Thursday, April 30, 2020

31 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 19 new positions for April 29 and 12 new positions for April 26.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company list, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers. 

Bureau of Economic Analysis: first quarter 2020 down 4.8%


From the Bureau of Economic Analysis:
Gross Domestic Product, 1st Quarter 2020 (Advance Estimate) 
Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 (table 1), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2019, real GDP increased 2.1 percent. 
The GDP estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see "Source Data for the Advance Estimate" on page 2). The "second" estimate for the first quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on May 28, 2020.
 Welp, that's bad. Best wishes to all of us. 

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Chemical Activity Barometer fell 5.5% in April; chief economist says "consistent with a recession"

WASHINGTON (April 28, 2020) – The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), fell 5.5 percent in April on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis following a downwardly revised 2.9 percent decline in March. On a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis, the barometer fell 7.3 percent in April.  
The unadjusted data shows a 6.7 percent decline in April following an 8.9 percent decline in March and a 1.0 percent decline in February. The diffusion index slumped from 47 percent to 35 percent in April. The diffusion index marks the number of positive contributors relative to the total number of indicators monitored. The CAB reading for March was revised downward by 1.04 points and that for February was revised upward by 0.07 points. 
“The latest CAB reading is consistent with a recession,” said Kevin Swift, chief economist at ACC. “The declines of April and March are the most pronounced, pervasive and persistent in the post-World War II period.” 
The CAB has four main components, each consisting of a variety of indicators: 1) production; 2) equity prices; 3) product prices; and 4) inventories and other indicators.
Production-related indicators generally declined in April. Trends in construction-related resins, pigments and related performance chemistry were generally negative. Plastic resins used in packaging and for consumer and institutional applications were mixed. Performance chemistry was negative and U.S. exports were weak. Equity prices are improving. Product and input prices were negative. Inventory and other supply chain indicators were negative. 
The CAB is a leading economic indicator derived from a composite index of chemical industry activity. Due to its early position in the supply chain, chemical industry activity has been found to consistently lead the U.S. economy’s business cycle, and this barometer can be used to determine turning points and likely trends in the broader economy. Month-to-month movements can be volatile, so a three-month moving average of the CAB reading is provided. This provides a more consistent and illustrative picture of national economic trends.
Well, that's no good. It will be important to watch the CAB to tell us when the economy comes back on the upswing... (But we'll get the official 1st quarter estimate Wednesday morning, so that will be important confirmaton of what this looks like.) 

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Did you get a faculty offer pulled because of COVID-19?

I am attempting to understand how COVID-19 may have impacted faculty hiring for the 2019-2020 season. If you were/are a faculty candidate, and you have had an offer recinded due to COVID-19-related issues, please contact me at chemjobber@gmail.com. Confidentiality guaranteed. 

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 556 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 556 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

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

On April 30, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 582 positions.

Open threads: firstsecondthirdfourthfifthsixthseventheighth, ninthtenthThe current thread is the eleventh.

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

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 24 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 24 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:
  • Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
  • Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
  • and for an institution in Canada or the United States
Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Monday, April 27, 2020

Pennsylvania polypropylene plant "live-in" concludes

Cool Washington Post story covering the Braskem America plant in Marcus Hook, PA that did a 28-day live-in (previously covered on the blog here):
In what they called a “live-in” at the factory, the undertaking was just one example of the endless ways that Americans in every industry have uniquely contributed to fighting coronavirus. The 43 men went home Sunday after each working 12-hour shifts all day and night for a month straight, producing tens of millions of pounds of the raw materials that will end up in face masks and surgical gowns worn on the front lines of the pandemic. 
No one told them they had to do it, Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said. All of the workers volunteered, hunkering down at the plant to ensure no one caught the virus outside as they sought to meet the rocketing demand for their key product, polypropylene, which is needed to make various medical and hygienic items. Braskem’s plant in Neal, W.Va., is doing a second live-in now.
Glad to hear these folks getting the media coverage they deserve. 

