The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 396 research/teaching positions and 45 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 396 research/teaching positions and 45 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 November 7, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 424 research/teaching positions and 40 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: 102 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 102 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions. 

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

Harvard Crimson: Charles Lieber to visit Beijing for "employment networking"

Via the Harvard Crimson, this unusual news: 

A federal judge gave former Harvard Chemistry professor Charles M. Lieber permission to visit China for “employment networking” and give a lecture in Beijing — nearly three years after Lieber was convicted for lying to federal investigators about his relationship to China.

Lieber is currently serving a 18-month term of supervised release after completing six months of house arrest.

Lieber has been actively searching for employment in China since at least June, when he asked a judge if he could visit the University of Hong Kong the next month “to discuss potential faculty appointment and employment opportunities.”

In July, Lieber requested to attend the International Beijing Brain Conference in August to deliver a keynote speech and “discuss research and potential collaborations with local students.”

All three of Lieber’s requests were approved by U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper. The most recent request, which Casper signed off on last week, did not specify Lieber’s planned dates of travel.

In the requests, Lieber’s attorneys wrote that they had sought approval for Lieber’s travel from the Chinese consulate but had not heard back.

The Crimson could not determine whether Lieber has visited China yet, and neither Lieber nor his attorneys responded to requests for comment. In August, he told the South China Morning Post via email that he had “not yet visited Hong Kong, but may do so this fall.”

In some sense, this is reasonable, i.e. China pays significant money to be associated with prominent academics, and Charles Lieber is certainly very prominent. Also, I presume that he needs employment. However, it was his past associations with Chinese academia that got him into trouble, and in that sense, this move is rather surprising. I guess we'll see where Dr. Lieber ends up. 

C&EN on horseshoe crab blood testing

In the latest issue of C&EN, this fascinating feature by Laurel Oldach:

At a recent meeting of the Parenteral Drug Association, where industry microbiologists discussed ways to make drugs without a trace of unwanted biological material, photos of horseshoe crabs danced across a screen between sessions. The sediment-snuffling arthropod with a dozen legs and a shell like a helmet may seem like an unlikely pairing with the sleek, highly engineered robotics of a pharmaceutical production line. But estuaries teeming with life and clean rooms where it should be all but absent are linked by their dependence on this animal.

That is poised to change. In November, US regulators will formally announce their acceptance of alternatives to a key test that ensures drug products are not contaminated. The new tests will use proteins produced in bioreactors rather than in wild horseshoe crabs.

The change was hard fought. Arguments played out in the technical literature and in expert committee meetings. The stakes included hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales for the company with the most to lose from a switch and the professional reputations of a group of industry insiders who were fired from their volunteer jobs. Now it appears that the tide may be turning on endotoxin tests made from horseshoe crab blood—but it hasn’t gone out just yet.

This piece is pretty long and detailed, but it is definitely worth it, as it explains the rather labyrinthine process of changing USP standards, and how it is its own bureaucratic battlefield. Read the whole thing. 

Have a great week

This has been kind of a wild week, but here I am, I guess, with a larger project due. At least I got a couple of decent meals out of it. Hope you had a great week, and have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

Meet a candy scientist and their IP

Via the Wall Street Journal, this fun bit of intellectual property trivia: 

...Taste testers wanted more flavor and felt the chewing experience wasn’t gummy enough, so Ferrara made the product even tangier and tweaked the crunch-to-chew ratio. 

In the summer of 2020, the candy company and the inventor of Nerds Gummy Clusters, a Ferrara scientist named Sean Oomens, filed for a patent on a “dual-textured confectionery” with a “chewy center” and “crunchy coating.” 

The details in the application, which is pending, included an exact definition of gummy (“a springy, resilient character with varying degrees of firmness”) and a less exact shape of the cluster (“generally ovoid, spherical or bean-shaped”). 

...Ferrara’s experiments with Gummy Clusters did result in batches of soggy Nerds, according to a person familiar with the process. The patent on Gummy Clusters suggests that Ferrara’s candy scientists solved their problem with additives such as gum arabic, an additive that prevents moisture from the chewy center from seeping into the candy pebble’s coating...

I bet it's a lot of fun to be a candy scientist, but you probably have a serious salt tooth at the end of a work day... 

makes you wonder who the PHOSITA for candy science would be... 

Job posting: Head of R&D, Sironix Renewables, Seattle, WA

Via BlueSky, this position: 

About us: We’re a startup company with proven technology developing eco-friendly and bio-renewable surfactant chemicals for consumer products, such as laundry detergents and personal care products. Sironix has invented and developed a series of new surfactant molecules that will make our consumer products work better and benefit our environment. We have received over $7M in government investment and partnerships along with recent venture funding. We are searching for an applicant who can help us refine and scale our surfactant manufacturing process, overcome barriers to technology commercialization and achieve a more responsible future for the cleaning and personal care industry.

