Have a great weekend

Nothing like a short week to make it a good one. I hope that you had a wonderful work week, and I hope that you have a great long weekend. We'll see you on Tuesday. 

C&EN: "Fires at 2 Indian plants kill many"

Via C&EN, this bad news (article by Aayushi Pratap): 

Fires broke out at two pharmaceutical chemical companies just days apart in southern India, killing more than 20 workers.

On Aug. 21, an explosion resulted in a fire at Escientia Advanced Sciences’ plant in the Anakapalle district of Andhra Pradesh state, an area known as a pharmaceutical hub. The blaze killed 18 workers and injured over 30 others. The 5-year-old company manufactures intermediate chemicals and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

According to Indian media outlets, the blast occurred during the lunch break, which prevented more people from getting injured or killed. But the vapor cloud caused by the explosion made it difficult for fire officials to rescue those trapped inside. The Press Trust of India news agency reported scenes of workers with peeling skin being rushed to the hospital.

Government officials told local news outlets that the company had 381 employees working two shifts. While an investigation is ongoing to identify the cause of the fire, officials suspect it was caused by faulty electrical equipment at the plant, according to media reports.

On Aug. 23, not far from Escientia, a flash fire at Synergene Active Ingredients was reported to have killed three workers and injured another. Local news outlets say the fire started during production of the blood pressure medicine losartan potassium.

Deepak Monga, a fire safety and evacuation expert based in Mumbai, India, says the incidents are a reminder of how safety is often overlooked at high-risk chemical plants in India.

“It was shocking to see that in the case of Escientia’s pharmaceutical plant explosion, the workers weren’t wearing personal protective equipment,” Monga says. He contends that companies cut corners and don’t invest in adequate fire safety protection and equipment, even though laws mandate it.

“It feels like these companies don’t value human life,” he says.

I would like to think that the Western world knows the human cost of purchasing its drugs from the developing world. Yes, audits exist, but not enough of them. Best wishes to the families of the victims. 

Job posting: Senior Research Chemist, Parallel Squared Technology Institute, Watertown, MA

From the inbox: 

Parallel Squared Technology Institute (PTI) is a non-profit research institute aiming to catalyze a leap in protein analysis technology and use it to explore new biological frontiers. PTI supports open research and educational opportunities supporting rapid career development for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.

New career opportunities

Members of PTI will be supported with industry-level resources to lead research projects and disseminate their discoveries and innovations to the broader biomedical community through frequent publications, presentations, and submissions to public data portals.  

Summary of Position

We are looking for an individual contributor who has experience modifying and functionalizing small molecules for protein modifications and/or degradation. This position will involve the investigation and development of mass tags for proteomic analysis. The successful candidate will work in a team environment with other scientists. In order to be seriously considered for this position, we require a cover letter as part of the candidate’s application.

Responsibilities:

• Design and synthesize small molecules for protein modification.
• Define new directions for technology development that can unlock new testable hypotheses.
• Collaborate with other scientists to use machine learning and other computational approaches to learn principles for mass tag design.
• Mentor scientists and research associates. 
• Prepare internal reports and manuscripts as well as present results at internal or external scientific meetings as appropriate.
• Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness through actions, interactions, and communications with others.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• PhD in Chemistry or Chemical Biology, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in medicinal chemistry in a professional setting.
• Experience in synthesizing small molecules for protein modification. 
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, with a proclivity for reasoning from first principles.
• Highly motivated and organized researcher with strong analytical and coding skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with mass spectrometry proteomics data analysis.
• Experience working with isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.

TIL "malaxer" | also, the problem of low-cost avocado oil adulteration

Bet you've never heard of a malaxer before
credit: Washington Post

Via the Washington Post, this fascinating article: 

Avocado oil is a rising star in the culinary world. It’s a heart-healthy cooking oil with a mild flavor that appeals to health-conscious consumers.

But scientists say that adulteration and mislabeling are rampant in the avocado oil industry, and that many people who believe they’re buying pure avocado oil are being misled by some of the nation’s largest retail chains.

Scientists at the University of California at Davis tested avocado oil samples, and have for the first time revealed the names of a dozen retailers who they say sold products labeled as avocado oil that contained cheap seed and vegetable oils, including Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kroger and Safeway. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Regrettably, I'm not very surprised to learn that avocado oil is adulterated with less expensive oils. I am, however, delighted to learn that Dr. Selina Wang of UC-Davis was an organic chemist before she moved into food science. Very cool! 

(genuinely, this is a great article, please do click and read) 

NYT on Eastman's "mass balance" calculations in recycled content

Via the New York Times, this article on recycling plastic and mass balance: 

...To grasp what mass balance accounting entails, you first have to know a bit about the two methods of plastic recycling.

