New Periodic Bagel episode: O Canada! with Meagan Oakley and Anika Tarasewicz

Meagan and Anika subject CJ and Alex to a quiz this time. We talk about Canada and about Meagan and Anika's research. Finally, we talk about the upcoming "Leaders Overcoming Gender Inequality in Chemistry" (LOGIC) retreat, which happens immediately before the CCCE conference in Winnipeg, MB. At the CCCE conference, Meagan and Anika are also hosting a special session on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Key dates:

EDI Abstract Submission Deadline: February 10, 2020
LOGIC Abstract Submission Deadline: May 1, 2020.
LOGIC Retreat: May 23-24
CCCE: May 24-28

Rate and review us on iTunes!

Feel free to ask questions, add comments and suggestions for guests and topics in the comments.

White House official speaks on the Lieber case

From Asia-oriented media outlet "The Diplomat", coverage of the Lieber case, with this comment from the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy:

...Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, director of OSTP, in his statement on the case said that “failures to disclose the receipt of substantial resources, participation in certain types of programs, and dual employment distort decisions about the appropriate use of taxpayer funds.” 

The result is “hidden transfers of information, know-how and time.” 

He went on to say that “this is exactly why OSTP launched the Joint Committee on the Research Environment,” known as JCORE. Droegemeier emphasized that JCORE has a “coordinated approach that includes the research community as a whole.” That means working with the full spectrum of federal agencies, along with the private, academic, professional society, and nonprofit research worlds. 

It’s important to continue “successful international collaborations,” Droegemeier said, but “protecting the integrity of our research system” has to be done at the same time. 

“The challenges posed by foreign-government sponsored talent recruitment programs” are met by “behavior-based” approaches, he explained, echoing comments made by Assistant Attorney General John Demers at a Homeland Security Experts Group event held at the Wilson Center earlier this month.

I don't think we've seen evidence of "hidden transfers of information", but I guess this will come out at some point. I suspect there are a lot of university professors who are looking very carefully at their grant application boilerplate and filing changes...

==

This was an interesting profile of Professor Lieber in the Wall Street Journal. Lots of quotes from former students, including this one:

Mr. Timko recalled Mr. Lieber as being in his lab office six days a week, often from 8 a.m. to midnight, driving a nondescript car, dressing down and reading scientific literature for pleasure. 

His hobbies included growing pumpkins in his backyard, one of which weighed 1,870 pounds, the largest in the state in 2014.

So my thought process around Professor Lieber's motivations is that he was financially motivated by the Thousand Talent program's large payouts ($50,000/month (pro-rated?) and $158,000 of living expenses). But if he doesn't have an extravagant lifestyle, where did the money go? 

BREAKING: Charles Lieber released on bail for $1 million

From C&EN's Bethany Halford and Andrea Widener:

Lieber appeared at a Jan. 30, 2020, hearing shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit. His bail was set at $1 million cash. He also had to agree to surrender his and his wife’s passports, to disclose foreign bank accounts, and to have no contact with Wuhan University of Technology, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Here are Beth's two tweets from the courthouse. Did anyone have the "Harvard CCB chair in jumpsuit" spot on their 2020 bingo card?  

18 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 8 new positions for January 26 and 10 positions for January 24. 

C&EN: Harvard chair in federal custody over charges

C&EN on the Charles Lieber case (emphasis mine, article by Bethany Halford and Andrea Widener): 

Charles M. Lieber, the chair of the chemistry and chemical biology department at Harvard University, was arrested on Jan. 28 and charged with fraud. The complaint alleges that Lieber hid his financial ties to China’s Thousand Talent program from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DOD), as well from as his own university. 

At a court hearing on Jan. 28, Marianne Bowler, a judge with the US District Court for Massachusetts, denied bail and ordered Lieber to stay in the custody of the US Marshals Service after US prosecutors argued that he is a “serious flight risk.” His next court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 30. 

Lieber is charged with a single felony count for making false statements to US government agencies. The maximum sentence for such a charge is 5 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine, the Department of Justice says. His attorney is Peter K. Levitt of the firm Donnelly, Conroy & Gelhaar. 