Summary: As Head of Research and Development at Sironix Renewables, you will be joining a company at the forefront of green chemistry, bio-renewables, and product development. You will be aiding the development and scale-up of surfactant production methods as we transition from pre-pilot toward commercial scale manufacturing. Responsibilities primarily involve coordinating with contract and chemical manufacturers to de-risk and scale manufacturing processes, designing and implementing experimental plans to meet customer product specifications, supporting R&D efforts as they relate to intellectual property and grants management, as well as performing equipment maintenance as required. 

They will lead a small team of full-time research scientists while managing relationships with contract engineers. Quality control, including use and maintenance of chromatography, spectroscopy and surfactant performance test instrumentation, will be an important focus to assure our product continues to meet our standards as scaling continues. Tasks require management of simultaneous research projects, effective communication with customers, collaborators, and other team members, as well as auxiliary technical tasks outside of typical lab work to help grow our business. As is the nature of research, creative problem solving is required in order to ensure consistent and confident data. The working conditions and fellow employees are relaxed, but we are motivated and determined to build a name for ourselves and change the way the world cleans!

Salary: A starting salary of $110,000 to $150,000 per year is expected.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Process Engineering, or related Engineering discipline with 2 years of relevant industry experience, or M.S. with 4 years of relevant industry experience, or B.S. with 6 years of relevant industry experience required
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Experience working independently to design and implement chemistry experiments in the laboratory, including demonstrated wet chemistry skills as well as analytical and problem-solving skills to interpret and refine results
• High mechanical aptitude and knowledge of mechanical concepts needed to maintain, troubleshoot and repair mechanical equipment and electrical device

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

C&EN: Chemistry undergraduate enrollment falling faster than all programs

Friend of the blog Leigh Krietsch Boerner has a great feature in Chemical and Engineering News tackling the problem of undergraduate enrollment in chemistry. The whole article is worth reading, but this analysis by Leigh is the most important: 

...According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, enrollment at 4-year colleges in the US has dropped 3.2% since 2019. Enrollment in chemistry programs, meanwhile, has tumbled 23.2% over the same period.

In contrast, undergraduate enrollment in biology fell about the same amount as all undergraduate enrollment since 2019. And at a time when college enrollment is dropping and students are opting out of higher education, the number of biology degrees has actually increased since 2019. According to C&EN’s analysis, the number of undergraduate degrees awarded in biology has gone up 7.5% since 2019. During the same period, the number of bachelor’s degrees in all disciplines dropped by 2.6%, while chemistry degrees were down 14.1%.

As of the end of the 2023–24 academic year, only a few hundred more schools offered degrees in biology than in chemistry. And in the past 5 years, the number of programs in each discipline has fallen at about the same rate. But according to C&EN’s analysis, US higher education institutions awarded 132,465 biology degrees in 2023, compared with 12,567 chemistry degrees. And schools don’t seem to be ending their biology programs.

It seems reasonable to conclude this isn't going to do great things for chemistry as a field in the United States, nor chemistry employment (for chemists) nor for the number of non-R1 chemistry faculty positions. Here's hoping that we see a turnaround. Read the whole thing. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 378 research/teaching positions and 41 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 378 research/teaching positions and 41 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 October 31, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 415 research/teaching positions and 38 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: 95 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 95 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions. 

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

C&EN: "Rigoberto Hernandez elected 2025 ACS president-elect"

Via C&EN (article by Sara Cottle), this ACS news:

Rigoberto Hernandez has been elected the 2025 American Chemical Society president-elect by ACS members. Hernandez will serve as society president in 2026 and immediate past president in 2027. These roles include serving on the board of directors from 2025 to 2027.

ACS members also elected four other people into ACS governance positions, including the first-ever International District director.

...In other election news, Katherine L. Lee, executive director and head of scientific planning and operations in the Inflammation and Immunology Research Unit at Pfizer, was re-elected District I director for 2025–27, defeating Matthew Grandbois, vice president of business development at AirJoule.

Silvia S. Jurisson, a professor of chemistry and radiology at the University of Missouri, was elected District V director for 2025–27, defeating two other candidates, Lisa M. Balbes, independent consultant at Balbes Consultants, and Mark C. Cesa, retired from Ineos Nitriles.

David Wu, director and research fellow at the Institute of Chemistry at Academia Sinica, was elected ACS’s first ever International District director for 2025–27, defeating Hooi-Ling Lee, an associate professor at the School of Chemical Sciences at Universiti Sains Malaysia. The petition creating this position was approved by the ACS Council and Board of Directors in August 2023 and ratified by the members in November 2023.

Natalie A. LaFranzo, vice president of strategy at the Linus Group, was re-elected director-at-large, defeating Sergio Nanita, a senior principal investigator at Incyte.

