Have a great weekend

Well, this was a long week, but it's almost done. I hope that you had a great week. Have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

Job posting: research chemist, ExxonMobil, Baytown, TX

Via Indeed: 

ExxonMobil Technology & Engineering Company has an opening for a chemist in the Organometallic Catalysis department located at our research facilities in the Houston, Texas area. This is our industry leading polymerization catalysis group. The successful candidate will join an enthusiastic group of scientists responsible for the discovery, development, and commercialization of new catalyst technology applied to the chemical industry.

What will you do

• Discover, develop, and commercialize catalyst technology applied to the chemical industry
• Develop creative independent research efforts in catalysis broadly defined

Skills and Qualifications

• PhD in Chemistry
• Deep expertise in organometallic, organic, or inorganic chemistry
• Demonstrated track record in creative research

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

C&EN: "Impacts of NSF firings come into focus as scientists weigh next steps"

Via C&EN's Krystal Vasquez: 

US scientists are figuring out their next steps and expressing mounting concerns in the aftermath of the National Science Foundation’s move on Feb. 18 to fire about 10% of its permanent workforce...

...The NSF was already understaffed, says one former program officer affected by the firings, who would speak to C&EN only under the condition of anonymity because they plan to appeal their termination from the agency.

Now those whom the firings spared are strategizing to determine how to distribute all the work that their former colleagues would have shared, says a current program coordinator, who insisted on anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

One fired NSF employee on an expert appointment and two fired program directors, all of whom would speak to C&EN only under the condition of anonymity to avoid backlash or retaliation, say the termination notice came while many were in the middle of setting up review panels, finding reviewers, or working on solicitations—all key aspects of reviewing and awarding grants.

“It’s taking an enormous amount of effort to reassign everything that these brilliant people did,” the current program coordinator says over Signal, a secure messaging service. “We are working through deep, deep grief.”

Read the whole thing. This is quite horrible. Sorry I don't have more words. Best wishes to all those affected. 

Job posting: visiting assistant professor of chemistry, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

From the inbox: 

The Department of Chemistry at St. Olaf College invites applications for a full-time, one- or two-year position at the level of Visiting Instructor or Assistant Professor, to begin August 2025. 

Teaching responsibilities will include courses in biochemistry and general chemistry. 

Salary: $59,000 - $64,000

Qualifications: Applicants should have a Ph.D. in chemistry or a relevant field or expect completion of such prior to employment.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 492 research/teaching positions and 85 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 492 research/teaching positions and 85 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 February 20, 2024, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 526 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This is the link to the second open thread. This is the link 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: visiting assistant professor of chemistry, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

From the inbox: 

The Department of Chemistry at Colgate University invites applications for one or more one-year Visiting Assistant Professor positions beginning in the fall semester of 2025. 

The successful candidate will teach an annual five-course load with contributions to the introductory-level chemistry curriculum and the possibility of upper-level courses in the candidate’s area of expertise. Visitors will have the opportunity, if desired, to conduct research and aid in the supervision of undergraduate research students. They will also gain professional development through mentoring in teaching and conducting research at an undergraduate institution. 

A faculty member notes "We're looking for at least one, probably two, visiting professors in Chemistry or Biochemistry and we're pretty flexible with respect to subfield expertise." 

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Graduate schools, including the University of Pittsburgh, are freezing PhD admissions

Via WESA: 

Amid uncertainty about frozen research aid from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Pittsburgh has put its Ph.D. admissions on ice. The school confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.

The move comes as research universities across the country battle against the National Institutes of Health over a policy to reduce the funding cap for ancillary research expenses like building construction and maintenance as well as support staff.

The policy would reduce the cap for those indirect research costs to 15%. Pitt’s current rate is 59%. A federal judge extended a temporary pause on implementation of that policy Friday. But Pitt’s decision to halt admissions was made earlier in the week.

On Bluesky, Professor Geoff Hutchison noted that the Piit Department of Chemistry has already issued admissions and were in the midst of a visit weekend. 

[Here's a running list of schools that have confirmed that they're pausing PhD admissions, with various levels of confirmations.]