Problems in the meat supply chain

I don't often cover food production on the blog, but I didn't know the level of consolidation in the meatpacking industry. Via the New York Times (emphasis mine):
After decades of consolidation, there are about 800 federally inspected slaughterhouses in the United States, processing billions of pounds of meat for food stores each year. But a relatively small number of them account for the vast majority of production. In the cattle industry, a little more than 50 plants are responsible for as much as 98 percent of slaughtering and processing in the United States, according to Cassandra Fish, a beef analyst. 
Shutting down one plant, even for a few weeks, is like closing an airport hub. It backs up hog and beef production across the country, crushes prices paid to farmers and eventually leads to months of meat shortages. 
“Slaughterhouses are a critical bottleneck in the system,” said Julie Niederhoff, an associate professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University. “When they go down, we are in trouble.”
This virus is revealing all sorts of issues in supply chains. It will be interesting to see how supply chain management is taught in subsequent years... 

Friday, April 24, 2020

Have a good weekend



Well, folks, we made it another week. I hope that you have a peaceful weekend, and see you on Monday. 

LyondellBasell, Covestro downgrading earnings for 2020; Moody's predicts 10% decline in earnings

Chemical and Engineering News' Alex Tullo has an update from the chemical sector. It's not looking great: 
The first post–COVID-19 pandemic financial results are starting to trickle in from chemical makers, and they aren’t good. Indications are that 2020 will be a year of sharp declines. 
LyondellBasell Industries expects its net earnings for the first quarter will land between $110 million and $180 million when it puts out final numbers on May 1. Last quarter, before the pandemic hit, its net was $612 million. 
The company says its major sites are up and running and that packaging and medical markets have been robust. However, it did idle production of plastic compounds used in auto manufacturing. 
LyondellBasell has been taking money-saving measures such as reducing inventories and slowing capital spending, including the construction of a massive propylene oxide/tert-butyl alcohol plant in Texas. The company expects that 2020 capital expenditures will be down 20% from its original estimate of $2.4 billion. 
Preliminary first-quarter figures from the German polyurethane chemical supplier Covestro show a 4.1% decline in sales volumes. It expects earnings before taxes to fall to $277 million, compared to $303 million in the previous quarter. 
Covestro expects earnings before taxes to be between $1.1 billion and $1.6 billion for the year, , compared to more than $1.7 billion in 2019. Like Lyondell, the company is throttling back capital spending by around 20%. 
In a new report, Moody’s Investor Service says it expects chemical industry earnings before taxes to decline by 10% on average during 2020. Some sectors will be affected more than others, Moody’s says. For example, coatings might be bolstered because of lower raw material costs, but US petrochemical makers will bear the brunt of lower oil prices...
I don't understand how the chemical industry taking a 10% hit in earnings won't hit 1) overall employment 2) entry-level R&D employment or 3) wages overall. But we'll see how things go. Best wishes to us all. 

Thursday, April 23, 2020

Data from Organic Chemistry Jobs

Brian at Organic Chemistry Jobs has done a phenomenal job of collating industry jobs in synthetic chemistry for many years, and he was kind enough to share his data, which I publish here: 
2017
January: 101 positions
February: 68 positions
March: 97 positions
April: 61 positions
May : 52 positions
June: 68 positions
July: 95 positions
August: 77 positions
September: 64 positions
October: 116 positions
November: 61 positions
December: 53 positions
Total for 2017: 913 positions 
2018
January: 76 positions
February: 65 positions
March: 87 positions
April: 78 positions
May : 73 positions
June: 91 positions
July: 101 positions
August: 60 positions
September: 84 positions
October: 97 positions
November: 103 positions
December: 76 positions
Total for 2018: 991 positions 
2019
January: 140 positions
February: 99 positions
March: 122 positions
April: 82 positions
May : 111 positions
June: 89 positions
July: 91 positions
August: 114 positions
September: 84 positions
October: 111 positions
November: 42 positions
December: 96 positions
Total for 2019: 1181 positions 
2020
January: 72 positions
February: 115 positions
March: 82 positions
It will be interesting to see how 2020 shapes up - I suspect that we will see a drop, but here's hoping that we won't. Thanks to Brian for this helpful data. 

17 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 17 new positions for April 22.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company list, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

ACC: US chemical manufacturing could see job losses of 28,000 this year

"The US economy, now under a wide-ranging shutdown due to the novel coronavirus, is likely to shrink 4% this year. And US chemical manufacturing will decline by a similar amount, according to a forecast from the American Chemistry Council, the industry’s main trade group. In response, the ACC says, chemical firms will cut jobs and hold off on business investment. 
The ACC estimates that US chemical output will fall by around 3.3% in 2020 if shutdowns are lifted before the end of June, but output could drop by 6.5% if shutdowns last through the fourth quarter. The figures do not include pharmaceuticals. In December, the association had projected output to rise slightly this year. 
The decline is due to not only public health-motivated shutdowns in the US, but also to unprecedented moves by other governments to restrict the activities of business and consumers.... 
...While employment in the chemical industry will not suffer to the same degree as in retail, restaurant, and other service industries, ACC expects chemical job losses could total 28,000, or 5.1% of the workforce, in 2020. The cuts would reverse the industry’s 3-year run of job expansion. 
And while it is not yet clear how the job cuts would be distributed among production, R&D, managerial, and administrative roles, overall business investment is expected to decline this year, the group says.
Worth noting that chemist positions would be a small fraction of those 28,000 positions, but even one thousand chemists would be a major blow... 