The first, which has been around for decades, involves sorting, washing, shredding and melting down plastic waste and reshaping it into pellets. Much of the recycled plastic produced by this method, called mechanical recycling, is of lesser quality than the original. And only certain types of plastics can be recycled mechanically.

The second, newer method, chemical recycling, is an energy-intensive process that typically uses high temperatures, pressurization and chemical solvents or other chemical processes not to simply melt plastic but to break it down into its chemical building blocks. The recycled chemicals are then mixed with all sorts of other materials, including fossil-fuel-derived virgin plastic, to make new products.

This year, Eastman began operating one of the largest chemical plastic recycling plants in the world. Near the company’s headquarters in Tennessee, the plant uses methanol, heat and pressure to transform plastic waste. It takes plastics not accepted in most curbside recycling programs, like clamshell containers, colored plastics used in food and beverage packaging, and plastic fibers used in carpets and textiles.

Eastman wants to be able to market as recycled the products made with this material. But while it’s theoretically possible to physically track plastic pellets from recycled water bottles to a new life as plastic lawn furniture, it’s virtually impossible to trace basic chemicals dissolved from plastic waste and mixed with other materials to any particular batch of plastic products...

I think the criticisms of the mass balance calculations are reasonable (i.e. is there a good reason that Eastman should be trusted? Not really?) That said, if Eastman is truly hiding something and the material isn't being recycled, it will definitely start piling up or their landfill bills will start increasing. A thorough and public accounting of their warehouses (to be fair, the inputs and outputs of their plastic recycling system) would seem to me to be the only way that you could independently verify that mass balance is a reasonable way to calculate chemical recycling content. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 161 research/teaching positions and 10 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 161 research/teaching positions and 10 teaching positions. 

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

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On August 29, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 177 research/teaching positions and 10 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet. 

Job posting: assistant professor, Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science, NC State University, Raleigh, NC

From the inbox: 

The Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science (TECS) at NC State University is seeking dynamic and talented candidates for a tenure track faculty position at the assistant professor level with a preference given to synthetic polymer chemists with strong backgrounds and interest in polymer synthesis, structure-property relationships of fiber-forming polymers, polymer recycling and sustainable polymers related to the textile industry. The successful candidate is expected to teach polymer chemistry courses in the Polymer and Color Chemistry (PCC) undergraduate program and fiber and polymer science courses in the Textile Chemistry and Fiber and Polymer Science graduate programs, as well as establish a robust research program with a focus on sustainable polymers. A typical faculty load in TECS is 45% research, 45% teaching, and 10% service.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.

Job posting: assistant professor, computational/theoretical, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

From the inbox: 

The Department of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Chemistry. The successful candidate will establish innovative research programs in computational and theoretical chemistry. Research programs with a focus on applications in chemical biology, drug discovery, materials discovery, and/or energy conversion and storage, and that involve the use or development of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are especially encouraged. The successful candidate will be expected to develop an internationally visible research program supported by extramural funding, teach undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, and be committed to diversity and inclusion. The normal teaching load for faculty with active research programs is one course per semester plus ancillary duties.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Postdoctoral opportunity: Lewis Lab, Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

From the inbox:

The Lewis Lab in the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University is taking applications for a postdoctoral research position. The position offers an opportunity to develop and apply cutting-edge protein engineering techniques to address fundamental challenges in synthetic chemistry and biocatalysis. The successful applicant will use a deep understanding of organic and organometallic chemistry, combined with state-of-the-art methods directed evolution, next gen sequencing, and laboratory automation to develop enzymes or artificial metalloenzymes for new chemical transformations. Motivated applicants with PhD training in any area of chemistry or biochemistry will be considered. Experience with either molecular biology or synthetic chemistry is strongly preferred.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 15 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc or Daniyal Kiani) has 15 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions. 

Here is a link to the open thread for the year.

MOFs in Bloomberg

Via Bloomberg, a pretty cool article from early August about chemists attempting to commercialize MOFs for water extraction: 

At a laboratory in a Southern California warehouse, scientist Heng Su unveils what could be a world-changing solution to the global water crisis. The small handheld object looks unremarkable, consisting of stacked white fins that resemble a miniature old-fashioned apartment radiator. But when Su puts the device on a scale, it silently gains weight within seconds. As the minutes pass, it gets heavier and heavier. That’s because the gadget is invisibly gathering water molecules from the surrounding air.

A few feet away, four of the water harvesters sit inside a plastic enclosure shaped like a transparent birdhouse. The warm air inside dislodges the H2O molecules from the harvesters and a condenser transforms the water vapor into liquid, which is dripping into a beaker. The technology, called metallic organic frameworks (MOFs), doesn’t require electricity and can produce water with just ambient sunlight. It’s Irvine-based startup Atoco’s vision for how to provide water in an increasingly arid world.