It's really hard to make predictions because we simply do not know what is going to happen from day to day with this Administration. If we have a pause in entering classes of graduate students, the effects on science will be both unpredictable (what science will not have been done?) and long-lasting (imagine if it is only this year that's affected - what would that do to the faculty job market 7 years from now?) 

It's more than a bit concerning that Derek Lowe's latest post is titled "The Continuing Crisis, Part V." Here's hoping we won't be on part XXIV by May. Best wishes to academic readers, and to all of us.

Have a good weekend

Well, this was a fun week. Didn't expect a bit of snow (that didn't impact my travel) but I'm sure might have hit a reader or two. Hope that you had a great week (always fun to meet a reader in real life, even at a trade show!) and that you have a wonderful weekend. See you on Monday. 

University of Iowa pauses graduate TA hiring

Via the Cedar Rapids Gazette: 

...Separate from that paused funding freeze, the NIH announced a change Friday in how and to what degree it will cover indirect costs associated with the research projects it funds — capping indirect coverage at 15 percent for new and existing grants, down from an average of 27 percent.

Indirect research funding, according to [UI Interim Vice President for Research Lois] Geist, supports state-of-the-art labs; high-speed data processing; patient safety protocols; national security protection; hazardous waste disposal; support personnel; and maintenance staff for cleaning and supplies.

“Simply put, the federal government provides reimbursement for real costs that are incurred in the process of safely and securely conducting high-impact research,” according to Geist. “This research has tangible benefits for the lives of Iowans.”

In response to the indirect cost cap, UI’s Geist on Monday imposed three directives:

• A pause on any new NIH grant applications;
• A freeze on graduate research assistant hiring, “unless they are already budgeted as a direct cost on a funded project”;
• And a slowing of general spending.

“Researchers and departments should exert extra caution and defer starting new activities until we have more clarity,” Geist wrote.

This obviously bears watching (and not that there are a lot of graduate TAs hired in February) but the war over the NIH is not ending any time soon... 

Job posting: Senior Scientist – Oligonucleotide Synthesis Chemist, Abbott Laboratories, San Diego, CA

Via Indeed: 

The Oligonucleotide Synthesis Chemist will work on site out of our San Diego, California office Infectious Disease division. The person hired will help lead a team of scientists responsible for oligonucleotide synthesis to help drive product development efforts, ultimately enabling commercialization of diagnostic tests as well as driving future improvements and applications. 

What You’ll Work On

• Support R&D and product development efforts by providing expertise in nucleic acid chemistry and oligonucleotide synthesis, analysis and purification 
• Identify, implement and optimize novel/new synthesis processes 
• Develop and implement analytical and biophysical methodologies to help analyze, characterize and evaluate raw materials and finished products 

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in biological or physical sciences, or mathematics; with 6 + years of progressively responsible positions in a research development environment. Or M.S. with minimum of 4 years' experience or Ph.D. in chemistry, analytical chemistry, or a closely related field.
• Minimum six years of experience working in the IVD field in an industrial setting, or in a clinical, central or core laboratory performing oligonucleotide synthesis and post-synthesis modifications as well as analytical characterization of oligos.   

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.

Interesting factlet in the letters to the editor

In this week's C&EN, this interesting letter to the editor: 

Joel Tickner’s opinion piece in January hit the nail on the head about the December 2024 Office of Science and Technology Policy Federal Sustainable Chemistry Strategic Plan. The report fails to address the barriers posed by incumbency and doesn’t inspire desperately needed “moon shot” thinking around how we should manufacture chemicals in the future. 

Part of the problem is that most of the time when sustainable chemistry is on the table for discussion, the process is too often an afterthought. When I use a tabletop air fryer instead of a wall oven, I consume far less energy. Similarly, when soft-serve ice cream is made on demand, there’s no need to store large quantities in freezers hoping to sell them. These are process innovations enabled by equipment matched to the use case­—that is, soft-serve ice cream versus hard-scooped ice cream, and a few pieces of chicken versus a 20 lb (9 kg) turkey, which would not fit in an air fryer. When the use case is correct, the cost of ownership is lower than with older technology, and the investment pays off over time. For chemical factories, we will always have many dump-and-run reactions in large, fully depreciated tanks, but we can be kinder to the planet and make many chemicals and drugs more economically with flow chemistry that reduces solvent use, cuts energy consumption and waste, improves yield, and significantly boosts safety. 

