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. 

Hydrogen sulfide leak at PEMEX facility kills two last Thursday

Via CNN, this sad news from last week: 

A chemical leak at a PEMEX oil refinery in Deer Park, Texas, on Thursday killed two workers and injured several others, prompting temporary shelter-in-place orders for residents across the city, officials said.

The leak happened around 4:20 p.m., sending hydrogen sulfide – a colorless and potentially toxic gas – seeping into the air at the plant, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

Two bodies have been found at the scene and at least 35 others were “triaged,” the sheriff said at a Thursday night news conference. It is unclear how many were treated on-site or brought to a medical facility.

PEMEX, a Mexico-based oil company, said in a statement in Spanish that operations were halted once the leak was detected and local authorities were notified.

Shelter-in-place orders were issued for the city of Deer Park, as well as some residents of neighboring Pasadena, as emergency officials told residents to stay indoors, close all windows and doors, and turn off their air-conditioners. The orders have since been lifted after air monitoring determined no hazardous chemicals had permeated the surrounding community, city officials said.

“We’ve not gotten any air monitoring reports to show that anything has gotten into the community that would be a concern to any constituents in Deer Park,” Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton said, noting air monitoring will be ongoing.

Hydrogen sulfide, commonly used in oil and gas refining, has a pungent “rotten egg” smell that may linger in the air, Mouton said.

I wasn't aware that hydrogen sulfide was used in oil and gas refining. CSB is deploying, so I imagine that we will come to understand more (I hope.) 

Retraction Watch: "Retractions begin for chemist found to have faked data in 42 papers"

Via Retraction Watch, this news: 

A nanotube researcher in Japan has earned 13 retractions, with more to come, after an extensive investigation by the country’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) revealed widespread misconduct in his work. 

AIST’s investigation found Naohiro Kameta, senior principal researcher at the Nanomaterials Research Institute located in AIST’s Ibaraki campus, fabricated and falsified dozens of studies. He was apparently dismissed from his role following the findings. 

The institute first learned of the problems in Kameta’s work in November 2022, according to a translated version of the investigation report. Initially, they looked into five papers, but eventually expanded their scrutiny to 61 articles on which Kameta was the lead or responsible author...

It would be really interesting to understand how the retraction and official governmental sanctions process works for serious scientific misconduct. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 349 research/teaching positions and 33 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 349 research/teaching positions and 33 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 17, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 384 research/teaching positions and 34 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: 77 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 on methanol adulteration in drinking alcohol

In last week's C&EN, this fascinating article (article by Puja Changoiwala):

Starting on a Wednesday morning in June, 225 people were admitted to four hospitals in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Their symptoms included vomiting, stomachache, headache, diarrhea, and eye irritation.

To support the medical staff, the government brought in extra doctors from nearby medical schools. Yet 65 of the 225 patients did not survive. Their cause of death was the same—they had all consumed methanol-laced illicit liquor, purchased from local bootleggers.

“The victims included men and women; essentially, the poor. Most of them worked as manual or agricultural laborers, and they consumed the spurious liquor because it’s cheap,” says M. S. Prasanth, the top government official in the district of Kallakurichi, where the incident occurred. “It’s a problem controlling methanol. A detailed inquiry has been ordered by the Tamil Nadu government to probe the tragedy.”

It is remarkable to me how important the correct setting of public policy (such as tax policy)  is to prevent bad outcomes like methanol poisoning.* 

*Cases like this seem to indicate that societal norms such as 'don't adulterate potable items with poisons' come with sufficient societal wealth. What a grim comment on humanity.

C&EN: "SK Pharmteco to set up a new peptide plant"

In last week's C&EN, this news (article by Aayushi Pratap): 

SK Pharmteco, a contract development and manufacturing organization, plans to invest $260 million in a peptide and small-molecule drug production plant in Sejong, South Korea. The 12,600 m² facility will be the company’s fifth plant in that country. SK Pharmteco says the plant will be operational in late 2026 and add 300 employees to its workforce. The high global demand for peptides is fueled in part by the popularity of glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs, such as those developed by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company.

