs last week (article via Bloomberg):  

Bayer AG plans to cut 12,000 jobs and exit its animal health business in an effort to mollify Wall Street, which has punished the company over the tidal wave of lawsuits that came alongside the $63 billion takeover of Monsanto Co. 

...Of the 12,000 job cuts, half will probably come from corporate and supporting functions while another third will be in crop science as the Monsanto integration proceeds, Bayer said. Another 1,250 positions will probably come from pharmaceuticals -- with 350 related to a new facility in Wuppertal, Germany. Another 1,100 will be cut in Bayer’s consumer health division. Baumann repeatedly declined to say how many of the reductions would be in Germany overall....

Also, there was this news last week from Chemical and Engineering News (article by Alex Scott) 

BASF has unveiled a company-wide reorganization in a bid to hike profits by $2.3 billion annually by 2021, the equivalent of increasing pretax profits by between 3 and 5% per year. The firm also aims to increase annual sales of products it claims make a substantial contribution to sustainability to $25 billion by 2025... 

...As part of its restructuring, the firm aims to enhance efficiencies in production, logistics, and R&D. This will include moving some of the firm’s centralized R&D activities into business units. Other planned changes include the wider use of digitization and automation. The firm will invest about $460 million annually on efficiency improvements—significantly more than it has spent in previous years. 

The restructuring will impact about 20,000 of the firm’s 115,000 employees, but BASF will not necessarily cut jobs, according to Brudermüller. Although efficiency improvements will be needed, more staff will be required to implement the planned growth of the business, Brudermüller said.

I feel like 2015 through 2018 were pretty good years for hiring in pharma, certainly something close to a local maxima. Here's hoping that 2019 brings good news rather than bad. Readers, what do you think? 

View From Your Hood: Balbes Consultants West Coast Office edition

Credit: Lisa Balbes

From friend of the blog Lisa Balbes.

(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.) 

What's your favorite kind of prep chromatography system?

From the inbox, a request from a longtime friend of the blog who needs to choose between two kinds of flash chromatography systems (edited for privacy and clarity): 

Please do you know any colleagues who can share their impression on recent LC flash silica models from Biotage - and from Buchi? 

The first option that they are pitching us is a Biotage Isolera Prime. So this is their economy model with 1 wavelength UV detector and single rack fraction collector, for $15,200.  

The second option is slightly used Buchi Reveleris X2-UV, which is a mid-range model, with dual wavelength UV detector and two rack fraction collector, and supposedly better pumps, for $21,600.  

Personally, I would feel lot more comfortable with Teledyne-ISCO but I cannot choose it. I have had unpleasant experience with clunky Biotage models a very long time ago so I am biased but it is probably not relevant. The Buchi system looks similar to Combiflash. But I have seen that Buchi also sometimes does not make great products (for example their teflon vacuum pumps and automated vacuum control boxes, designed as knock-off of KNF pumps, used to be a major weakness of the Buchi rotovaps)

I haven't loved the Revelaris systems that I have seen/worked with, but I'm probably biased. The Biotage systems that I worked with a long time ago were just fine. Readers, your thoughts?  

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 246 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 246 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, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

29 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 10 new positions posted for November 25 and 19 positions posted on November 20. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 245 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 245 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

TIL "Mr. Whippy"

That van has a lot more character than the Econovans I tend to see.
credit: freeindex

Via a recent article in the New York Times, a reminder of somewhat unusual alternative chemistry jobs:

The Bank of England has decided to honor a scientist with its next bank note design. One of the nominees? Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister.... 

...Mrs. Thatcher, then Margaret Hilda Roberts, studied chemistry at the University of Oxford, and after graduating went to work as a chemist at J. Lyons, a British restaurant chain that also sold its own lines of food and, for a while, some of the world’s first business computers. 