Both Omar Yaghi's startup Atoco and another MOF startup AirJoule are covered. Pretty interesting to think that moisture farming could be a real thing someday.

C&EN: "Fraudsters dupe chemical maker Orion out of $60 million"

In this week's C&EN, this unfortunate news (article by Alexander H. Tullo):

The carbon black maker Orion has been scammed out of $60 million in a wire transfer fraud scheme.

The company rooted out the fraud earlier this month, it disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. An employee, the filing says, “was the target of a criminal scheme that resulted in multiple fraudulently induced outbound wire transfers to accounts controlled by unknown third parties.”

Orion adds that it will record a pretax charge of $60 million if it can’t recover more of its misappropriated funds. Such a loss would be significant for Orion. In 2023, the company earned just over $100 million in profits on $1.9 billion in sales.

The company is cooperating with law enforcement and declines to comment further about the breach because of the ongoing investigation. But the scam bears the hallmarks of a business email compromise (BEC) attack, according to Selena Larson, a threat researcher at the cybersecurity consulting firm Proofpoint.

I find this kind of thing pretty alarming, in that it seems it could happen at any company, no matter how large. 

Have a great weekend

This was definitely a fun week, what with three days at ACS Denver. Delightful time getting to meet people I have never met and friends from long ago. Hope that you had an equally fun week, and that you have a good weekend. See you on Monday!

NileRed in the New York Times

Via the New York Times, this profile: 

While he can’t turn water into wine, Nigel Braun is making vodka out of thin air.

He is neither miracle worker nor magician. His secret is chemistry, and he films his experiments inside a commercial-grade laboratory in Montreal and shares the videos on his YouTube channel. That’s where 6.5 million subscribers know him as NileRed, like the fluorescent chemical dye, a name he acknowledges sounds vaguely biblical.

Mr. Braun’s videos surged in popularity during the pandemic, reaching 2.5 billion views, and as his audience ballooned, so did his ambitions. His experiments — often whimsical, sometimes practical and occasionally dangerous — range from transforming paint thinner into cherry cola, to developing bulletproof wood, to making carcinogens from scratch.

Over the past decade, since dropping out of grad school, Mr. Braun, 32, has outgrown a hobby workshop in his parents’ garage and two other facilities, settling into a third lab large enough to rival some academic research spaces in Canada.

I'm not a particularly large NileRed fan*, but I have to say, it is significant that he's getting an article in the New York Times. Here's hoping he's doing his best to keep his coworkers/direct reports safe. 

*let's be honest, I'm simply not his target audience, i.e. in general, I do not watch YouTubers for ~entertainment. 

Job posting: research chemist, KLA Corporation, Totowa, NJ

Via C&EN Jobs, this posting: 

KLA Corporation has an opening in Totowa, NJ for Research Chemist (YBRCNJ) Develop new chemical methods for analysis and equipment for implementation purposes used in semiconductor manufacturing. Salary range: $118,350 -$170,200 per year. To apply, email resume and ref. job title with job code to globalmobility@kla.com.

C&EN Jobs ad is here. Careers website for KLA is here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Job posting: Visiting Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, East Stroudsburg, PA

From the inbox: 

East Stroudsburg University (ESU) invites applications for a one-year visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, specialty physical chemistry, beginning in August, 2024.  Responsibilities will include teaching general chemistry and physical chemistry and associated laboratories.  Teaching responsibilities may also include general education chemistry. The successful candidate will demonstrate effective teaching and enthusiasm for mentoring a diverse population of undergraduates.  A Ph.D. in Chemistry, Biochemistry or a closely related field must be completed prior to appointment; but highly qualified candidates with ABD status at the time of application will be considered.  Authoritative documentation supporting timely completion of the Ph.D. must be provided for ABD candidates. 

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

C&EN: "Senior biochemist made up data in 13 studies"

Via C&EN, this news (article by Dalmeet Singh Chawla): 

Richard L. Eckert, a senior biochemist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, faked data in 13 published studies and two grant applications, according to a new report released by the US Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

The new misconduct findings, published earlier this week and first reported by Retraction Watch, reveal that Eckert “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly falsified and/or fabricated Western blot image data and microscopy image data.”

A spokesperson for the University of Maryland, Baltimore, says the institution’s Research Integrity Office conducted an investigation into Eckert’s work and sent the report to the ORI, which falls under the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

“ORI accepted the University’s investigation report and findings,” the spokesperson tells C&EN in an email. “After its own additional investigation, HHS ORI issued a public notice with a detailed accounting of its findings that are aligned with the University’s investigation, reflecting the strong and appropriate response to this matter by the University.”

