The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 238 research/teaching positions and 23 teaching assistant professor positions.
Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.In 2020-2021, 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." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.
On December 23, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 504 research/teaching positions and 44 teaching faculty positions.
To see trending, go to Andrew Spaeth's visualization of previous years' list.
Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This will be the third open thread, which will start at 12 PM Eastern on December 22, 2021. Click here for the second thread, which closed on December 22. Don't forget to click on "load more" below the comment box for the full thread.
Has anyone heard from Carnegie Mellon after the Zoom interviews? Reposting here since posts got hidden in the old thread.
ReplyDeleteit's my understanding that they just started scheduling full interviews.
DeleteIf you want to see all the comments on the last thread, click on the "load more" button underneath the comment box.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone heard anything about the Dartmouth or Florida State organic openings? Seems like it's been a couple months without any word.
ReplyDeleteFlorida State scheduled full interviews the week after Thanksgiving.
DeleteDartmouth has scheduled full interviews in January
DeleteFull interviews meaning - on sites?
DeleteVirtual on-sites have been scheduled for both Florida State and Dartmouth
DeleteHas anyone heard from UT El Paso about the energy position?
ReplyDeleteIf you do not mind sharing, did they solicit the recommendation letters from your references ?
DeleteThey had Zoom interviews at the beginning of November but unsure if they have gone to full interviews yet
Delete@1:15 Yes, they did. @1.21 One month and a half passed from the Zoom interview, and I haven't heard back from them.
DeleteHas anyone heard from UC Berkeley or University of Southern California?
ReplyDeleteUSC started scheduling preliminary interviews on Monday, December 21 (this info was given in the end of the previous thread).
DeleteNot @11:26 pm, but are they though? It was asked in the previous thread if it was USC or U of South Carolina, and it was never verified. It just seems strange they would be zooming within 3 weeks of the priority date (and sending invites the week of Xmas).
DeleteIt is Southern California.
Deletex2- it is Southern California. Sorry for confusion on previous thread, it was closed before I could reply!
DeleteThanks a lot, very helpful!
DeleteIs it for chemistry or QCB position ?
Delete@8.58. 1) 3 weeks are enough if a number of applications is not very high and they are looking for specific fields. 2) Some schools start reviewing applications before the deadline. The only weird thing here is the time period for interviews, as they are scheduling it for the next week.
Delete@1.25PM. It is for chemistry (physical in my case)
@1:32 It really irritates me that places say "review of applications will begin on _," then clearly start reviewing them early anyway. Why not just say "review of applications will begin immediately, with priority given to those received by _?" If there is an actual "beginning of review" date, then I don't worry about submitting the day before. If they say "review will begin immediately," I try to prioritize sending it in ASAP. Why lie when its completely avoidable? Just change the wording.
DeleteBerkeley has started scheduling full interviews.
DeleteAny news from University of North Texas ?
ReplyDeleteRequested reco letters 2 weeks ago.
DeleteThe same here but no word since then.
DeleteThose who have been on a virtual on-site so far, what's a question(s) that you feel couldn't be answered? Like what's missing?
ReplyDeleteAny word from the Texas State University ?
ReplyDeleteUCLA is scheduling full interviews (someone asked on thread 2 but it was closed already)
ReplyDeleteNo word on UC Berkeley yet
UMinn is scheduling full interviews (and has started sending rejections to the other 12)
Emory - rejections received
Dartmouth - rejection received
Wayne State is scheduling full interviews
U South Florida is scheduling full interviews
-polling the lab mates + contacts
What field for Wayne State?
DeleteAdding to this -- Carnegie Mellon is scheduling full interviews, as well as Emory. Do you know if UCLA is scheduling for the bioinorganic, or other sub-field?
DeleteWayne State - biochemistry
DeleteUCLA - bioinorganic
Harvard Blavatnik (cluster hire) - rejection received
Northwestern - rejection received (this might have been noted previously)
-12/23 poster
Any news from Lawrence Technological University?
ReplyDeleteThe Davidson College position has been filled.
ReplyDeleteAny news from South Carolina Aiken ?
ReplyDeleteHow common is it to be ghosted after a Zoom interview? Do most search committees send official rejections after that stage?
ReplyDeleteExtremely common, and (imo) extremely unprofessional. Does not aid the generally negative perception that many have towards the academy.
DeleteMore common than not. Might receive a boilerplate rejection a few months later, might never hear from them again
DeleteMinnesota rejection received just now.
ReplyDeletex2
Deletex3
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DeleteWeill Cornell Medicine (Pharmacology) is scheduling zoom interviews.
ReplyDeleteAny news from Yale?
ReplyDeletex2 waiting...
DeleteYale won't have Zoom interviews, they are going with their old-school selection process. I know from my advisor that they will contact chosen candidates after New Year. I know that I am not among selected candidates (though I was warned that internal applications are not very welcome, I am a postdoc at Yale).
DeleteThanks for the insider's info. This is quite a surprise, given the circumstances. Does Yale expect people to fly in from all corners of the Earth (or the US) during Winter and lockdowns?
DeleteWhat do you mean by old school? Are they going straight into virtual "on-site" interviews?
DeleteNot OP but I think they used Zoom interview when they meant screening/first round interview. I bet the "on site" interviews will be remote and probably by zoom.
DeleteOn-site in-person interviews would be an excellent means of creating new openings in the long-term.
DeleteI am pretty confused by the current discussion.
DeleteAnonymous at 1.19 PM (postdoc at Yale) stated that Yale is going with an old-school selection process. What I understand from this is that there will be Zoom interviews of candidates that have been selected for the FINAL interview (with no pre-interviews). Other big R1 schools are using this strategy for this 2020/2021 season: a virtual "on-site" final interview with no pre-screening.