The claim that Mrs. Thatcher helped invent soft-serve ice cream while at Lyons is widely distributed, even appearing in the address given at her funeral in 2013 by the then bishop of London, who described her as “part of the team that invented Mr. Whippy,” the major British soft-serve brand. 

Charles Moore, her authorized biographer, is skeptical. “She was quite a good chemist as a student at Oxford; she was a serious chemist,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday. She worked at J. Lyons for about 18 months, he said. Of the soft-serve claim, he added: “I’ve never been able to establish that it’s definitely true.”...

As a very big fan of soft-serve ice cream (Dairy Queen, chocolate), I am amused to learn of "Mr. Whippy." Cute vans! 

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 476 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 476 positions.

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

On November 28, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 446 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? This will be the next open thread; it will open on December 1. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 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.

Parent brings lawsuit for 2018 Pennsylvania methanol fire incident

Via PennLive (article written by John Beauge): 

The mother of one of two Mount Carmel Area High School students burned by liquid methanol during a chemistry demonstration has filed a federal lawsuit claiming proper safety precautions were not taken. Karen Green of Locust Gap also contends the Mount Carmel Area School district was negligent and not prepared to treat her daughter, who is identified only as M.G. 

Green Friday in U.S. Middle District Court sued on behalf of herself and her daughter the school district, Superintendent Bernard Stellar, high school principal Lisa Varano, chemistry teacher Tammy Michaels and school nurse Leanne Ryan. 

Green contends Michaels conducted the demonstration Aug. 30 despite being aware organizations, including the National Science Teachers Association, had urged teachers to halt the use of methanol-based flame tests in open laboratory desks. The National Fire Protection Association recommends placement of a safety barrier to protect students when those type of experiments are conducted, the suit states.

The details of the incident seem pretty bad:

Michaels, who was wearing goggles, attempted to light methanol that had been poured into a container. When it did not ignite, she poured in more methanol. 

An explosion occurred on the second ignition causing the container to tip onto its side, sending the flaming methanol onto the girl's leg and her front row desk, setting both on fire. The girl, attempting to get away from her burning desk, fell to the floor crying in pain as other students rushed to her aid. 

The suit claims the classroom's fire blanket could not be removed from its shipping container and classroom shower had not been functional for two years.  

After the fire on the girl's leg was extinguished she was taken by wheelchair to the nurse's office. Green claims her daughter did not receive any treatment and was in agony the 30 minutes it took for an ambulance to arrive.

Seems like a pretty classic classroom methanol fire incident, with a combination of:

• fire
• alcohol being added to the flames
• from a bulk alcohol container with
• students being too close

I think it's pretty remarkable that almost all of the media articles these days mention that this is a known problem - I'm rather surprised that high school teachers don't seem to be getting the word. 

A photo of the burn is available here (it's a little gruesome.) Maybe now we can stop doing this demo? 

Voting in ACS elections

From this week's C&EN, this interesting comment from Attila Pavlath:

I congratulate our recently elected national officers and thank them for their willingness to lead the society and build our future. However, three aspects of our elections greatly concern me.

1. Only 14,000 members voted, which is at best 10% if we assume that foreign members did not vote. In 1971, 39% voted! Are the remaining 90% satisfied with our direction or just would like something different? This should be thoroughly studied.

It'd be really interesting to know what the peak voter participation is - I suspect it's below 50%, but I dunno. (It'd also be really interesting to understand what voting in civic organizations has done over the last 50 years - I bet that's fallen as well.) 

Happy Thanksgiving

Every year, I am incredibly thankful for my family, my friends, my community (physical and online) and my job. This particular year, I am very, very, very, very thankful for the health of my immediate family.

I am also thankful for you, my readers and commenters. Thank you for your reading, your advice, your e-mails and your brilliant, insightful comments. I am truly blessed.

[An additional note: if you would ever like to meet for a cup of coffee or a beer, please reach out to my e-mail address. I often find myself in unexpected places these days, and I love to meet readers of the blog.]