 To make real progress, we need to accelerate the adoption of new technologies that have already been proved at scale. Just one of the rapidly growing number of factories around the world using advanced continuous-flow reactors has reported publicly that it is now operating a unit taking up a mere 1 m3 of space with 10,000 metric tons of throughput per year on just this single line. Today, China is the only country to have embraced flow chemistry on a big scale, while in the US and Europe, we generate studies and reports that are not having much impact. 

Gary Calabrese 

Wilmington, North Carolina 

It seems to me that China, being relatively late to the chemical manufacturing world, would have probably gotten in on the ground floor with flow reactors back in the 1990s.

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 486 research/teaching positions and 85 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 486 research/teaching positions and 85 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 February 13, 2024, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 524 research/teaching positions and 75 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This is the link to the second open thread. This is the link 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. 

Help the Polymerist find a position

Via The Guardian: 

The Trump administration’s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.

Probationary employees across the FDA received notices on Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The total number of positions eliminated was not clear on Sunday, but the firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency’s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products – which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted...

This bad news has impacted friend of the blog Tony Maiorana. If you can help him, please do. 

Cool profile on a medicinal chemistry professor

Via the New York Times:  

...Pebbles was not the patient Dr. Cernak had in mind when he began his career. Until 2018, he had worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck, developing drugs for people with cancer, H.I.V., diabetes and other conditions. Along the way, he had helped develop cutting-edge approaches, involving robots and artificial intelligence, to speed up the invention of new human drugs.

A few years ago, however, Dr. Cernak decided that he wanted to use those tools to make medicines for ailing plants and animals, forging a new field he called “conservation chemistry.”

Gila monsters weren’t the only species that had inspired human drugs. There were antibiotics derived from fungi, anticancer drugs from plants and painkillers from animal venom. Dr. Cernak thought it was time for pharmaceutical chemists to give back. “To me it’s this full circle thing,” he said. “We’re attempting to solve the ultimate health inequity.”

Pretty interesting article. Here's hoping for the best of success for Professor Cernak.

Have a good weekend

Well, this was another week. I hope that you had a good week, and that you have a great weekend, with or without snow. See you on Monday. 

Job posting: 1-year visiting assistant professor, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI

Via Bluesky: 

If you're a recent (or soon-to-be) analytical chem PhD, or if you know of one...

We're hiring a 1-year VAP as sabbatical replacement. 

Link here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Job posting: Scientist I: Bioconjugation Chemist/Biochemist, Akoya Biosciences, Marlborough, MA

Via Indeed:  

We are seeking a highly motivated scientist to join the Akoya R&D Chemistry Team. You will work in a dynamic, team-oriented environment and take part in the development of multiplex fluorescent immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays and reagents for use in biological research. You will be a key contributor in a multi-disciplinary team executing scientific research and product development. You should be able to work independently and take initiative in planning, conducting, and reporting on the studies for which you are responsible. 

You will have the opportunity to interact with small teams of biologists, chemists, biochemists, image scientists, and engineers in a rapidly moving organization. 

Duties & Responsibilities:   

• Perform high throughput immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunofluorescence (IF) staining and imaging of FFPE tissue sections.  
• Develop workflow procedures for Akoya related platforms.  
• Design analytical experiments to measure and quantify biological material and fluid transfer during workflow steps.  
• Perform fluorescence microscopy analysis and optimize settings for antibody-stained tissue samples. 

Skills & Requirements: 

• Requires a BS degree with 4+ years’ experience, MS degree with 2+ years’ experience, or Ph.D. in conjugation chemistry, analytical/organic chemistry, and peptide/protein chemistry. 
• Minimum of 2 years of practical experience in protein/nucleotide analytical assays, including analytical and preparatory liquid chromatography, gel electrophoresis, and spectroscopy.  

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.