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

“Keep Your Job, Ken!” Part 7: Other


 by Professor Kenneth Hanson, Florida State University

As a conclusion to the “Keep Your Job, Ken!” series I offer a few random, additional suggestions for new assistant professors.

1) Seek out other young faculty to share the journey with. As I noted in my Memoir of a First Year Assistant Professor the transition from postdoc to faculty member can be a lonely journey. Family is an important support network but there is something to be said about talking to someone who is experiencing the same things. As such, I encourage you to actively seek out and make friends with junior faculty in your own department or elsewhere in the university. Having someone who can sympathize as you vent can really help you feel less alone.  While your senior colleagues can be great they are at a different point in their lives/careers and it is a massive relief to be able to speak to someone candidly without fearing the political or social ramifications of accidentally offending a senior colleague. Likewise, while you are only a few years separated from them, to maintain professionalism you should not be casually hanging out with graduate students and postdocs. The power dynamic makes non-work related student-professor interactions inherently problematic.

Did you get a faculty offer pulled because of COVID-19?

I am attempting to understand how COVID-19 may have impacted faculty hiring for the 2019-2020 season. If you were/are a faculty candidate, and you have had an offer recinded due to COVID-19-related issues, please contact me at chemjobber@gmail.com. Confidentiality guaranteed. 

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 556 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 556 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

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

On April 23, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 578 positions.

Open threads: firstsecondthirdfourthfifthsixthseventheighth, ninthtenthThe current thread is the eleventh.

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

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 24 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 24 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:
  • Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
  • Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
  • and for an institution in Canada or the United States
Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Monday, April 20, 2020

Federal Reserve Bank official: US GDP could shrink 5%

Well, this is bad:
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker told Yahoo Finance on Friday that the U.S. economy should brace for “very bad” data in coming quarters, predicting a sharp contraction in U.S. GDP for 2020 amid the COVID-19 lockdown. 
In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Harker said his economic forecast can change depending on how quickly medical sciences can come up with ways to address the coronavirus. 
“If that happens sooner, the damage is less, but right now we’re looking at year-over-year, probably around 5% hit on GDP,” he said...
Well, here's hoping he's wrong (I'm not holding my breath.) 

COVID-19 and supply chains

...Separate from medical supplies specific to COVID-19, a longer-term disruption of China’s pharmaceutical and medical exports could increase the cost of everyday drugs and routine medical procedures in the United States. This could happen as it becomes harder to import APIs for common drugs and components for medical devices. 
According to FDA officials, in 2018, China ranked second among countries that export drugs and biologics to the United States by import line (accounting for 13.4% of U.S. imports of those products). However, FDA states it is not able to determine the volume of APIs that China is manufacturing given the complexity of the supply chain and gaps in what pharmaceutical companies are required to disclose about their inputs. 
China is also a leading supplier of APIs in global supply chains for painkillers, diabetes
medicines, and antibiotics, meaning a slowdown in API exports from China could increase cost pressures faced by U.S. drug manufacturers. For example, China accounts for 52% of U.S. imports of penicillin, 90% of tetracycline, and 93% of chloramphenicol. 
On February 27, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn announced that a manufacturer of an unspecified human drug informed FDA of a shortage the drug’s supply related to a Chinese API manufacturer affected by COVID-19. Because information disclosed to FDA regarding drug shortages is considered proprietary, FDA did not disclose the name of the drug in question, but did note that alternatives exist for patient use. 
China’s role as the primary supplier of APIs to global manufacturers of generic pharmaceuticals, particularly in India, is likely to increase overall costs of generic pharmaceuticals for consumers in the United States in the short-to-medium term. The outbreak of COVID-19 in India could also affect the availability of generic pharmaceuticals in the United States. India, which supplies approximately 40% of generic pharmaceuticals used in the United States, imports nearly 70% of its APIs from China. In March 2020, India imposed export restrictions on several drugs whose
supply chains rely on China, leading to fears of potential global shortages of generic drugs that have since escalated after India announced a nationwide 21-day lockdown.
It will be fascinating to see if pharma changes its supply chains in response to all of these events. 