My family and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving and if you're not in the United States, a happy Thursday and Friday! 

Warning Letter of the Week: non-uniformity edition

A love note for the CEO of Mylan Pharmaceuticals from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:

2. Your firm failed to thoroughly investigate any unexplained discrepancy or failure of a batch or any of its components to meet any of its specifications, whether or not the batch has already been distributed (21 CFR 211.192). 

Your investigations into out-of-specification (OOS) results and process deviations were inadequate. Root causes did not consistently include scientifically supported conclusions.... 

B. Your firm opened two manufacturing investigation reports, No. 1071629 on December 12, 2016, and No. 1106258 on January 25, 2017, to investigate atypically high assay and high variability content uniformity results for three batches of prednisolone sodium phosphate 10 mg orally disintegrating tablets (ODT). The investigations identified a root cause of untrained or inexperienced operators [redacted]. The investigation did not fully evaluate the processing factors that contribute to variability in your finished tablets. In particular, it did not evaluate the inherent variability of the [redacted] method used for charging [redacted], and identify more robust methods for performing this critical transfer that could prevent blend segregation and tablet dose non-uniformity. It also did not ensure improvements were adequately specified in batch records to enable an ongoing state of control. We acknowledge your firm’s market recall on April 30, 2018, of all batches of prednisolone sodium phosphate ODT within expiry from the U.S. market. 

C. Your firm opened multiple manufacturing investigation reports and trending assessments from July 2016 to October 2017 related to out-of-trend and OOS content uniformity results for metolazone 2.5 mg tablets. A scientifically justified root cause had not been identified, and effective CAPA plans had not been implemented. Despite substantial non-uniformity observed in multiple batches of metolazone 2.5 mg tablets, you continued to manufacture and release this drug product up to the time of the inspection.

I don't know anything about tableting, but I bet that non-uniformity isn't a fun problem to solve.

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: "The chemical search for better white light" (by Mitch Jacoby)
• "Introducing the new Dow" (by Alex Tullo) 
• Blockchain! (by Neil Savage)
• looking forward to the American Chemical Society coming up with ACSCoin in three years
• Noramco is making synthetic THC? (by Michael McCoy) 
• Some d00d yapping about professional jealousy
• I dunno, "meta-meat" doesn't sound very tasty 

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 468 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 468 positions.

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

On November 21, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 441 positions. The latest weather report for the Faculty Jobs List is here.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's the current open thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 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.

‘My friend, sorry, you must wait.’

An amusing aside in a New York Times article about luxury brands and their supply chains: 

Parterre, the British fragrance house, created its own on-site botanical garden at Keyneston Mill in Dorset, England, to grow the aromatic plants that would form the cornerstone of its limited-edition fragrances. Much the same instinct underpins the rise of cottage gardens at high-end hotels like Borgo Santo Pietro in Tuscany, Italy. Its Michelin-starred restaurant relies primarily on the organic farm attached to the property, which includes a dairy and an apiary. 

“They are securing the sources of their competitive advantage,” said Mario Ortelli, a luxury analyst with Ortelli & Company of London. “If your supplier works with 10 other luxury brands, and you’re not the most important client? When you ask for extra quantities, he can tell you, ‘My friend, sorry, you must wait.’”

It'd be interesting to know if Parterre purchased its own extraction as well? 

Kalrez o-rings

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• Do check out the Organic Chemistry Jobs Company List - I think it's a neat idea
• At Sustainable Nano, Zack's Nano Adventure
• Ash, on an AI-in-chemistry poll
• xykademiqz on postdocs
• naturalproductman, on "The Synthesis of 12alpha-Hydroxy Steroids"
• Interesting essay on professor semi-retirement, by Richard C. Larson (submitted by friend-of-the-blog James Ashenhurst)
• 133 people have died from being pulled into a wood chipper in the last 9 years? (by Celeste Monforton)
• Interesting essay on alcoholism in graduate school (by Elizabeth A. Marchio)

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!