Lieber could also face federal debarment, which would prohibit him from receiving federal grant money. Federal agencies may debar people for reasons including a fraud conviction or a “willful violation of a statutory or regulatory provision or requirement applicable to a public agreement or transaction” (2 CFR § 180.800).

As I said yesterday on Twitter, I didn't expect to be considering whether or not the chair of the Harvard chemistry department was a flight risk. 

BREAKING: Harvard chemistry chair charged with lying to US government re: Chinese academic funding

Via Twitter, this remarkable news from the New York Times: 

BOSTON — Charles M. Lieber, the chair of Harvard’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, was charged on Tuesday with making false statements about money he had received from a Chinese government-run program, part of a broad-ranging F.B.I. effort to root out scientists suspected of stealing biomedical research from American laboratories. 

Dr. Lieber, a leader in the field of nanoscale electronics, was one of three Boston-area scientists accused on Tuesday of working on behalf of China. His case involves work with the Thousand Talents Program, a state-run program that seeks to draw talent educated in other countries... 

...Federal prosecutors said on Tuesday that Dr. Lieber made false representation to questions about his participation in the Chinese program to the United States Department of Defense. He is also charged with misrepresenting his involvement in Thousand Talents and his affiliation with Wuhan University of Technology to officials at the National Institutes of Health. 

According to charging documents, Dr. Lieber was paid up to $50,000 per month in salary and $150,000 per year in living expenses by Wuhan University of Technology. He was also awarded more than $1.5 million by the university and the Chinese government to build a laboratory in Wuhan. 

Researchers are legally obligated to disclose such payments  to their academic institutions. 

A representative for Dr. Lieber could not immediately be reached for comment....

NBC indicates this is the shakeout from a Boston-wide investigation, including a PLA lieutenant who was studying at Boston University. Here are details from NYT on that:

...Yanqing Ye, a physicist who had been studying at Boston University until last spring, was also charged on Tuesday, accused of lying to authorities about her status as a lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army. Ms. Ye, who was charged with visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy, is in China and was not be arrested...

This is moving a bit fast for me to understand what is happening, but here are my priors:

• I do believe it is clear that there is a Chinese government-wide priority to use whatever means available to obtain economically- and militarily-important scientific and engineering IP from the US. 
• I am very skeptical as to the FBI's ability to distinguish between scientists who were stupid (i.e. broke laws accidentally) and those who were evil (those who intended to break laws and transfer science/technology illegally.) 
• I believed this before the current Administration, I note
• I suspect that this effort on the part of the FBI will be broadly unproductive for everyone involved. 

So, those are my priors. We'll see how this goes. Updates as news becomes available. Looks like Harvard is cutting ties quick - their statement, via NBC: 

"The charges brought by the U.S. government against Professor Lieber are extremely serious," Harvard said in a statement. "Harvard is cooperating with federal authorities, including the National Institutes of Health, and is initiating its own review of the alleged misconduct." 

The university added that Lieber has been put on "indefinite administrative leave."

 Bonkers.

UPDATE 1:48 PM: The Justice Department press release, and the actual indictment. After reading the indictment, it sure seems like the FBI has Professor Lieber dead to rights on lying to the FBI agents who visited him.

CJ's advice: Don't talk to the cops. If you must talk to the cops, don't lie. (Also, don't talk to the cops without a lawyer. But better yet, don't talk to the cops.)

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 526 research/teaching positions and 56 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 526 research/teaching positions and 56 teaching assistant professor positions.

Want to add a position? Here's a Google Form to enter positions. In 2019-2020, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." As of 9/20/19, we are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

See an error? Please contact us at chemjobber@gmail.com

On January 29, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 549 positions.

Open threads: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. Current: the eighth. After noon Eastern on January 28, this will be the ninth open thread.

This thread closed on Tuesday, February 25. The next thread is the tenth.

Can't see additional comments? Look for the "load more" button underneath the comment box.