Best wishes to ACS President-elect Hernandez and the other new BoD members.

Have a great weekend

A short week always feels a bit like playing hooky. I hope that you had a great week and that you got what you needed to get done, done. Hope you have a great weekend, and see you on Monday. 

Harry Elston's book "Thrive Solo", reviewed

Credit: Harry Elston

Harry Elston is a long-time friend of the blog, and he's written a good book about being a solo
entrepreneur, titled "Thrive Solo." It's written about his experience becoming a full-time consultant in chemical safety. 

I read it pretty quickly, and as someone who has talked to a lot of aspiring and current entrepreneurs, it was both very informative and covered a lot of questions that I feel many potential entrepreneurs have. 

The section on "how to do your own accounting" was an important section for me that I haven't read very much about. In addition, his approach to "types of contracts" was illuminating for me as well. 

One aspect that I really liked about Harry's approach to the various sections was first reviewing the subject (taxes, corporate structure, etc) and then saying "this is how I do it, and why." It's good to both have the basic structure, and then the author's opinion on what worked best for him, and why. 

The book is well-written and short. I didn't see any particular weaknesses, but this is the moment in a book review where you're supposed to say something that needs improvement, so I'll say this: There are precious few personal experiences within "Thrive Solo". I've had enough breakfasts and phone calls with Harry to know that he can tell a good story, but that aspect of his personality doesn't really come out in this book. More Harry next time, please. 

It's also quite inexpensive (especially on Kindle.) If you're thinking about striking out on your own as a consultant, I would definitely recommend picking up a copy. It's a good investment for a first step to a potential new career. 

Job posting: analytical chemist, Nestlé Purina Analytical Laboratories, St. Louis, MO

Via Indeed, this position: 

Quality Assurance and Nestlé Purina Analytical Laboratories department is comprised of talented individuals who possess a genuine love for pets and their families. We thrive on being at the forefront of research, contributing to the innovation and advancements in pet nutrition and quality that sets Nestlé Purina apart. Ensuring the delivery of safe ingredients and sustainable practices to our factories and beyond, we are invigorated by the extensive research and development that goes into our products. Bring your impact to the table and together we will continue to work towards being one of the most trusted companies in pet care.  

As an Analytical Chemist, you will execute and interpret complex procedures and protocols within a project or goal. You’ll be a great fit if you are a self-starter who takes initiative and works independently while collaborating within Nestlé Purina Analytical Laboratories (NPAL). You’ll be expected to learn method development, make process improvements, and help draft standard operating procedures (SOP’s) in addition to mentoring other team members.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry or a related field
• 3+ years of analytical lab or industry experience, analytical instrumentation experience, and troubleshooting of assay and equipment issues
• 2+ years of experience with chromatography and/or mass spectrometry (HPLC, GC, GCMS, LCMS, etc.)

The approximate pay range for this position is $59,000.00 to $85,000.00.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.

Can there only be one Kate the Chemist?

In a recent issue of Chemical and Engineering News, this very enjoyable profile of Dr. Kate Biberdorf, popularly known as Kate the Chemist (article by Dalmeet Singh Chawla): 

...That hustle has paid off for Biberdorf. After 16 years studying and working in Texas, she recently moved to the University of Notre Dame to become the institution’s first-ever professor for the public understanding of science.

The role will be significantly different from what Biberdorf did at UT Austin, where her whole job was to teach chemistry. Alongside that day job, every week she would visit up to four schools, engaging with more than 20,000 students a year. “My best year was 29,000 students, and that was a really good year, but I was very tired,” she says. “When I’m breathing fire, and I often do it in Louboutin heels, people just take notice.”

It sounds like it's reasonably lucrative for her: 

...In 2020, she handed over the unpaid school outreach work to someone else at the university. Now Biberdorf has two literary agents, a social media agent, a podcast agent, and a sponsor agent. She is a client of the United Talent Agency, which represents artists, athletes, entertainers, and more. Twenty percent of all the fees she earns for any show usually go to the agency, and 10% to Schwartz, who is still her manager.

Biberdorf declines to share any monetary figures, citing confidentiality agreements, but says her Kate the Chemist gig makes “so much more money” than her professor role at UT Austin did. “It’s an extreme amount of money you can make with these sponsorships.”

It also sounds like she will be doing a fair bit of work for the University of Notre Dame, her new employer: 

...She has officially moved to Notre Dame, where she says her role will be a more natural fit with her science entertainer work. It will be business as usual under the Kate the Chemist brand. But with more freedom from her institution and no chemistry classes to teach, she says she can focus on her science communication work and ultimately bring more attention to the scientific research taking place at Notre Dame. “It’s a win-win,” she says.

“They’re building me an entire studio,” she says. It’s a camera-friendly laboratory, a makerspace, and it’s going to be open on Feb. 1, Biberdorf notes. “Notre Dame is invested in this.”