It always makes me wonder who was holding the smoking mouse in these photographic evidence/image manipulation cases. Was it the PI, or was it another worker? In the eyes of the law/the federal government, I suspect that it does not matter, but I am always curious nonetheless. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 131 research/teaching positions and 7 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 131 research/teaching positions and 7 teaching positions. 

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

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On August 22, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 141 research/teaching positions and 9 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet. 

Postdoctoral opportunity: Carsch Group, UT Austin, Austin, TX

Via Twitter, incoming Professor Kurtis Carsch is recruiting postdoctoral workers: 

The Carsch Group at UT Austin is actively recruiting new postdoctoral researcher(s) for this winter! Applicants should send an email to kcarsch@utexas.edu with a cover letter on research interests, a detailed CV, and statement of prior work.

We will focus on employing coordinatively unsaturated metal ions with esoteric electronic structures in molecular systems and porous polymeric materials to address challenges in catalysis and chemical separations. 

Web page here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 15 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc or Daniyal Kiani) has 15 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions. 

Here is a link to the open thread for the year.

WSJ: "China Restricts Fentanyl Chemicals After Years of U.S. Pressure"

 Via the Wall Street Journal, this news from August 7: 

BEIJING—China is imposing new restrictions on chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, a move long sought by the U.S. that signals Beijing’s desire to keep open an important diplomatic channel with Washington ahead of November’s presidential election.

The status of the chemicals has proved a diplomatic sticking point for the past 2½ years, and the latest move marks a small step forward in the Biden administration’s strategy of seeking cooperation with China on counternarcotics even as the countries’ relationship is increasingly defined by competition.

China is one of the biggest sources of the chemicals used to produce fentanyl that are sold to cartels in Mexico that make the highly potent narcotic and traffic it into the U.S. Nearly 75,000 people in the U.S. are estimated to have died last year from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, representing most overdose deaths in the country.

Beginning Sept. 1, Chinese authorities will impose stricter oversight over the production and sale of three such chemicals, including requiring exporters to obtain a license, according to a government notice posted online Monday. The chemicals—known as 4-AP, 1-boc-4-AP and norfentanyl—were blacklisted by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2022, requiring China to take corresponding steps domestically.

...“Drug-trafficking networks and Chinese chemists have shown a great deal of adaptability,” said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counternarcotics expert at the Brookings Institution. Through its latest action, she said, China is going after relatively low-hanging fruit to try to signal to the U.S. that it wants to keep the door open to further cooperation...

It will be interesting to see what the new preferred fentanyl intermediates will be, and if the price ripples from the shift will be seen in the new favorited chemical... 

C&EN: "Chemical makers cut back amid uncertainty"

In this week's Chemical and Engineering News, this bad news (article by Alex Tullo): 

The second quarter was a challenging one for US and European chemical makers. Sales crept up, but lower selling prices derailed the industry’s efforts to post substantive gains from a year ago. With expectations of sluggish business for the remainder of the year, chemical firms are taking matters into their own hands by cutting costs and trimming unprofitable assets and questionable projects.

Results at the world’s largest chemical maker, BASF, were mixed. Sales declined by 6.9% from the prior-year quarter, but earnings excluding special items rose by 29.2%.

“We saw a continuation of the dynamics of the first quarter, marked by positive volume momentum across most of our businesses,” BASF CEO Markus Kamieth says in prepared remarks. Lower selling prices for its products drove the sales declines.

A bright spot for the diversified German company was its chemical business, which saw a 6.0% increase in sales driven largely by stronger petrochemical volumes.

A weakness for BASF was agricultural chemicals, particularly for glufosinate-ammonium. Due to heavy competition, the company is ending production of the weed killer at its sites in Knapsack and Frankfurt, Germany, by the end of 2024.

BASF is also cutting investment in battery materials. It has canceled plans for a nickel-cobalt refining complex in Indonesia and paused work on a battery recycling plant in Spain. “Recent dynamics have changed, and the market penetration of electric vehicles has slowed down significantly outside of China,” Kamieth said.

This certainly isn't great news for hiring in the chemical industry. Bears continued watching...

Have a great weekend

This was a quiet week, which is not entirely bad. I hope that you had a good week, and that you have a great weekend. See you on Monday! 

Chad Mirkin threatens to sue Raphaël Lévy

Via Bluesky and Chemistry World, this Retraction Watch piece from last month*:  

One of the winners of the 2024 Kavli Prize in nanoscience has threatened to sue a longtime critic, Retraction Watch has learned. 

In a cease and desist letter, a lawyer representing Chad Mirkin, a chemist and director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University in Chicago, accused Raphaël Lévy, a professor of physics at the Université Paris Sorbonne Nord, of making “patently false and defamatory” statements about Mirkin’s research.