Scientists detect illicit Chinese CFC manufacture through atmospheric detective work

Via Nature, this fascinating article about atmospheric chemists and CFCs: 

...Between 2002 and 2012, CFC-11 emissions averaged 54,000 tonnes per year, owing to gradual leakage of old stores of the compound contained in foam insulation and appliances made before the mid 1990s. But the researchers found that between 2014 and 2016, average emissions grew to 67,000 tonnes a year — an increase of roughly 25%1. They also noted that, in 2013, the flask data at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii suddenly showed increased levels of CFC-11 in the pollution plumes regularly recorded at the site. On closer investigation, they found that the sources of those plumes, and the uptick in CFC-11 emissions, came from eastern Asia. 

A team of scientists immediately began to look for clues in an independent set of measurements, in particular those from the AGAGE stations on Jeju Island in South Korea, and Hateruma in Japan. Data from these stations revealed spikes in CFC-11 whenever plumes of pollution passed by. And the spikes had grown since 2013. 

With this information, the scientists ran computer models using atmospheric circulation data and the monitoring-station measurements to determine where the pollution was coming from. Four independent modelling groups worked on solving the puzzle, and all came back with the same answer: about 7,000 tonnes per year were coming from the Chinese provinces of Shandong and Hebei...

I think it's pretty cool that they were able to detect this with some gas chromatographs. Read the whole thing.

Juuuuuust right

Great shot by indoor bowler Nick Brett. (Who knew this was a sport?)

Watching that ball go through the two red balls, I am reminded of the exquisite details of the work we do as chemists, shimming NMRs, titrating reagents smartly and efficiently or designing catalysts to work perfectly. It feels so satisfying when we get things dead on.

Have a great weekend. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: The new drugs of 2019 (by Lisa M. Jarvis)
• The latest on ketamine (by Michael Torrice) 
• "E-cigarettes impair blood vessel function as much as conventional cigarettes do in rats" (by Tien Nguyen)
• Coverage of the Spanish ethylene oxide plant explosion (by Alex Scott) 
• ACS Scholar alumna: Corina McClure (by Niara Nichols)
• Some d00d yapping about focus

20 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 20 new positions for January 20. 

Postdoctoral position: Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ

From the inbox: 

Postdoctoral Associate in Pharmacokinetic Core Laboratory 

Newly established PK Lab is seeking a PhD level scientist (postdoctoral associate) to join our team at BNI! 

About BNI: The Barrow Neurological Institute (BNI) (Phoenix, AZ), has been ranked in the top 10 best hospitals for neurology and neurosurgery since the US News and World Reports began reporting such data. The BNI leads the largest pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics-driven clinical trials program for primary brain tumors in the United States. To support the clinical trial program, a centralized CAP/CLIA certified Pharmacokinetics Core Laboratory is being developed with the mission of providing state-of-the-art bioanalytic technology and a broad range of pharmacology expertise to enable evaluation of critical pharmacological endpoints in clinical trials. 

Summary of Position: PK Lab is currently in the process of CAP/CLIA certification and will be supporting healthcare professionals and patients in health management through accurate, precise and state of the art testing and research.
We are looking for an individual to join the PK Lab team as a postdoctoral associate (at the level I, II and III depending on the experience). The candidate should have a strong background in pharmaceutical sciences and ideally in PK with a reasonable working knowledge in translational sciences. Candidates who have worked in the regulated environment to develop LC-MS/MS-based methods and can demonstrate competence in pharmacology and toxicology will be preferred. The candidate should be highly motivated, able to work well in teams, and have excellent communication skills. Potential areas of application include: drug PK, instrumental method development and validation, biomarker analysis, drug metabolism, PK analysis and modeling, medicinal or analytical chemistry.

Posting here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Warning Letter of the Week: Excel spreadsheet edition

A note from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the Chief Executive Officer of Tismor Health and Wellness Pty Limited in Kingsgrove, New South Wales:

3.   Your firm failed to establish laboratory controls that include scientifically sound and appropriate specifications, standards, sampling plans and test procedures designed to assure that components, drug products conform to appropriate standards of identity, strength, quality, and purity (21 CFR 211.160(b)). 

Your firm failed to validate the Excel spreadsheet used to perform the assay calculation for your “[redacted].” Your procedures lacked guidance on how to check and manually verify the calculation sheets. During the inspection, our investigator identified a calculation error within the spreadsheet. The incorrect formula for averaging the Internal Standard peak area was used. 