Friday, April 17, 2020

Have a good weekend



Hope you have a peaceful, healthy weekend. See you on Monday. 

Employers revoking offers to interns

Via Boston's WGBH, this sad (but unsurprising) news:
...According to an April poll of 234 employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a professional association for college career services, 12 percent of the employers surveyed are revoking offers to interns and 2 percent are revoking offers to full-term recruits. Twenty-two percent of surveyed employers reported they are considering revoking offers. The companies that have cancelled internships span a myriad of industries and include NPR and Yelp, the crowd-sourced review site. 
“I keep joking to my friends that I need to stop looking at LinkedIn because it's just become too sad with people who've had offers rescinded,” said Boston University senior Sarah Bickford...
In the article, this useful link to a crowdsourced list of companies (including some chemical/pharma companies). Best wishes to those students, and to all of us. 

Thursday, April 16, 2020

25 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 16 new positions for April 15 and 9 new positions for April 13.

Don't forget to check out the Common Organic Chemistry company list, a very helpful resource for organic chemists looking for potential employers. 

Daily Pump Trap: 4/16/20 edition

A very few of the positions posted at Chemical and Engineering News:

Modesto, CA: E&J Gallo is looking for a Ph.D. chemist (4 years experience) to be a chemistry research scientist. They're also looking for an experienced B.S. chemist to be an associate research scientist.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

They also serve who only make polypropylene

In a move to fight the coronavirus pandemic, 46 Braskem America employees are living at the firm's polypropylene resin plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., for 28 days to ensure there is no interruption in production of much-needed material for medical supplies. 
PP resin made by Braskem at the Philadelphia-area plant is used in fabric for N95 masks, hospital gowns and hoods, sanitary wipes and similar products. Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said that in the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis, the firm put social distancing and work-from-home initiatives in place while a crisis management team reviewed operations. 
But Braskem also wanted to keep its manufacturing employees working at the plant.
The live-in idea was proposed to halt the daily movement of employees to and from the facility, potentially bringing the virus into the plant or taking it back to high-risk family members. During the 28-day period, Braskem is increasing wages while also supplying beds, kitchens, groceries, internet access and iPads. Employees are working 12-hour shifts in two groups around the clock.
These are the sacrifices that won't get talked about very much, but I admire the folks who are doing this just the same. 

UPDATE: removed "small" from before "sacrifices

Ask Dr. Safety: today, Wednesday, April 15, 9 PM Eastern

From the inbox, this item from friend of the blog Harry Elston:
Wednesday, April 15th, 9PM Eastern (8PM Central, 7PM Mountain, 6PM Pacific) we will be having a second round of Ask Dr. Safety on Google Meet. 
Subject: Recovery and Contingency planning for post-COVID-19 activities
Email harry@midwestchemsafety.com for log-on information.

Anyone out there a COBOL programmer?

Via The Verge, a story on state unemployment systems that still run on COBOL:
...Colorado — like most states and territories across the country — is experiencing record unemployment numbers. But the state’s unemployment system is built on aging software running on a decades-old coding language known as COBOL. Over the years, COBOL programmers have aged out of the workforce, forcing states to scramble for fluent coders in times of national crisis. 
A survey by The Verge found that at least 12 states still use COBOL in some capacity in their unemployment systems. Alaska, Connecticut, California, Iowa, Kansas, and Rhode Island all run on the aging language. According to a spokesperson from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, the state was actually only a month or two away from “migrating into a new environment and away from COBOL,” before the COVID-19 pandemic hit....
(If you're reading this blog and know an ancient programming language, it's probably FORTRAN.)

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

“Keep Your Job, Ken!” Part 6: Teaching


by Professor Kenneth Hanson, Florida State University

 

Part 6 of the “Keep Your Job, Ken!” series is dedicated to teaching. While we regularly serve as teachers in the lab, this section is focused on the traditional, classroom meaning of teaching. If you are at a research focused institution and not a PUI, the reality is that teaching is not a high priority. We are not hired for our ability to teach nor do we have formal training as teachers. It is, however, a necessary part of the job that, according to the effort statement I sign every semester, takes up ~25% of my effort. Unfortunately, it is one of those things that many of us enjoy doing but is not a priority. Doing it really well does not necessarily help but doing it poorly can definitely hurt. With that in mind, most of the advice below focuses on maximizing your efficiency and effectiveness in teaching without compromising your research.