The demand primarily concerns a letter to the editor Lévy submitted in April to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences regarding an article Mirkin co-authored, “Multimodal neuro-nanotechnology: Challenging the existing paradigm in glioblastoma therapy,” which appeared in the journal in February. 

Lévy and Mirkin, who was awarded one quarter of this year’s Kavli Prize in nanoscience for his work on spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), have a long history. In 2018, they clashed at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, where Mirkin called Lévy a “scientific terrorist.” Lévy has begun an effort to replicate one of Mirkin’s significant papers as part of the NanoBubbles project, which “focuses on how, when and why science fails to correct itself,” according to its website. 

I have to say, there is basically zero likelihood that a suit is going to result from this, which makes me wonder what the point of this is, other than an attempt to intimidate Professor Lévy into silence. What a goofy idea - I have a difficult time thinking it's likely that Professor Mirkin will sue Professor Lévy, but you never know. 

*I think I missed this because it was released on the same day as the Biden/Harris swap.\

Job posting: Sr. Analytical Chemist, Oerlikon, Westbury, NY

Via C&EN Jobs: 

We are looking for a Senior Analytical Chemist for our Westbury, NY facility. In this role you will develop testing methods to support new product development through commercialization using at a minimum ICP, XRD and XRF spectroscopy and will optimize lab test methods and procedures for a wide range of thermal spray products to support the resourceful and efficient operation of the lab.

Your Responsibilities:

• Develop test methods to support commercialization of new products. 
• Optimize lab test methods and procedures. 
• Participate in multifunctional teams to drive new product development through commercialization. 
• Support non-standard sample testing. 
• Provide training in analytical tools and techniques for powder analysis and characterization. 

Your Profile:

• Master’s degree in chemistry preferred (or other science related degree) with at least 10 years laboratory experience preferably in a Nadcap Materials Testing or ISO 17025 certified laboratory. 
• Experience with the operation and maintenance of laboratory equipment including ICP, XRF and XRD. 
• Relevant competencies with MS Office, SAP, and LIMS. Knowledge of ISO 9001, AS9100, ISO 14001 or other similar standards. Strong problem-solving, team building, and mentoring abilities. 

Full ad here. Posted salary: $96,200- $115,500. Best wishes to those interested. 

Is China ahead in battery research?

Keith Bradsher is a longtime New York Times reporter on China, and I thought this recent article was interesting and worthwhile to consider. The article's thesis is that China's lead in manufacturing electric vehicles is due to its lead in battery chemistry research: 

...Last month, China’s leaders vowed to turn the nation’s research efforts up another notch.

A once-a-decade meeting of China’s Communist Party leadership chose scientific training and education as one of the country’s top economic priorities. That goal received more attention in the meeting’s final resolution than any other policy did, except strengthening the party itself. China will “make extraordinary arrangements for urgently needed disciplines and majors,” said Huai Jinpeng, the minister of education. “We will implement a national strategy for cultivating top talents.”

A majority of undergraduates in China major in math, science, engineering or agriculture, according to the Education Ministry. And three-quarters of China’s doctoral students do so.

By comparison, only a fifth of American undergraduates and half of doctoral students are in these categories, although American data defines these majors a little more narrowly.

China’s lead is particularly wide in batteries. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 65.5 percent of widely cited technical papers on battery technology come from researchers in China, compared with 12 percent from the United States.

Both of the world’s two largest makers of electric car batteries, CATL and BYD, are Chinese.

China has close to 50 graduate programs that focus on either battery chemistry or the closely related subject of battery metallurgy. By contrast, only a handful of professors in the United States are working on batteries.

Undergraduates in the United States are becoming interested in battery research, said Hillary Smith, a battery physics professor at Swarthmore College. But, she added, “they are going to compete for a very few spots if they want to do battery research, and most will have to choose something else.”

So let's take the easy stuff first - I basically refuse to accept Bradsher's qualitative and quantitative assessment of the battery research field of either the United States or China. I'm genuinely curious as to what battery chemists/researchers think, and Professor Smith seems to agree that the number of graduate student posts is relatively low.* I'm willing to believe that he is correct, but unwilling to take his position without outside analysis. 

I tend to think that China's manufacturing edge in batteries has to do with China's manufacturing edge in, I dunno, everything? If you're making most of the laptop batteries in the world (who knows if this is true, but I speculate that it is), you're probably also pretty good at making advanced electric car batteries. Yes, I'm sure that Chinese manufacturers take advantage of a well-educated populace, etc, etc.

I do have to mention that this is a fascinating edge that China has: 

Peng Wenjie, a professor, has set up a battery research company nearby that employs more than 100 recent doctoral and master’s program graduates and over 200 assistants. The assistants work in relays for each researcher so that the testing of new chemistries and designs continues 24 hours a day.

“There are many people on site to do the tests, so the efficiency is very high,” Professor Peng said.