C&EN: "Judge issues temporary restraining orders over NIH indirect cost policy"

Via C&EN's Krystal Vasquez: 

A federal judge in Massachusetts has granted two temporary restraining orders blocking the recent decision by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to cap the amount that research grant recipients can receive for facility and administrative costs, payments known as indirect costs.

On the evening of Feb. 7, the health agency announced that it would limit the indirect cost rate for both new and existing grants to 15% starting Feb. 10. That rate is substantially lower than the 27–28% rate that universities receive, on average, according to the NIH memo.

Three lawsuits were filed Feb. 10 in response to the policy change. That same day, Judge Angel Kelley granted a temporary restraining order in response to the first suit, filed by 22 state attorneys general, pausing the policy change in those states. On Feb. 11, Kelley halted the policy change nationwide in response to a second lawsuit, filed on behalf of medical centers and medical schools. Hearings on both orders are scheduled for Feb. 21...

There is a raft of expert commentary out there, including Derek's. I don't have much to add, other than that this is really bad, and I made a very incorrect call. I vastly underestimated the level of hatred the right has for the NIH, and the desire to make it suffer. I would like to think that Congress will push back on this, but let's be honest - they are supine. It also seems pretty clear that the second Trump Administration is intent on running the executive branch as though it has no checks and balances. 

If you're affected by this, I'm very sorry. Best wishes to you, and to all of us. 

Indiana high school whoosh bottle incident injures teachers, students

Credit: Joe Schroeder, Fox 59

Via Fox 59: 

INDIANAPOLIS — Several students and a teacher were injured Thursday at Southport High School when a large glass bottle exploded during a chemistry class demonstration.

According to an email sent to Southport teachers and obtained by FOX59/CBS4, the incident occurred just after 12 p.m. in a chemistry lab during a “whoosh bottle demonstration.” The explosion reportedly shattered a “large glass bottle,” Principal Amy Boone wrote to teachers.

The email said the teacher performing the demonstration and multiple students received “minor injuries.” One student will reportedly require stitches, according to the email, while the rest of the injured students either returned to class or were released to a parent.

It's rather shocking to me that the teacher used a glass bottle (doesn't seem like a great idea), but I guess we'll find out more (or not.) 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 480 research/teaching positions and 81 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 480 research/teaching positions and 81 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 February 6, 2024, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 521 researcsh/teaching positions and 72 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This is the link to the second open thread. This is the link 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: 116 research/teaching positions and 17 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 116 research/teaching positions and 17 teaching positions. 

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

Have a great weekend

Well, this has been a tough week for an unexpected reason, but here's hoping things get better. I hope that you had a good week. I hope that you have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

Network with The Polymerist!

Friend of the blog Tony (and writer of The Polymerist) has a generous offer for any of his readers to self-promote in the comments and get to know people. (Are you familiar with The Polymerist? It is truly a great newsletter.) Hope you take the opportunity! 

There's a trademark on 'slime'????

Via Bloomberg, this funny story: 

Mack Toys Inc. asked the US Federal Communications Commission to put conditions on Paramount Global’s pending merger with Skydance Media to prevent the two media companies from controlling the word “slime.”

Paramount’s Nickelodeon kids channel has long used green slime as a gag in its programming. The 157-page filing says Paramount’s “restrictive” enforcement of its trademark on the word creates barriers to fair competition for small businesses like Mack Toys.

Mack Toys is a family-run business selling edible toy putty called Wildputty, according to its website. A photo in the filing shows the company selling a slime product from a stand.

Paramount plans to merge in a deal that would give Skydance founder David Ellison control of the combined operation. Ellison is the son of Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, the world’s fourth richest person. Mack contends Paramount’s control of the word “slime” restricts its ability to market its products.

“If the proposed Paramount Global-Skydance Media merger is approved, Larry Ellison would gain significant control over these advertising channels while also holding monopolistic control over the generic and merely descriptive mark ‘slime,’” according to the filing.

Who knew there are a thousand little chemistry kits in America violating this trademark? 

(the grown of slime as a kids' entry into science-related activities is genuinely strange to me)  

Job posting: Senior Scientist - Medicinal Chemistry, Integrated Drug Discovery, Sanofi, Cambridge, MA

Via Indeed, this posting: 

Job overview

An accomplished synthetic organic and medicinal chemist, with a good track record of being a key project contributor, to design and synthesize small molecule targets.