1) Find the class that no one wants to teach and teach it. Teaching a class for the first time is difficult and time consuming, but each subsequent round becomes easier and easier. With that in mind, your ideal scenario is to minimize the number of different classes you teach. My strategy has been to find a class that nobody wants to teach and/or a class with several sections each semester. Regarding the former, there are certain, upper level courses that are taught once a year by someone who has been teaching it for the past 20 years. They and/or the department might let you teach it when you first arrive but you can pretty much guarantee that you are going to have to fight to teach it repeatedly. Alternatively, there may be a class no one likes, that falls out of current expertise, or where there are enough sections to accommodate everyone who’s interested. Regardless of the cause, this is the class you can claim and teach several times before tenure. For me this ended up being General Chemistry 2. Sure, it is a 250-person class but there are consistently several sections available as most of my colleagues don’t like teaching large classes. The large class can be a shock to the system but after teaching it a few times I can largely operate on cruise control. I did also end up teaching a few different graduate courses but my fallback was always Gen Chem 2.

2) Don’t reinvent the wheel. When I learned which class I’d be teaching, the first thing I did was walk around with a USB stick, visit every faculty member who had taught it previously, and ask them for their course content. Everyone I spoke with was willing to share. While I did not use all or even most of the content, it was an extremely helpful foundation for generating lecture slides, test questions, homework, etc. Most of the standard text books also offer a collection of lecture slides, images, and questions to choose from. Likewise, most classes have been taught countless times by thousands of different people, many of whom are good at it. Many useful lectures, questions, and other things are just one internet query away. To give back to the community I have made all of my class PowerPoints available on my group website.

3) In terms of lecture notes and/or PowerPoint slides, do them well the first time. Just like supplementary grant materials, your semester to semester course content will largely be the same. As such, it is worthwhile to generate quality content the first time around. It takes more time up front but will save a lot of time in the long run.

4) If you can, use a separate email account for teaching. Even if your syllabus, timeline, lectures, etc. are perfectly clear, you will inevitably get lots of emails. This is one of the most difficult things when teaching a large class. It’s important to respond in a timely manner since one of the biggest complaints sent to the chair and that appear in semester-end evaluations is that “the professor doesn’t reply to emails.” You also don’t want to lose important research emails (e.g. speaking invitations, invitations to review, grant acceptance/rejections, etc.) in the bombardment. The best way I found to deal with the volume is to use two separate email accounts, one for teaching and another for everything else. Since both are university business you won’t be able to just set up a @yahoo.com or @gmail.com account. This was easy for me because I have separate departmental and university email accounts. For others though you might have to ask to set up a separate email address but presumably your institution will be able to accommodate you. Once established, you can use the time management strategies mentioned previously and block out time to exclusively address teaching emails. You will also want to start setting up an email reply archive that allows you to quickly copy and paste most of your responses (see next post in the series).

5) Clearly define course content, expectations, grade criteria, and timelines. Students will put up with a lot (i.e. poor lectures, difficult tests, hard work, etc.) as long as they know exactly what to expect. The biggest complaint that students send the dean or department chairs, even more so than poor email response practices, is frustration over a lack of course organization and clarity. For example, instructors changing their grading criteria is the primary cause for students challenging grades. And rightfully so. For example, we had one instructor change their grading policy mid-semester  from dropping the lowest-test score to replacing the lowest score with a percent of the final. For most this had very little effect on their grade or position in the class but by changing the rules mid-stream they lost their students’ trust. Dealing with grade challenges can take a lot of time and effort so it is not worth it. Just make a plan and stick with it.   

6) Write your first undergraduate exams much ‘easier’ than you think they should be. Our lens for teaching, exams, homework, etc. is largely shaped by our own experience as students. The problem is that individuals who become chemistry professors were most likely exemplary and highly motivated students that thrived in a traditional classroom setting. However, the other 99% of the students in your classes are not you. Not only that, writing a quality exam and quality questions is a learned skill. Are you assessing what you think you’re assessing? How long will the test take the average student? Are there alternative ways to interpret the wording of a test question? These questions are difficult to answer prior to giving the exam and even more difficult if you have never written an exam before. Not only that but even changing a single word in the question can sway the outcome by 5-10%. Since a low first test score can be devastating to the students moral, your evaluations, and your drop/ withdrawal/ fail rates, it is much better to default on giving an ‘easier’ exam. I suspect you’ll find the class average will be much lower than you thought it would be. Worst case scenario the test is too easy and you can compensate later with more difficult exams.