The ability of Chinese companies to simply throw bodies at a problem 24 hours a day is something that American and European companies simply cannot match. 

*If this were 2012, I would have spent the last 72 hours coming up with a Google Sheets list of American battery chemistry research groups, but alas, I have other hobbies and I need to sleep more. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 105 research/teaching positions and 7 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 105 research/teaching positions and 7 teaching positions. 

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

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On August 15, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 110 research/teaching positions and 4 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet. 

Postdoctoral opportunity: Samer Lab, Weizmann institute of Science, Tel Aviv, Israel

From the inbox:  

About the Lab:

We are an enthusiastic and motivated organic chemistry research group at Weizmann Institute of Science, situated at the interface of reaction discovery, electrosynthesis, and catalysis. We are interested in addressing unsolved challenges in organic synthesis to expand the retrosynthetic analysis in synthetic chemistry through innovative study of under-explored chemical functionalities. This research would allow the creation of next generation of drug molecules, agrochemicals, and materials.

Why Join Us?

We offer a dynamic, supportive, and collaborative research environment that brings together Israeli and international scientists. You will receive extensive and unique training in organic synthesis and electrochemistry, coupled with broad-ranging collaboration with industry partners to apply and advance the newly acquired knowledge effectively. The Weizmann Institute is not just a top research institute in Israel but also a global leader in scientific innovation. Renowned for its groundbreaking discoveries, the institute boasts unparalleled research facilities and funding, making it the ideal place for cutting-edge research.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.  

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 11 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc or Daniyal Kiani) has 11 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions. 

Here is a link to the open thread for the year.

C&EN: Recursion to buy Exscientia

Via C&EN (article by Laura Howes): 

The business of using artificial intelligence to find new drugs is starting to consolidate. The AI-powered drug discovery firm Recursion Pharmaceuticals will buy rival Exscientia in an all-stock deal that values Exscientia at roughly $650 million.

The transaction is expected to close in early 2025, and the resulting company will have the Recursion name, according to an announcement of the deal.

In the announcement, the companies portray the merger as creating an end-to-end drug discovery company by combining Recursion’s biology expertise and Exscientia’s chemistry know-how.

“Exscientia’s precision chemistry tools and capabilities, including its newly commissioned automated small molecule synthesis platform, will augment our tech-enabled biology and chemistry exploration, hit discovery and translational capabilities,” Recursion CEO Chris Gibson says in the announcement.

Salt Lake City–based Recursion has a huge in-house dataset of chemistry-biology interactions, which allows it to search for new drug targets and hits. Using that expertise, the firm has built a pipeline of drug candidates covering oncology, rare diseases, and infectious diseases.

I'm vaguely surprised at this, but I am not a keen observer of the AI/medicinal chemistry world. If this becomes a trend, I can't imagine this would be a good trend for employment for computationally-oriented medicinal chemists. 

Have a good weekend

 

This has been a long-ish week, and weekend work still beckons. Nevertheless, I hope that you had a good week, and that you have a great weekend. See you on Monday.

The Starliner issues are about nitrogen tetroxide flow

I haven't been paying attention to the details of NASA's Starliner saga (other than to note the unfortunate Boeing connection), but I did not know that the core issue is a chemistry problem: 

NASA's concern about Starliner's thrusters boils down to the failure of five of them during the vehicle's ascent to the space station. Starliner's flight computer shut off five thrusters, provided by Aerojet Rocketdyne, in flight. Four of the five thrusters were recovered after overheating.

Since then Boeing and NASA have conducted ground- and space-based tests of the small thrusters to try to replicate the failure and better understand, fundamentally, what is occurring. By getting to the root cause, the engineers will feel confident in their ability to address the problem for Starliner's flight back to Earth.

In ground tests, the engineers were able to demonstrate similar failures. Subsequent inspections showed bulging in a Teflon seal in an oxidizer valve known as a "poppet," which could restrict the flow of nitrogen tetroxide propellant. The thrusters consume the nitrogen tetroxide and mix it with hydrazine fuel for combustion. Despite the tests, however, engineers still don't understand precisely why the bulging is occurring and whether it will manifest on Starliner's flight back to Earth.

"People really want to understand the physics of what's going on relative to the physics of the Teflon, what's causing it to heat up and what's causing it to contract," said Steve Stich, who manages the Commercial Crew program for NASA. "That's really what the team is off trying to understand. I think the NASA community in general would like to understand a little bit more of the root cause."

I wonder what data they have on the material compatibility of nitrogen tetroxide with Teflon? It's probably pretty reasonably corrosion-resistant but I dunno, space is weird. Hmmm. 