There is no assurance that the associated assay results recorded are reliable and accurate.
In your response, you stated that you have retrospectively tested products in the market using correct procedures and will update the validation master plan to ensure that spreadsheets are included within the scope of validation efforts. You created a new procedure which details the approach for validating spreadsheets as well as protecting the file from accidental changes. You also stated all Excel spreadsheet calculations for your [redacted] batches have been retrospectively reviewed. 

During the review, you identified another error within your Excel spreadsheets. The assay test result for [redacted] batch [redacted] was incorrect due to a transcription entry error for active peak area. Your firm used a new spreadsheet and entered the correct active peak area. The result was recalculated, and the final result was reported. The product had already been released with test results using the incorrect calculation, although the recalculated test result was still within specification. You have committed to manually check calculations until the spreadsheet has been validated. 

Your firm relied on Excel spreadsheets to calculate assay and determine the reportable result for final batch release. Your computerized systems must perform their functions satisfactorily and that your firm establish a written program to ensure ongoing proper system performance. 

Your response is inadequate. You have not fully assessed the potential impact of using data from unvalidated, unsecured spreadsheets for critical CGMP functions.

Excel spreadsheets are so useful, and who knew they had to be validated? (answer: lots of people)

(who among us have not transposed a number on Excel?)

Chemical Activity Barometer up in January

From the American Chemistry Council: 

WASHINGTON (January 21, 2020) – The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), jumped 0.6 percent in January on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis following a 0.1 percent gain in December. On a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis, the barometer rose 1.4 percent. 

The unadjusted January data showed a 1.0 percent gain following a 0.5 percent increase in December and a 0.4 percent gain in November. The diffusion index rose to 62 percent in January. The diffusion index marks the number of positive contributors relative to the total number of indicators monitored. The CAB reading for December was revised upward by 0.33 points and that for November was revised downward by 0.22 points. 

“The CAB signals gains in U.S. commerce into the third quarter of 2020,” said Kevin Swift, chief economist at ACC.

Well, that's good news. Here's hoping it keeps chemist jobs safe.  

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 523 research/teaching positions and 54 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 523 research/teaching positions and 54 teaching assistant professor positions.

Want to add a position? Here's a Google Form to enter positions. In 2019-2020, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." As of 9/20/19, we are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

See an error? Please contact us at chemjobber@gmail.com

On January 22, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 543 positions.

Open threads: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. Current: the eighth.

Can't see additional comments? Look for the "load more" button underneath the comment box.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 28 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 28 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.

Imagine having to worry about this in your backyard

From The Hindu, this story: 

Residents catch truck dumping chemical waste into Vrishabhavati river 

Alert residents of a gated community caught a truck driver trying to dump chemical waste into the Vrishabhavathi river on Saturday night. 

The truck was seized and the keys were taken away by the residents. But, when the residents, accompanied by the beat police, went to the police station to file a complaint, the driver vanished along with the truck.  

Nagaraju, Ramaraju, M.K. Kulkarni, C.J. Prakash, all residents of GoodEarth Orchard, noticed the truck belonging to a factory trying to dump the waste and caught hold of the driver. But he managed to escape....

I'm sure there was a time when this was a problem in America, but I'm guessing it's not very common now... 

Spanish ethylene oxide plant explosion kills 3

Reactor part crashed through an apartment in Spain
credit: Mossos/BBC

Bad news from the chemical manufacturing world from Spain:

MADRID (AP) — A massive explosion at a petrochemical plant in northeastern Spain on Tuesday killed one person and injured at least nine others, three seriously, regional authorities said. 

A press spokesman for the port city of Tarragona, where the plant is located, said a preliminary investigation indicated the force of the blast killed an individual in a nearby neighborhood. 

The spokesman said he had no further details. He spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with City Hall regulations. The regional fire service tweeted that the man had died in a building affected by the blast. They said one other person was injured in the building. 

The interior minister of Spain’s Catalonia region said eight workers at the factory were injured, three seriously, and one person remained missing....