7) Use teaching release wisely. Most research-focused chemistry programs will give one or two semesters of teaching release to new faculty. With two semesters of release time available to me the most common advice I received was to use one early to get the lab up and running. Then, use the second later for the tenure tour (see my previous post). If only one semester release is available, I strongly feel that the former is more important than the latter. Even while teaching it is possible to squeeze in several trips without missing much class time. However, getting research up and running while simultaneously teaching a class for the first time can be very challenging. If contemplating between the fall versus the spring of the first year, I recommend waiting until the Spring too because most of the first Fall semester will be spent purchasing and waiting for delivery. This is especially true for major equipment that must go through weeks (or months) of the sole-source/bidding process. And even after purchasing, equipment can take several months to arrive and be installed. Also, depending on the graduate student rotation/ decision timeline, you likely won’t officially have group members until the end of the first semester. Taking release in the spring then becomes ideal for setting everything up and starting to train your students. It also segues directly into the summer where there’s no teaching and you can direct all of your attention to research.

Did you get a faculty offer pulled because of COVID-19?

I am attempting to understand how COVID-19 may have impacted faculty hiring for the 2019-2020 season. If you were/are a faculty candidate, and you have had an offer recinded due to COVID-19-related issues, please contact me at chemjobber@gmail.com. Confidentiality guaranteed. 

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 554 research/teaching positions and 79 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 554 research/teaching positions and 79 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

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

On April 9, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 578 positions.

Open threads: firstsecondthirdfourthfifthsixthseventheighth, ninthtenth. The current thread is the eleventh.

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

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 24 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 24 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:
  • Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
  • Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
  • and for an institution in Canada or the United States
Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Monday, April 13, 2020

UK coronavirus test lag due to lack of chemical industry?

Professor Sir Harry Burns, who served as chief medical officer for Scotland from 2005 to 2014, said the failure to quickly scale up the volume of coronavirus testing was primarily down to the lack of a domestic pharmaceutical supply chain and lab capacity. 
By the end of last week, there were only around 20,000 tests for coronavirus taking place every day, against a UK government target of 100,000 by the end of this month. Ministers have blamed the difficulty in securing enough of the necessary chemical reagents amid a global spike in demand triggered by the crisis. 
In Germany, which is home to global pharmaceutical and chemical giants including Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim and BASF, as many as 100,000 tests are already being carried out every day, allowing coronavirus hotspots to be identified more quickly. The country has so far posted one of the lowest trajectories for the curve of virus deaths, with a toll on Friday of 2,373. 
...Asked what the key factor limiting testing capacity in the UK is, Burns pointed to “the decline in the chemicals industry, which in the 50s and 60s, the 70s and 80s even, was an important part of the British economy...
...He highlighted the closure of a major chemicals industry hub in Paisley, which saw hundreds of skilled chemicals jobs leave the area. “That whole area, which used to be a huge campus, was flattened and it’s now private housing.”
I'm pretty skeptical about this, but it's an interesting idea, and it's good that people recognize that there is a tie-in between the core chemicals industry and advanced pharma/biotech. (...something tells me that, per capita, the size of the UK and the German chemical industries aren't really that different? I dunno.) 

Friday, April 10, 2020

View From Your Hood: exempt from stay at home edition

Credit: Tim
From friend of the blog Tim:

"That's the National Nuclear Science Museum off to the left there, Sandia range to the right. Stay safe. -- Tim"

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in (with a caption and preference for name/anonymity, please) at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.)

Fast Funding for COVID-19 Science

Via Twitter: 
Science funding mechanisms are too slow in normal times and may be much too slow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast Grants are an effort to correct this. 
If you are a scientist at an academic institution currently working on a COVID-19 related project and in need of funding, we invite you to apply for a Fast Grant. Fast Grants are $10k to $500k and decisions are made in under 48 hours. If we approve the grant, you'll receive payment as quickly as your university can receive it.
Link here. Best wishes to those interested.  