In her new position, Biberdorf hopes to launch the university’s first major in science communication, with the aim of creating an “army of science communicators.” For now, she will start off with a science communication minor.

I have long been skeptical of the labor economics of science communication, especially as a stand-alone career. I've thought about this for years, especially since I know that so many people would like to do 'science communication'* as a job, and I have watched what seems like hundreds (but is probably more like 10 or 20 professional freelance science communicators) struggle over the years as I've watched on the sidelines on social media since 2010 or so. 

I can't help but note that my skepticism has long been rooted in Derek Lowe's skepticism about his prospects as a professional science communicator. I can't find the quote but (like so many quotes from Derek), it's eminently memorable - if living solely on the checks from his writing, he and his family would soon be reduced to eating the grass in his backyard. Derek's a much, much better writer than I, so what chance do I have, or anyone else for that matter? I have a family to support, so I'm not a writer, I work for a living in chemical manufacturing.**

But this isn't really about me and my inadequacies - it's actually about the core of this blog's mission over the years, which is to attempt to quantify the quality of job markets. The latest Occupational Outlook Handbook (updated in August 2024) indicates that there are something like 87,000 chemists, and their median pay is ~$85,000 a year. While we can debate whether this is a good salary or a bad one, I think you can argue that you can live on your own (probably not very well, depending on where you live) and with luck, finding an appropriate spouse or a partner with a similar annual salary would be a great way to extend your dollar and increase your standard of living to something approaching the great American dream of affluence.

I'm not so sure about professional science communicators of any sort. As I've said before, professional science communication (especially the kind that makes money) seems to be mostly part of the entertainment industry, and entertainment seems to be a labor tournament market, where there are many entrants, but one true winner (and just a few people who make a median income competing.) Kate is winning that tournament (and seems to have won another one, in her (I presume) tenured position at Notre Dame.) That is great for her, but this is not a reproducible path. I genuinely do not understand what a long-term, high-quality employment market for science communicators looks like. I posit that I've never seen one, and more's the pity. 

*What the hell is 'science communication' anyway? I know it when I see it, as do you. 

**I note that I am STILL very proud to be a member of NAICS 325. 

***One more CJ-esque note: I cannot help but note Dr. Biberdorf is moving from a classically large public university to a private university. This too is the correct move in Our Modern Times.

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 368 research/teaching positions and 38 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 368 research/teaching positions and 38 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 October 31, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 415 research/teaching positions and 38 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: 85 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 77 research/teaching positions and 14 teaching positions. 

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

C&EN: "SQM to supply SK with iodine for refrigerants"

Via C&EN, this news (article by Craig Bettenhausen: 

The Chilean mining company SQM will provide the iodine needed for next-generation refrigerants that the specialty chemical maker SK Enmove, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, is developing. SK says that in addition to carrying a lower global warming impact than fluorine-based options, the iodine refrigerants work better in the heating cycle, making them more useful in electric vehicles that cannot depend on waste heat for cabin heating. SK is working with Hyundai to commercialize heat pump systems based on the new refrigerants.

Who knew that PTA production requires cobalt? (This paper (PDF) did, but I didn't (it's part of an oxidant, apparently.) 

It would be interesting to know how much cobalt would be required for a single Coke bottle's worth of PTA/PET as opposed to a cell phone's need. 

Have a good weekend

Well, it's good to be back in the office this week. I got a last-minute reprieve on a project, which was awfully nice. I hope that you had a good week, and that you have a great weekend. See you on Monday! 

Job posting: Product Development Specialist, 3M, St. Paul, MN/hybrid

Via C&EN Jobs: 

As a Product Development Specialist for IATD’s adhesive products in consumer electronics, you will have the opportunity to tap into your curiosity and collaborate with some of the most innovative and diverse people around the world. Here, you will make an impact by:

Leading cutting edge high-strength adhesive technology development with direct customer applications for key consumer electronics products  

Supporting winning business in a fast-paced environment through evaluation and optimization of material characterization techniques to ensure high accuracy and alignment with our customers innovative designs and functional requirements

Bringing in versatile material and technology knowledge, and maintaining external engagement and expertise to enable disruptive new adhesives properties

Your Skills and Expertise 

• To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:
• Master’s degree or higher in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Polymer Science, Polymer Engineering, Materials Science
• Three (3) years of combined experience in adhesives or composites in a private, public, government, educational or military environment.

Additional qualifications that could help you succeed even further in this role include:

• PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Polymer Science, Polymer Engineering, Materials Science
• Experience in one or more of the following: material modeling, mechanical testing of materials, organic molecule synthesis (from small molecule to polymers), scale up processes
• Experience with consumer electronics materials requirements
• Five (5) year of combined experience in adhesives or composites in a private, public, government, educational or military environment

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.