It's kind of wild to me how many new peptide facilities are being set up - terribly curious to know if they will all be running in a year or five.  

Have a great weekend

Some weeks cannot be busier. I hope you had a more peaceful week than me, but I'm fine. Hope you have a great weekend. See you on Monday! 

C&EN: "Some tattoo inks in Europe contain banned pigments"

This news via C&EN's Krystal Vasquez: 

A new study that analyzed 10 inks commonly used in Europe found that 9 of them were out of compliance with the European Union’s Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation (Analyst 2024, DOI: 10.1039/D4AN00793J).

Nine tattoo inks were found to be noncompliant with the European Union's Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals regulation.

Under REACH, makers of tattoo inks and permanent makeup are required to list the products’ ingredients and reduce or eliminate compounds that could pose a risk to human or environmental health. For example, REACH recently banned two pigments common in blue and green inks, pigment green 7 and pigment blue 15:3, that the EU had also previously banned in hair color.

Of the nine noncompliant inks, the researchers determined that five had minor discrepancies; these inks did not contain any banned pigments, but their labels didn’t list all their ingredients. But four inks contained the banned pigment green 7, and two contained a variant of pigment blue 15. The researchers were unable to conclusively determine using their main method of analysis, Raman spectroscopy, whether the variant was the banned pigment blue 15:3.

Pretty interesting analysis - read the whole thing. 

I guess I don't really understand why there is an expectation (even in Europe) that tattoo inks would follow EU chemical regulations. (Who enforces REACH in EU countries, anyway?) Do people looking for tattoos ask about this? Is there a German Tattoo Safety Agency? 

Job posting: Senior Scientist - Data Science, Analytical Research and Development (Onsite), Merck, Rahway, NJ

Via Twitter, this position at Merck: 

The Analytical Research and Development organization in Rahway, NJ is seeking a motivated Senior Scientist with technical expertise in data science and an ability to apply digital solutions to support our Company's pipeline of small molecule drugs, peptides, biologics, and vaccines. This role will allow the candidate to solve complex scientific challenges through application of data modeling, analysis, and visualization tools. 

The successful candidate is expected to collaboratively work with synthetic, computational, and analytical scientists, understand their problem statements, and collaboratively implement and apply data science solutions. The candidate must be able to work proactively and independently and influence decisions and solutions spanning a wide diversity of problem statements across our Company Research Laboratories. The role will require the candidate to network across a range of departments and effectively collaborate with stakeholders. The candidate should exemplify positive ways of working which support diversity, inclusion, and a positive culture. The chosen candidate should have a demonstrated ability to publish and present research, including an established track record of interaction with the broader scientific community.

 Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 313 research/teaching positions and 26 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 313 research/teaching positions and 26 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 3, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 329 research/teaching positions and 24 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: 57 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions

 The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 57 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions. 

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

Sprinkler head causes major chemical release at BioLab trichloroisocyanuric acid facility in Conyers, GA

Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Via the Atlanta Journal Constitution: 

A fire reignited Sunday at a chemical facility in Conyers, officials said, forcing the evacuations of local residents and leading to several road closures, including I-20.

Officials said the blaze reignited after being contained Sunday morning at BioLab on Old Covington Highway, the third such incident at the plant over the past seven years. Photos showed a massive plume of smoke in the sky that was visible from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport — about 30 miles away.

The fire started about 5 a.m. after a sprinkler head malfunctioned and mixed with a water-reactive chemical and wiring at the plant, Rockdale County fire Chief Marian McDaniel said during a press conference Sunday. She said they were working on removing the material away from the water source at the facility and that the fire was contained to the roof. There were employees inside the plant but no injuries have been reported at this time.

“Once we can get that chemical out of the building and allow it to burn off we’ll be in a much better shape,” McDaniel said.

...Over her seven years with the fire department, McDaniel said it was the third such incident of “this magnitude,” in which a product mixed with water and started a chemical reaction at the plant. She said the most recent incident likely happened in 2021. The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency (GEMA) said it issued a shelter in place order on behalf of Rockdale’s emergency management agency, but no timetable has been provided as to when the area will be safe.