An unusual contribution from an unusual contributor

Mr. Martin Shkreli, in a recent paper:
The industry response to COVID-19 is inadequate. All biopharmaceutical companies should be responding with all resources to combat this health emergency. Donations from these very valuable companies do not go far enough. The biopharmaceutical industry has a large braintrust of talent that is not working on this problem as companies have deprioritized or even abandoned infectious disease research. Medicinal chemists, structural biologists, enzymologists and assay development and research biology departments at EVERY pharmaceutical company should be put to work until COVID-19 is no more. 
I am asking for a brief furlough (3 months) to assist in research work on COVID-19. Being released to the post-COVID world is no solace to even the incarcerated. As a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates, filed numerous INDs and clinical trial applications, I am one of the few executives experienced in ALL aspects of drug development from molecule creation and hypothesis generation, to preclinical assessments and clinical trial design/target engagement demonstration, and manufacturing/synthesis and global logistics and deployment of medicines.
Via STAT, a funny comment. "Shkreli’s work is “not crazy, but neither is it particularly groundbreaking, either, at least to my eyes,” said Derek Lowe, a medicinal chemist employed by a pharmaceutical company and a well-known drug industry blogger."

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Hiring freezes, anyone?

Does anyone know of industrial or academic hiring freezes?

Here's an enormous list of academic institutions which are undergoing a hiring freeze, by Karen Kelsky of The Professor Is In. 

I haven't heard too many rumblings from industrial organizations, but I imagine we'll hear about this after industrial quarterly results start rolling in this month. Please comment below or e-mail in (confidentiality guaranteed) at chemjobber@gmail.com.  

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

“Keep Your Job, Ken!” Part 5: Gaining Prominence


by Professor Kenneth Hanson, Florida State University

The next post in my “Keep Your Job, Ken!" series focuses on gaining prominence and brand recognition. Having your name and independent research recognized by others is pivotal for getting speaking/journal invitations, funding, awards, and ultimately positive tenure letters. Some prominence as a graduate student and postdoc as well as having a bunch of prior co-workers in academia helps but it is still important to generate an independent identity and brand. Below are some of the strategies I employed and/or stumbled upon to develop the Hanson Research Group brand.

1) Prioritize small, topic specific conferences over large ones. Your travel funds are limited so it is important to pick and choose conferences wisely. Don’t rely exclusively on ACS, MRS, APS, or other large meetings to gain prominence. Given their size and diversity, they are very good for catching up with people you already know, but difficult to really get to know someone new. And if we are going to be honest, unless you are involved in a special/invited session or you follow a giant in your field, there are usually less than 20 people in the room for your presentation. On the other hand, smaller conferences like a Gordon conference give you no choice but to spend time with the same group of people for a week. It is amazing how many people you get to know in that span of time. Even if you are only presenting a poster you will likely get a lot of foot traffic and questions since almost everyone is in your field. And, best case scenario, at some conferences the best posters are selected for short talks later in the week which can further boost your visibility. 

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 554 research/teaching positions and 79 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 554 research/teaching positions and 79 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

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

On March 5, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 573 positions.

Open threads: firstsecondthirdfourthfifthsixthseventheighth, ninth. The current thread is the tenth. This will be the eleventh thread, starting noon Eastern on April 7, 2020.

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

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 24 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 24 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:
  • Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
  • Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
  • and for an institution in Canada or the United States
Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

Want to chat about staff scientist positions? Try the open thread.

Monday, April 6, 2020

Cool story about chemists making hand sanitizer

I bet a lot of chemists are passing the time this way:
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Rowan University chemistry professor and his wife killed two birds with one stone this week, by doing something good and temporarily curing boredom.  
Jim Grinias is an assistant professor of chemistry at Rowan and his wife Kaitlin is a chemist at a pharmaceutical company, and they were both catching cabin fever. 
"You know, after being stuck in the house for a couple of weeks, we both had the itch to get back in the lab a little bit," Grinias admitted. So they dropped off their son at grandma’s house for a couple of days and got to work making hand sanitizer, using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recipe and raw materials that were donated by the school. 
"It was 200 proof ethanol, so effectively 100%, as pure as you can really buy. And then we had some hydrogen peroxide and then glycerol, which is a thick goopy liquid that is a thickening agent," Grinias explained.
Here's some LSU chemists doing the same thing. Readers, what are you up to these days? 