Job posting: Sr. Scientist I - Principal Scientist I, Cambrex, Longmont, CO

Via C&EN Jobs: 

Cambrex is seeking an experienced and motivated synthetic organic chemist (Sr. Scientist I/II or Principal Scientist I) for the Process Chemistry department. This position performs routine and complex organic synthesis, purification, and analytical evaluation of materials as part of a process chemistry research and development team. The chemist will optimize synthetic routes to drug substance for purity, reproducibility, scalability, and yield. 

The chemist will also design and proposes new synthetic routes to drug substances. May be asked to lead the process chemistry portion of customer projects and potentially a group of process chemists. Will present work internally and externally to clients. Experience in process chemistry research and development is desirable. Expertise in synthetic organic chemistry is essential.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

NYT: Famous observatory restaurant closes

Via the New York Times, this sad news: 

If you’re about to stay up all night atop a cold mountain, to squint through an eyepiece at shimmering, impossibly distant specks of light or to stare at pixels on a screen, it helps to have eaten a good meal first.

So it was dismaying to learn recently that Palomar Observatory in Southern California, home to the famous 200-inch Hale Telescope — the “Big Eye” — has closed the kitchen that served elegant sit-down meals to astronomers during their observing runs. It was simply getting too expensive, the California Institute of Technology, which owns and operates Palomar, announced in May.

Thus ends one of the most endearing traditions in astronomy: dinner with your colleagues, a chance to brainstorm, gossip, learn what everybody else is doing, hear old stories, and just hang out together on cloudy nights. From now on astronomers checking into the Monastery, the lodge where observers stay while using the telescopes on Palomar, will have to make do with frozen meals that they can heat up and eat on their own.

“To me, the Monastery was (and still is for those of us who deign to, or must, travel there) the focal point of non-telescope time there,” Rebecca Oppenheimer, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History who has spent hundreds of nights on Palomar, said in an email.

I can't imagine how expensive it was (probably quite pricey), but it is really too bad that there wasn't a way to keep this tradition alive.

Makes you wonder if there is a quiet NMR laboratory somewhere that serves a quite mid-evening meal. Probably not. 

The vice president with the highest enlisted military rank: Dan Quayle

I'm writing this not really for this blog, but instead that Google's spiders may perhaps pick this up. 

With Tim Walz being selected to be the Democratic nominee for vice president, I was surprised to learn that he was a very senior enlisted soldier in the Minnesota National Guard (command sergeant major/master sergeant.) 

This brings to mind the question - who is the vice president who had the highest enlisted rank? After looking at the Wikipedia entry for each vice president, I learned that there have been only three vice presidents who have served who have had enlisted rank: 

• Walter Mondale, corporal, U.S. Army
• Dan Quayle, sergeant, Indiana Army National Guard 
• Al Gore, Specialist 4, U.S. Army 

Therefore, Dan Quayle is the vice president who held the highest enlisted rank in his military career. 

(As an aside, the president who had the highest enlisted military rank is James Buchanan, who was a private.)

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 84 research/teaching positions and 5 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 84 research/teaching positions and 5 teaching positions. 

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

To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.

On August 8, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 89 research/teaching positions and 4 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread. 

Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread. 

Are you having problems accessing the Google Sheet because of a Google Documents error? Email me at chemjobber@gmail.com and I will send you an Excel download of the latest sheet. 

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List: 7 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc or Daniyal Kiani) has 7 research/teaching positions and 8 teaching positions. 

Here is a link to the open thread for the year.

Biological weapons from AI?

Via Bloomberg, this article: 

Rocco Casagrande entered the White House grounds holding a black box slightly bigger than a Rubik’s Cube. Within it were a dozen test tubes with the ingredients that — if assembled correctly — had the potential to cause the next pandemic. An AI chatbot had given him the deadly recipe.

Casagrande, a biochemist and former United Nations weapons inspector, wasn’t planning to unleash a bioweapon in a room full of White House officials. He was there to brief them on the many ways artificial intelligence could teach users to make dangerous viruses. Tools like ChatGPT could help terrorists identify potent biological agents and secure the materials needed to make them, he told a room full of US officials in the spring of 2023. It wouldn’t be long before AI could not only help recreate existing pathogens, but also devise potentially more dangerous ones...

...Anthropic gave Casagrande free reign to brief the government on his findings. To get the point across to Biden administration officials, he turned to the MIT professor Esvelt to buy the synthetic DNA necessary to engineer one of the pathogens suggested by Claude. The materials, which aren’t infectious without technical lab work, weren’t hard to get. Claude even provided tips on how to purchase them.

Casagrande then assembled his black box of test tubes to carry into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, alongside the West Wing.

God it's easy to fool non-scientists. Synthetic DNA - eyeroll. You may as well have brought a raw steak or a strawberry plant and said that you could assemble your AI doom virus from that as well. 