The video of the explosion is pretty horrifying, and the aftermath of the plant blast is awful. As someone who works in a plant environment, I am particularly haunted by the photograph above, which is a part of a reactor who killed a man in his apartment 3 kilometers away. We work in a dangerous business. Best wishes to all involved. 

21 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 12 new positions for January 14 and 9 for January 10. 

Newest Periodic Bagel episode: Derek Lowe, medicinal chemist (not the former MLB pitcher)

Sixth episode of The Periodic Bagel, with guest Derek Lowe (@Dereklowe), chemistry jobs, the future of pharma and rock music.

Rate and review us on iTunes!

Feel free to ask questions, add comments and suggestions for guests and topics in the comments.

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 516 research/teaching positions and 51 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 516 research/teaching positions and 51 teaching assistant professor positions.

Want to add a position? Here's a Google Form to enter positions. In 2019-2020, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." As of 9/20/19, we are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

See an error? Please contact us at chemjobber@gmail.com

On January 15, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 538 positions.

Open threads: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. Current: the eighth.

Can't see additional comments? Look for the "load more" button underneath the comment box.

Faculty position: assistant/associate professor of computational chemistry, University of Georgia, Athens, GA

From the inbox, a tenure-track opening at the University of Georgia: 

The University of Georgia Department of Chemistry (chem.uga.edu) invites applications for a tenure track faculty position in computational chemistry, beginning August 1, 2020, at the level of either Assistant or Associate Professor. Tenure upon appointment is possible at the associate level. All areas of computational chemistry will be considered, but priority will be given to candidates whose research interests complement existing expertise in the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry (ccqc.uga.edu) and who can engage in collaborations with faculty within the Department of Chemistry and other units across campus, including the Center for Drug Discovery, the New Materials Institute, the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, the Institute of Bioinformatics, the Department of Microbiology, and the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases.
The selected candidate will be appointed in an Assistant Professor or Associate 

Professor. To be eligible for tenure upon appointment, candidates must be appointed as an associate professor, have been tenured at a prior institution, and bring a demonstrably national reputation to the institution. Candidates must be approved for tenure upon appointment before hire.  

To receive full consideration, completed applications should be received by February 15, 2019.

 Best wishes to those interested. 

Decent job growth gains in December 2019

Via the New York Times: 

The American labor market completed a decade-long marathon of hiring in the final month of 2019, and still shows few signs that it is running out of breath. 

Payroll gains in December capped a year of steady but slowing gains in employment, the government reported Friday, nudging the year’s total past 2.1 million jobs. That was fewer than 2018’s additions but more than enough to outpace population growth. 

“We had relatively strong and steady job growth over the year despite a number of headwinds including a trade war with China, weaker global activity and heightened policy uncertainty,” Gregory Daco, the chief United States economist at Oxford Economics, said. Employers added 145,000 workers in December. 

Cooling job creation is normal in the 11th year of an economic expansion and a record-breaking streak of job gains. Looking ahead, Mr. Daco said the nation’s job machine was likely to crank down further.

The chemical manufacturing subsector had 861600 employees in December 2019 (down 200 since November), 564500 production employees (up 1100) and the unemployment rate was flat at 1.2%. Not too shabby since the high of 10.3% or so in 2010. 

Seen at the chemical shop

Credit: @difluorine

Context here. Difluorine's Twitter account is very clever (I am in love with this drawing), very much worth a follow.

(Before this week, I had never heard of male-to-male power cords.)

Have a great weekend!

13 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 13 new positions for January 7.

Warning Letter of the Week: aborted HPLC run edition

From a missive from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the managing director of GPT Pharmaceuticals Private Ltd in Balanagar, India:

3.  Your firm failed to exercise appropriate controls over computer or related systems to assure that only authorized personnel institute changes in master production and control records, or other records (21 CFR 211.68(b)). 

Our investigator observed your laboratory equipment lacked appropriate controls. For example, from January 1, 2018, to June 25, 2019, audit trails from [redacted] Agilent 1260 Infinity Series II high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instruments showed a pattern of aborted runs and single run entries for testing [redacted]. Single run entries included analyses of multiple peaks or split peaks without documented investigations or adequate scientific justifications. Your employees used the Agilent Service Account login, with full administrative privileges, to abort HPLC testing runs without being attributable to a specific individual. 