All Division of Organic Chemistry videos made public

Via random clicking: 
As a result of the number of people that are now sequestered at home away from work and the laboratory, the Division of Organic Chemistry has decided to immediately release all of our video content that has been for members only. The nonpublic content includes 33 NOS Lecture Videos from NOS2013, NOS2015, NOS2017 and NOS2019; and 5 archived Virtual Symposia from 2018–2019. 
Additionally, we want to take this opportunity to remind you of our other collections of video content such as the Eminent Organic Chemistry Videos (timeless interviews of 20 organic chemists by Jeffrey Seeman in 2008) and our small collection of historic organic chemistry lectures by Berson, Woodward, Wotiz, and Heck.
There's quite a few good ones here - go take a look.  

Saturday, April 4, 2020

Unemployment rate rises to 4.4% for March

Credit: Calculated Risk, annotated by Chemjobber
News from the Bureau of Labor Statistics - note that the reference week was the week of March 12, prior to most stay-at-home orders:
Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 701,000 in March, and the unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The changes in these measures reflect the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and efforts to contain it. Employment in leisure and hospitality fell by 459,000, mainly in food services and drinking places. Notable declines also occurred in health care and social assistance, professional and business services, retail trade, and construction.  
This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings by industry. Note that the March survey reference periods for both surveys predated many coronavirus-related business and school closures that occurred in the second half of the month.
For the chemical manufacturing subsector, in February 2020, 850,400 people were employed. In March 2020, 847,400, a loss of 3000 jobs. Note that this number does not represent chemists only, rather employees of companies in the chemical manufacturing subsector. 

Friday, April 3, 2020

Have a good weekend



One of my favorite Copland pieces. I hope you have a peaceful weekend. 

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Daily Pump Trap: 4/1/20

London, Shanghai, New York or Berlin: Nature Communications looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be a journal editor.

Edwards, CA: AFRL looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be a principal research scientist for propellant formulation. Salary: $119,354 - $168,668.

Burlington, MA: MilliporeSigma searching for a M.S. chemist to be a technical applications scientist. Salary: "Up $110,000 per year base +6% bonus"

Research Triangle Park, NC: EPA's Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure searching for a postdoctoral fellow.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Goldman Sachs projections on Tuesday: real GDP falls 6.2% in 2020

This is going to be a moving target, but it's good to be aware. Via Calculated Risk (a favorite blog that I was glad to stop reading for a while), Goldman Sachs economic projections as of Tuesday, March 31: 
We are making further significant adjustments to our GDP and employment estimates. We now forecast real GDP growth of -9% in Q1 and -34% in Q2 in qoq annualized terms (vs. -6% and -24% previously) and see the unemployment rate rising to 15% by midyear (vs. 9% previously). However, we have upgraded our expectations for the recovery after midyear, with a 19% qoq annualized GDP gain in Q3 (vs. 12% previously). Our estimates imply that a bit more than half of the near-term output decline is made up by year end and that real GDP falls 6.2% in 2020 on an annual-average basis (vs. 3.7% in our previous forecast).
It's gonna be a big hole.  

American Chemistry Council: "Chemical Activity Barometer Falls Sharply In March"

Credit: American Chemistry Council
The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), fell 2.6 percent in March on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis following a downwardly revised 0.1 percent gain in February. On a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis, the barometer fell 1.3 percent in March. 
The unadjusted data shows an 8.0 percent decline in March following a 1.1 percent decline in February and a 1.2 percent gain in January. The unadjusted decline in March is the largest in the post-World War II period. The diffusion index slumped to 27 percent in March. The diffusion index marks the number of positive contributors relative to the total number of indicators monitored. The CAB reading for February was revised downward by 1.13 points and that for January was revised downward by 0.38 points. 
"The CAB signals recessionary conditions in U.S. commerce," said Kevin Swift, chief economist at ACC. "ACC believes a recession to be occurring when the barometer declines for three consecutive months and falls 3.0 percent or more from the peak. As of March, the CAB has declined for two straight months and fallen 8.9 percent from the peak." 
The CAB has four main components, each consisting of a variety of indicators: 1) production; 2) equity prices; 3) product prices; and 4) inventories and other indicators.
Production-related indicators generally declined in March. Trends in construction-related resins, pigments and related performance chemistry were generally negative. Plastic resins used in packaging and for consumer and institutional applications were generally negative. Performance chemistry was negative and U.S. exports were weak. Equity prices collapsed, but are improving this week. Product and input prices declined. Inventory and other supply chain indicators were negative.
Well, that's not good news. Best wishes to us all.