Responsibilities

• Design and synthesize small molecule targets to drive programs to clinical candidate nomination.
• Use reaction and reagent databases to select effective techniques/routes to maximize productivity and provide solutions to complex multi-step synthetic problems.
• Prepare and characterize high purity target compounds and intermediates to meet aggressive project timelines...

Requirements & Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree with minimum 8 years of relevant research experience in an academic or biopharmaceutical setting OR Master’s Degree with minimum 5 years of relevant research experience in an academic or biopharmaceutical setting OR PhD with minimum 3 years of relevant research experience in an academic or biopharmaceutical setting.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Politico: "Science funding agency threatened with mass layoffs"

Via Politico, this news: 

One of the United States’ leading funders of science and engineering research is planning to lay off between a quarter and a half of its staff in the next two months, a top National Science Foundation official said Tuesday.

The comments by Assistant Director Susan Margulies came at an all-hands meeting of the NSF’s Engineering Directorate, according to two program managers who attended.

Marguiles, NSF and the White House didn’t respond to detailed questions about the layoffs and their potential implications.

“A large-scale reduction, in response to the President’s workforce executive orders, is already happening,” a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management said in an email. “The government is restructuring, and unfortunately, many employees will later realize they missed a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the deferred resignation offer.”

I don't have much to say about this other than the obvious: this is bad, real bad. Derek has a pretty comprehensive post that is, like so much these days, overtaken by events with this latest. Nevertheless, the last lines are good and important: 

We are in a Constitutional crisis whether we like it or not, the worst of my own lifetime by far, and the more voices that are raised against it all, the better. That's what we can do for now. If it gets worse, it gets worse, and we'll revisit the topic, God help us.

But most of all, don't give in to cynicism or apathy. That's what the people promulgating these horrible policies want - a bored, indifferent public who figures that who cares, nothing matters any more, it's gonna happen no matter what. But it doesn't have to. Never forget that: it doesn't have to happen.

Best wishes to the scientists and engineers of the NSF, and to all of us.

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 476 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 476 research/teaching positions and 80 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 January 30, 2024, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 513 research/teaching positions and 72 teaching positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This is the link to the second open thread. This is the link 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: 116 research/teaching positions and 17 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 116 research/teaching positions and 17 teaching positions. 

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

NSF releases funding due to federal court intervention

Via Bluesky, this update on the NSF's website on Sunday: 

1. When will the Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) be restored to allow disbursements on active awards? 

Access to ACM$ has been restored and the system is available to accept payment requests as of 12:00 PM ET on February 2, 2025.

2. On Friday, January 31, 2025, a Federal Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) directing Federal grant-making agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), to "...not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate... awards and obligations." What is NSF doing to comply with this TRO? 

NSF has restored access to the ACM$ system as of 12:00 PM ET on February 2, 2025 and is in compliance with the TRO...

5. Will Fellows (GRFP, et al) receive their February stipend?

Fellows must log into ACM$ and verify their payment request has been accepted. Most Fellows will have to resubmit a request.

What a mess. I'm glad this situation has been resolved (for now.) 

Dow cutting 1500 jobs

Via the AP, this bad news: 

Dow Inc.'s fourth-quarter profits came in well below Wall Street expectations and the material sciences company said Thursday that it is slashing 1,500 jobs globally in an effort to cut costs as sales stagnate.

The layoffs amount to about 4% of Dow’s workforce, according to data firm FactSet. Dow said the staff reductions are part of a broader plan to cut $1 billion in costs, citing “persistently weak macroeconomic conditions.”

Shares of Midland, Michigan-based Dow tumbled nearly 8% in morning trading.

Dow posted a loss of $35 million in the fourth quarter. Adjusted for one-time expenses, per-share profits in the period were zero. That’s down from last year’s earnings of 43 cents per share and well short of the 24 cents-per-share profit that analysts were expecting. For the full year, Dow recorded profits of $1.71 per share, down from 2023’s $2.24...

Here's hoping things turn around for the folks at Dow. Best wishes to them, and to all of us.