Job posting: Director, Chemical Laboratory - NMR Lab, Auburn University, Auburn, AL

From the inbox:

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University seeks to fill the position of Director of Chemical Laboratories for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Lab. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: (1) operating and maintaining the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry's 250 MHz, 400 MHz, and 600 MHz NMR spectrometers; (2) maintaining the computers and software needed to run the NMR instrumentation and data processing stations; (3) running samples and assisting researchers with data analysis and experimental design; (4) supervising a graduate student who will assist in the operation of the laboratory; and (5) billing for services pertaining to the NMR spectrometers.   

The following are minimum qualifications: (1) a Ph.D. from an accredited institution in NMR Spectroscopy, Chemistry, Biochemistry, or a closely related field, (2) five (5) years of experience in analyzing (bio)chemical molecules and coordinating lab operations, procedures, and instruction, and (3) knowledge of laboratory techniques, safety procedures, and teaching principles. 

Full job posting here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 246 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 246 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, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The Organic Chemistry Jobs Company List

Over at Organic Chemistry Jobs, a pretty neat new list: the Organic Chemistry Jobs company list.

29 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 14 new positions posted for November 14 and 15 positions posted on November 12. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 245 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 245 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Coke dissolves road dust?

Via the New York Times, this odd little article about using food as cleaning agents, including the classic 101 uses for Coca-Cola: 

...Speaking of sticky things, our reader Peggy offers this suggestion: “I use a product called Goo Gone but its main ingredient is orange oil. If you have no Goo Gone, rub a piece of orange on the gunk from stick-on labels and Bob’s your uncle.” 

Ketchup — yes, it’s a vegetable, just go with us — can be used to polish brass and copper. But if you’re out, and you happen to have a pineapple handy, you’re in luck. 

“Whenever I trim a pineapple, I grab a saltshaker and whichever of my copper bottom pots needs tarnish removed: Sprinkle salt, rub with pineapple peel — Voilà!” wrote another reader.... 

...We noted that Coca-Cola can be used to clear a slow-moving drain, clean a toilet bowl and remove motor oil and grease from clothing and pavement. You all had many uses to add. Bill writes: “If road oil and dust have made your windshield smeary, pour Coke on it. The windshield comes clean,” and Thomas added, “Coke rejuvenates old windshield wiper blades.”

Orange oil as a handy solvent makes sense to me, but ketchup to remove metal oxides? Also carbonated sugar water for motor oil?  

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: "Making biologics on demand" (by Celia Henry Arnaud)
• This Mark Peplow piece on a rather unfortunate situation at the University of Manchester is worth a read 
• Rick Mullin with two articles on Hovione 
• I really enjoyed this profile of Diane Villax
• Anne McNeil's new website: DiversifyChemistry (article by Linda Wang)
• Finally time for antisense oligonucleotides? (article by Ryan Cross)

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 458 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 458 positions.

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

On November 14, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 429 positions. The latest weather report for the Faculty Jobs List is here.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's the current open thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

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

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 49 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 49 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 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.

"I Want Miracles"

Via the New York Times, a truly heart-wrenching story of health care among the poor in China: 

Do-It-Yourself Drugs 

China in recent years has become the world’s largest home of internet users. Many Chinese now shop almost exclusively in internet bazaars that offer everything from groceries and hot meals to jewelry and cars. They can also buy pharmaceuticals — even the raw ingredients to illegally make drugs themselves. 

Many start on forums devoted to patients and their loved ones when they can’t get answers anymore. The two most popular are “I Want Miracles,” which is dedicated to helping people with lung cancer, and “Dances With Cancer.” The forums combined have just over 440,000 members. 

“This is the current state of health care in China,” said Chen Yun, who runs “I Want Miracles.” “Every doctor is just too busy, and there’s no way that they can explain many things to you clearly. But if you want to figure it out, you just have to learn by yourself.”... 