Your response identified the number of deleted, aborted, and single runs during your HPLC testing. However, your response did not provide adequate investigations or evidence of corrective actions put in place to prevent these data integrity issues from recurring.

Clever move, with the extra account. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Luis Echegoyen, incoming ACS President (by Sophie L. Rovner)
• "MOFs neutralize nerve agents without needing liquid water" (by Mitch Jacoby) 
• Ball milling your redox reaction? Why not? (by Leigh Krietsch Boerner) 
• Melinta declares bankruptcy (by Ryan Cross) 
• I'm there - antibiotics are a market failure, it's time for the US government to buy and stockpile antibiotics, kind of like nuclear weapons, but not 
• "How the periodic table can help you organize your career" (by ACS Careers) 

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 508 research/teaching positions and 49 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 508 research/teaching positions and 49 teaching assistant professor positions.

Want to add a position? Here's a Google Form to enter positions. In 2019-2020, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." As of 9/20/19, we are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

See an error? Please contact us at chemjobber@gmail.com

On January 8, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 530 positions.

Open threads: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh. This will be the eighth open thread.

Can't see additional comments? Look for the "load more" button underneath the comment box.

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 85 positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List has 85 positions. It is curated by Lilian Josephson (@lljosephson). 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 28 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 28 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.

Frances Arnold retracts 2019 Science paper

Via the BBC: 

American scientist Frances Arnold, who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry, has retracted her latest paper. 

Prof Arnold shared the award with George P Smith and Gregory Winter for their research on enzymes in 2018. 

A subsequent paper on enzymatic synthesis of beta-lactams was published in the journal Science in May 2019. It has been retracted because the results were not reproducible, and the authors found data missing from a lab notebook.

Sounds like there's a story here, but I don't think we're going to hear it any time soon.

Manufacturing numbers not looking so great

Via the New York Times: 

American manufacturing activity contracted last month more than it had in a decade, data released Friday showed, a sign that economic damage from President Trump’s trade war could linger even after the United States and China sign an initial trade deal. 

An index published by the Institute for Supply Management dropped to 47.2 in December, the lowest reading since June 2009 and the fifth straight month of contraction. A reading below 50 indicates the manufacturing sector is contracting.

Definitely not good news - will be interesting if this shows up in hiring numbers for the chemical manufacturing subsector before long... 

Chinese researcher pulled off Boston plane with medical research samples

Via the New York Times, this rather interesting story about a researcher (postdoc?) at Beth Israel Hospital who was detained by the US government:

Zaosong Zheng was preparing to board Hainan Airlines Flight 482, nonstop from Boston to Beijing, when customs officers pulled him aside. 

Inside his checked luggage, wrapped in a plastic bag and then inserted into a sock, the officers found what they were looking for: 21 vials of brown liquid — cancer cells — that the authorities say Mr. Zheng, 29, a cancer researcher, took from a laboratory at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 

Under questioning, court documents say, Mr. Zheng acknowledged that he had stolen eight of the samples and had replicated 11 more based on a colleague’s research. When he returned to China, he said, he would take the samples to Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital and turbocharge his career by publishing the results in China, under his own name....

Presuming this is what it looks like, I can't really feel very sorry for Mr. Zheng. Outside of ethics and morality, if you steal something, being caught within federal law enforcement jurisdiction is really dumb. (Here's a redacted copy of the affidavit, apparently.)

It is rather shocking to me how heavily federal law enforcement seems to be taking (waves hands wildly) the acquiring/stealing (?) of scientific work product from the United States in the life sciences. I think it's pretty reasonable to really crack down on industrial IP theft from the US (i.e. this is material that someone is already making money on), but the taking of random samples from biology labs? It's really hard to believe any one (or 21) vials are worth anything.

Still, a story like this will encourage those who are being dumb about stealing stuff (like this guy) to be a little smarter or perhaps not to do it. Not an altogether bad thing. 

26 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 8 new positions for December 31 and 18 for December 26.