I am rather chagrined to note that I was very aware of the BioLab facility in Lake Charles having a release in 2020, but not aware that the Conyers facility had two such releases in 2020 as well. (The CSB writeup of the Conyers releases starts on page 72, and seems to also involve inadvertent water exposure.) 

I am sure that the core problem is that "keep this stuff away from water" is harder than it seems, but I don't know, stopping major PR snafus and millions of dollars worth of preventable damage would seem to me to be important as well. I guess we'll have to read the new CSB report when it comes out. 

C&EN: "The unfulfilled dream of drug reshoring"

In this week's C&EN, a very worthwhile article by Aayushi Pratap:

...In response, the federal government began funding start-ups and groups like the API Innovation Center in an effort to increase domestic production of small-molecule APIs and finished medicines. But industry watchers say the private sector generally isn’t following the government’s lead. While drug companies and contract manufacturers are putting huge sums into US plants for newer treatment modalities such as biologics, peptides, and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), traditional small-molecule APIs are getting little investment.

Hui-Yin “Harry” Li, president of Wilmington PharmaTech, a Delaware-based API maker, says some biotechnology and large pharmaceutical firms are attempting to move the drug ingredients they need back to the US, though not many have been successful. “This is largely due to the limited domestic manufacturing capacity,” he says. His company, which already had three facilities in Newark, Delaware, added a pilot plant in 2020 to manufacture highly potent APIs and ADCs. But building such plants in the US remains costly and time consuming, according to Li...

Lots of good quotes within. Read the whole thing! 

Have a good weekend

Always an exciting week, especially a little before travel. Hope you had a good week, and a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

Janitor death, chemical spill, science building shutdown alarms New Mexico Highlands University

Via a Google News search on chemicals, this sad news from the Las Vegas Optic: 

Concerns about chemicals inside a New Mexico Highlands University science building have heightened following news of the death of a custodian who worked at the facility.

Kathy Jenkins, president of the NMHU Faculty Association and professor of exercise physiology at the university, said in an interview with The Optic on Sept. 21 that the custodian, Martin Lujan, worked at Ivan Hilton Science and Technology Building. 

Ivan Hilton was closed by the city of Las Vegas on Sept. 3 after campus police responded to an initial report of a chemical spill at the building. According to a press release provided by the university on Tuesday, Ivan Hilton was closed on Sept. 3 “as a result of issues with the storage and maintenance of chemicals … and it currently remains closed.”

Lujan passed away on Sept. 14.

Sounds like the chemicals initially involved may have included some biology fixatives (Carosafe, which is mostly propylene glycol and other organic compounds.)  

...Assistant Professor Michael Remke, who teaches courses in forestry and natural resources, said he became ill after working at Ivan Hilton.

“I was going home sick with headaches, with respiratory distress and irritation after smelling fumes while sitting and working in my office,” Remke said on Sept. 19. He said that on Aug. 12 he made a complaint with human resources, filed a formal worker’s compensation claim and filed a claim with the school’s Environmental Health and Safety Office about the symptoms he was having.

Remke said his complaints were not addressed directly; however, a cold room at Ivan Hilton was taped off. 

This cold room – a type of walk-in refrigerator on Ivan Hilton’s first floor – was being used to store chemicals, Remke said. He said it is not typical to store chemicals in a cold room and that such a space is more often used to store specimens and samples.

“I’m suspicious that … some of those chemicals were leaking, they were fuming, and the result was, as the cold room broke and heated up the fumes got really bad,” he said. “The fumes were seeping out of that environment (and) into the hallway on the first floor where they were impacting me in my office.”

Jenkins said she has received a list of chemicals that were found at Ivan Hilton. In an email to officials with AFT New Mexico, a union representing educators, as well as officials with National Education Association New Mexico, Jenkins said some of these chemicals include nitrobenzene, picric acid, radioactive thorium, cyanide and uncontained mercury.

I'm curious which chemicals were in the cold room. It sounds like Ivan Hilton had some chemical storage issues (which is probably true of 30% of American university science buildings.) My condolences to the family of Mr. Lujan. 