Desperate to help his mother, Mr. Zhang did a basic search: “What to do after patient develops drug resistance on Iressa?” He happened upon “Dances With Cancer” and an active participant and a longtime cancer patient called “Bean Spirit,” who wrote a manual on how to make drugs at home. 

Mr. Zhang, who previously worked at a pharmaceutical factory but was not involved in making drugs, started on his own version. He bought the ingredients for AstraZeneca’s Tagrisso, a lung cancer drug. He spent just over $150 for a month’s worth of ingredients, plastic capsules and an electronic scale. 

“The raw ingredients are worth more than the price of gold,” he said. 

When the drugs stopped working for his mother, Mr. Zhang began making others. He started having sleepless nights, worried that he would not be able to find the ingredients each time a drug stopped working.

This is a really awful story (regrettably, the ending is not much better.) I haven't been able to find "I Want Miracles", but I have questions, e.g. are they obtaining actual API, or are they actually manufacturing raw materials? (I hope it's API, for their sake.)

Funny

Credit: Mark Anthony Olson

LOL. 

Job posting: PNNL postdocs, Richland, WA

From the inbox:

Contribute to PNNL’s goals in computational biophysics/chemistry as part of the Lab’s Physical Sciences Division (PSD). As a postdoctoral researcher in the Physical Biosciences group, you will join a talented, multi-investigator team to explore the functional principles at the core of the precise energy, mass and charge flow, and reactivity in enzymes. You will be mentored by Simone Raugei, as you develop a line of computational research, working to understand the mechanism 

Best wishes to those interested. Deadline is TODAY.

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 237 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 237 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, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 10 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 10 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

46 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 26 new positions posted for November 5 and 20 positions posted on October 29. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 240 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 240 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

The mass spectrometry wars continue

Also in this week's C&EN, the latest salvo in the Letters to the Editor: 

O. David Sparkman (C&EN, Aug. 27, page 3) is correct that there is “no such thing” as the term “mass spectroscopy.” Paul J. Karol (C&EN, Oct. 1, page 2) is correct to refer to the International Union of Pure & Applied Chemistry but unfortunately referenced the 1991 recommendations in Pure & Applied Chemistry (DOI: 10.1351/pac199163101541). This older document has been superseded by 2013 recommendations (Pure Appl. Chem., DOI: 10.1351/pac-rec-06-04-06), which state on page 1565, “Mass spectroscopy is an obsolete synonym for mass spectrometry that should not be used to avoid confusion with spectroscopies in which the measured quantity is absorption or emission of electromagnetic radiation.” 

Unfortunately, the usually reliable IUPAC Gold Book (goldbook.iupac.org) has not been updated with the most recent recommendations and still refers to the obsolete 1991 entry for mass “spectroscopy.” Hopefully this valuable resource will be updated soon. 

Charles Lucy
Edmonton, Alberta

Never argue semantics with an analytical chemist, it seems.  

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: 10 Startups to Watch
• Don't miss Ryan Cross' summary of Kronos Bio - really fascinating
• Sounds like Hurricane Florence hit UNC Wilmington really hard (by Andrea Widener)
• Check out a profile of formulation chemist Hannah Follis (by Melissa Gilden)
• "4 charged with stealing Genentech trade secrets" (article by Marc Reisch)
• I feel like this articles are becoming ever more common - seems like the Feds are cranking up the pressure
• I really enjoyed this episode of "Stereo Chemistry" about lab superstitions by Kerri Jansen

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 450 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 450 positions.

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

On November 7, 2017, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 417 positions. The latest weather report for the Faculty Jobs List is here.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to see pre-September discussion? Check out the pre-September open thread. September discussion and October discussion is on the September open thread. This thread will serve as the open thread for November through December, or 250 comments, whichever comes first.

UPDATE: This thread is closed for further discussion - the new thread is here.

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

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 46 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 46 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 20 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 20 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.