Call me hopelessly naive, but I am genuinely unimpressed with AI systems as a force multiplier for those who wish to engineer new chemical or biological weapons. If you have the intent to make biological weapons, university libraries and obscure veterinary collections are probably a much larger source of useful information than chatGPT or whatever AI program needs a hit of publicity-via-alarmism. 

Maybe I'll eat my words when we are all dying from COVID-GPT but I doubt it.

Accidental discharge of 2500 gallons sodium bisulfite disrupts Oregon city's sewage treatment

Via the Salem Statesman Journal, this news: 

City of Salem workers disposing of unwanted chemicals Wednesday accidentally disrupted biological processes at the city’s sewage treatment plant, possibly increasing bacterial contamination in the Willamette River as a result, city officials said Friday.

City workers put about 2,500 gallons of sodium bisulfite into the city’s waste processing facility on Airport Road SE in Salem Wednesday morning, public works spokesman Trevor Smith said.

The chemical traveled to the Willow Lake Wastewater Treatment Facility in Keizer and began impacting processes by about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

For about 21 hours, until about 3 p.m. Thursday, the treatment plant’s discharge to the river potentially exceeded bacterial limits, Smith said.

“Public works staff believed that the chemical would be diluted as it entered the treatment system,” Smith said. “That assumption was incorrect, and we take full responsibility for the discharge and are working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to address the issue and develop policies to prevent such incidents in the future.”

The city was disposing of sodium bisulfite that had been stored since 2019 at the Franzen Reservoir’s Chlorine Reduction Facility in Turner.

Sodium bisulfite is generally used to remove excess chlorine and lower the pH of treated water.

I would really like to understand who signed off on this idea as a good one. Here's hoping the city of Salem revises its approval procedures. 

Have a good weekend

Well, this week wasn't so bad. I hope that you had a good week, and that you have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

AI in pesticide development?

Via the Wall Street Journal, this article about pesticide development and "AI": 

Bayer and rivals like Corteva and Syngenta say new AI systems are helping speed up the lengthy, complicated and costly process of bringing new chemicals to market. Their efforts include not only new herbicides for weeds but novel fungicides and insecticides as well. Syngenta estimates that AI will reduce the average time from discovery to commercialization by a third—to 10 years from 15 years—and likely decrease the number of lab and field tests by 30%.

Bayer is using an AI system, internally named “CropKey,” to help match the protein structure of a weed with a chemical molecule that targets that structure by sifting through data faster than humans. Molecules selected with CropKey’s help could have a higher success rate during field testing than conventional research, Reiter says. It gives the company an edge—like counting cards in a game of blackjack—and is similar to how drug companies are using AI to speed up the search for molecules that target a particular disease.

Companies say an advantage of molecules selected with AI is that they can be screened during the process for toxicity to humans—a critical point for pesticides sprayed on crops people will eat—as well as environmental safety and cost. 

It'd be interesting to know how different this AI program is from whatever computational chemistry/molecular modeling program they had ten years ago was.

Job posting: senior chemist, ChemFinity Technologies, Brooklyn, New York

Via C&EN Jobs, this position: 

Our purpose as a company:  

Founded in late 2022 and spun out from UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry, ChemFinity Technologies is a Brooklyn, NY-based climate tech startup creating a more equitable future by eliminating pollution and circularizing natural resources. Our mission is to develop innovative recycling processes and materials for critical metal recovery, in ways that drastically reduce the environmental damage caused by competing methods. We are also advancing other separation technologies in water purification and gas separations. ChemFinity is supported by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Fellows program, ARPA-E, the U.S. EPA, the USDA, the USAID, and the U.S. DOE.  

What you can expect in your role:  

For this role, we are seeking a talented chemist who aligns with our team-based culture and problem-solving approach. You will be responsible for developing new methods in material synthesis and metal extraction from waste. This role will require you to work creatively with the co-founders and research team as we grow from the lab to the industrial scale. 

Research & Development   

• You will synthesize and characterize new materials using various techniques (e.g., organic and/or inorganic synthetic methods).  
• You will develop new chemical recycling and recovery methods for metal waste.  
• You will help characterize and understand complex mixtures of metal-containing waste. 

Skills we require for this role:  

• You are an outstanding scientist with experience in more than one of the following areas: organic, inorganic, or organometallic chemistry, sorbent-based separations, metal recycling, purification techniques, product scale-up, experimental documentation, and/or equipment maintenance.  
• You have a PhD degree in Chemistry or a related field, or a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree with at least 5+ years of directly relevant industrial chemistry experience. 
• You have a strong fundamental understanding of organic and inorganic chemistry. 
• You have hands-on experience in chemical synthesis, sorbent development, metal recovery processes, and/or industrial manufacturing.  

Full ad here. Posted salary range: $100,000 - $135,000. Best wishes to those interested.