Job posting: Sr. Scientist - Chemistry Programs, Thermacell Repellents, Gainesville, FL

Via C&EN Jobs: 

THE COMPANY: Thermacell Repellents, Inc. (TRI) is a privately held company with a mission to liberate people who love the outdoors from the harmful effects of insects. Founded in 1999 and based outside of Boston in Bedford, Massachusetts, Thermacell makes the world’s leading spatial mosquito repellent and targeted tick control solutions.  Dedicated to delivering the best consumer experience, we have an ever-expanding product line for both adventure and home use.  We aim to change the way people repel insects, and through disruptive innovation, strong distribution across multiple retail channels, and a global footprint, our base of users is growing rapidly.   

TRI currently employs 125+ full time employees at our 4 locations: Bedford Massachusetts (Corporate HQ), Buford Georgia (Manufacturing & Distribution), Hampton FL (Science & Research Center).

POSITION PURPOSE: Thermacell is seeking a highly motivated Sr. Scientist – Chemistry Programs as part of the Science and Research team to lead all aspects of formula development, regulatory and other analytical chemistry testing, and provide technical expertise to other organizational areas. This new position will work at the Thermacell testing facility in Hampton, Florida under the daily supervision of and reporting to the Science Manager.

SKILLS REQUIRED: 

• Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemistry preferred.
• Minimum 5-years of successful formulation and/or analytical chemistry experience - experience in pesticide/bioactive product formulation preferred.
• Proven ability to develop laboratory procedures and protocols compliant with global regulatory standards; Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) experience is preferred.
• Familiarity and proficiency with standard chemistry and laboratory equipment (e.g. GC/MS, analytical scales, etc.).
• Proven ability to plan, organize, problem solve, coordinate, and complete multiple tasks.

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

There's a glut of old cocoa beans out there

 Via the Financial Times, this important news: 

A frantic hunt by chocolate manufacturers for high-grade cocoa has left a backlog of old, poor-quality beans lying in London’s warehouses, leading to a rare divergence in prices between the UK and the US.

Last month cocoa futures traded in New York rose strongly, peaking above $10,000 last week, while London prices fell, dipping below $6,400 earlier this month. Despite a sell-off in recent days, US prices are down just 3 per cent since the start of last month, compared with a 16 per cent drop for the UK contract.

Cocoa prices on both markets rallied strongly earlier this year, as poor weather and disease decimated crops in Ghana and Ivory Coast, where two-thirds of the world’s cocoa beans are grown, and as hedge funds piled into the market.

But the global shortage has led to a race among cocoa bean processors to secure high-quality beans, while shunning older varieties. Stocks of harvested beans are emptying, with US inventories at 15-year low and warehouses in London the lowest since 2021.

What is left in London is a “poisoned pill”, said Martijn Bron, who was global head of cocoa and chocolate trading for agricultural commodities giant Cargill until 2022.

The UK capital has historically been the market for large-scale purchasers of cocoa. But at the end of August more than one-quarter of the 54,650 metric tonnes of cocoa beans held in the London ICE exchange warehouses was more than three years old, according to exchange data. Moreover, almost 80 per cent of this older stock is bulk-stored beans grown in Cameroon, which is widely viewed in the industry as lower quality for making chocolate.

Never fear, chocolate manufacturers have solutions!: 

...Bigger companies may add a small amount of cheaper Cameroonian cocoa — which, with a better colour than taste, is normally used to make powders rather than chocolate — into a blend, but they are constrained by their own protocols on quality, said Thornton. Smaller or private companies, on the other hand, “have more flexibility to cut costs”, she said.

“This will change the taste, but to be honest, with milk chocolate, by the time you add the sugar and milk, you can almost get away with anything,” said Thornton.

It would be really interesting to understand who buys the lowest quality cocoa beans for their chocolate.

You can buy hydrofluorocarbons on Facebook Marketplace?

Via Bloomberg: 

The Biden administration has launched a new initiative to crack down on smugglers at US borders and ports. The concern isn’t drugs or counterfeit goods, though; it’s a refrigerant that’s also a dangerous greenhouse gas.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other agencies are arming themselves with new weapons — like AI tools that can pick out suspicious shipments — and rethinking ways of teaming up to combat the threat.

...The Biden administration made its first arrest under the law in March, charging a man in San Diego with smuggling HFCs allegedly bought in Mexico into the US. The indictment said Michael Hart concealed the refrigerants under a tarp and tools, then sold them on sites like Facebook Marketplace. The EPA has completed nine civil settlements linked to HFC importation in fiscal 2024, according to the agency.

Sounds like HFCs can fall off the back of a truck sometimes.

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 288 research/teaching positions and 22 teaching positions

The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 288 research/teaching positions and 22 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 September 26, 2023, the 2024 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 305 research/teaching positions and 20 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: 47 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions

The Chemical Engineering Faculty Jobs List (by Heather LeClerc and Daniyal Kiani) has 47 research/teaching positions and 11 teaching positions. 

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

BioCentury: Senate version of the BIOSECURE Act did not get added to NDAA

Via BioCentury's Steve Usdin, this update: 

Despite a setback from the Senate Armed Services Committee, which declined to add the Biosecure Act to the bipartisan consensus draft of a must-pass defense bill, the legislation could still reach President Joe Biden’s desk this year. 

Shares of contract development, research and manufacturing companies that would be directly affected by proposed restrictions on U.S. government contracting with Chinese biotech companies jumped Friday on the news that the Biosecure Act wasn’t included in a package of 93 amendments to the FY25 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

I can't read the whole article (nor is this move corroborated anywhere), but Usdin is well known, so this is likely true. I expected this bill to slow once it hit the Senate, so this tracks. 

C&EN: "Dow lowers expectations for the 3rd quarter"

In this week's C&EN (article by Alex Tullo): 

Unexpected factors have forced Dow to lower its guidance for third-quarter performance. The company expects sales of $10.6 billion for the period, down from the $11.1 billion it forecast in July. Dow also predicts that earnings before taxes will be $1.3 billion. The company says it suffered an unplanned outage at one of its ethylene crackers in Texas in late July and has been hit by higher input costs in Europe, which are pinching profit margins. But Dow is getting a lift from higher selling prices and lower feedstock costs in North America.

It would be interesting to understand (maybe from the annual report) exactly how much of that $500 million adjustment could be attributed to the cracker being down - guessing the pressure to get it back up must be pretty high...  

Have a good weekend

One of those weeks where it's mostly good news, I think. (We'll see.) Getting things done finally, and back into the groove (I hope.) Hope you had a good week, and that you'll have a great weekend. See you on Monday. 

Bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate showing up in fentanyl in the United States

Via the Los Angeles Times, this news: 

An industrial chemical used in plastic products has been cropping up in illegal drugs from California to Maine, a sudden and puzzling shift in the drug supply that has alarmed health researchers.

Its name is bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate, commonly abbreviated as BTMPS. The chemical is used in plastic for protection against ultraviolet rays, as well as for other commercial uses.

In an analysis released Monday, researchers from UCLA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and other academic institutions and harm reduction groups collected and tested more than 170 samples of drugs that had been sold as fentanyl in Los Angeles and Philadelphia this summer. They found roughly a quarter of the drugs contained BTMPS.

Researchers called it the most sudden change in the U.S. illegal drug supply in recent history, based on chemical prevalence. They found that BTMPS sometimes dramatically exceeded the amount of fentanyl in drug samples and, in some cases, had made up more than a third of the drug sample.

It was also a growing presence in fentanyl over the summer: In June, none of the L.A. fentanyl samples tested by the team contained BTMPS, the analysis found. By August, it was detected in 41% of them.

Here's the Medrxiv preprint. I don't think the material is particularly bad for you, but I suspect it's not particularly good for you either (especially if you smoke it.) 

I know this is remarking on criminals being criminals, but it is distressing to me how impure drugs of abuse are, and how the whole supply chain seems to rely on "any old white powder" and so now they're using a random UV stabilizer to extend their product. Sad!