However, Anonymous at 1.39 PM seems to indicate that Yale has already done first round interviews.
Can you please clarify?
I'm 139pm and my comment is being misinterpreted. I have no knowledge that any pre interviews happened.
DeleteI am 1.19. I meant that Yale won't have preliminary interviews, they will invite selected candidates for virtual on-sites/full interviews.
DeleteCJ's comment is my favorite
DeleteAny news from University of Southern California for anything other than the Physical Chemistry search?
ReplyDeletepre-interviews are being scheduled for all of the fields, afaik.
DeleteEven QCB field ?
DeleteOh, sorry, I meant the chemistry search. All the sub-fields in chem (organic, chem bio, and physical).
DeleteGreat, Thanks for your clarification.
DeleteAnyone heard anything from USC after the first round?
DeleteHas anyone received updates from U Utah Chemistry and Utah Biochemistry (school of medicine)?
ReplyDeleteNothing yet from Utah Chemical Biology.
DeleteI got a rejection after the screening interview from Utah for the materials chem position.
DeleteThe search committee chair has called the candidates a few weeks ago. Seems they skip the phone interview and will invite the candidates for virtual 'on-site' interview.
DeleteFor anybody that has received an invitation for a virtual "on-site" interview (w/ or w/out an initial screening interview). How much notice have departments been giving?
ReplyDeleteI was given a set of days (2-day interview) to choose from roughly two weeks in advance
DeleteI was given 3 weeks, 1 month, and 2-3 months notice (n=3).
DeleteI was given 2 weeks or more, usually 3-4 weeks in advance (n=8).
DeleteFormat of "on-site" interviews varies from two full days, one full day, or two half days (afternoon then morning the next day) with one or two candidates scheduled per week.
Usually I've been given 3-4 weeks, as well (n=5). All except one are 2 day events, over Zoom.
DeleteHas anybody heard from TAMU yet?
ReplyDeleteIn the last thread it said they were scheduling pre interviews
DeleteSeems they have posted candidate seminars
DeleteHas anyone heard back from University of Georgia (Molecular Medicine), Virginia Commonwealth (Medicinal Chemistry), or University of Missouri (Biochemistry)?
ReplyDeleteAlso, has Case Western scheduled full interviews for their Biochemistry position?
I have been told Case Western will review the applications in early November, but I haven't received any update.
Delete@11.51 Case Western did do Zoom pre-interviews in early December.
DeleteRejection email received from MSKCC Chemical Biology
ReplyDeletex2
DeleteAny news from University of North Texas after requesting recommendation letters ?
ReplyDeleteNo news yet from UNT after reco request.
DeleteAny news from Dalhousie University?
ReplyDeleteThey have scheduled pre-Zoom interviews for this week for the Biological Chemistry position.
DeleteI hope I'm not the only one already looking forward to next year's application cycle... Happy New Year everyone!
ReplyDeleteI asked about a month ago on thread 2, but has anyone heard anything from Western Carolina?
ReplyDeleteI received an email from Western Carolina back in November saying that I have met the minimum qualifications and my application will be forwarded for further review. But no news since then.
DeleteMe too, that's why I was confused by the silence since then.
DeleteThey had first round interviews in November and recently scheduled full interviews.
DeleteJust got an interview round rejection for West Chester [Pennsylvania]
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that, was this after receiving an initial email informing you that you had passed the preliminary screening?
DeleteAny news from Rice university ?
ReplyDeleteMinnesota has posted the faculty candidate seminars
ReplyDeleteIt is helpful to see what areas they are interested in this year
DeleteIt would have been more helpful to know beforehand (which area they were looking for). As usual most "open" searches are not "open". In fact, they are a big waste of time for 70% of the applicants.
DeleteI agree, but it's possible they didn't know what they were looking for when they posted the ad so they hedged their bets and made an open search.
Delete@9:39 I wish there was a way to give you a bunch of upvotes for this. I don't understand how it's not a waste of a committee's time too. They have to go through hundreds more applications and throw out all the ones from subfields they didn't want in the first place.
Delete@9:44 Thanks! Agreed in general about the waste of time on the committee side. But I doubt pre-screening took them more that a few hours maximum (to be generous). Even with 350+ applications (those seems to be the numbers for R1 this year, the inorganic member of the committee would need little effort to shave down the list to people coming from inorganic groups in R1 universities. Same for the physical area.
Delete@9:51 Out of curiosity, where did you get your 350+ applications number for R1 openings?
DeleteNot 9:51, but Minnesota had about 300 applicants. I was rejected after the screening interview and this was stated in the rejection email.
Delete@10:04 It's an extrapolation based on a few places I've applied to or didn't apply to but heard from people I know. NCSU had more than 200 applicants and it was an analytical opening. UT Austin had more than 350 for an open position. It's not a very good sample, but it gives you an idea: It's a very large, very mean, very uncertain meat grinder.
Delete@9:39 Let's not forget that, from PUIs to R1s, "sham searches" are still very commonplace. That is, they already know who (or have a very very short list of people) they wish to hire, but simply have to go through the bureaucratic stages of a full search because: 1. they have to; and 2. they need to appear to be fair and impartial.
Deleteand 3. they want to read more proposals
DeleteHarvard rejection email mentioned 650+ applications!
DeleteI understand this blog is meant for Chemistry applicants. I was just wondering if I can find similar blogs/ info for Chemical Engineering? I am not sure what the status is with other applicants in terms of their pre-interview/ full interview scheduling. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThere is a ChemE (as broad engineering) one but not as much chatter there :( http://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-chemical-engineering-faculty-jobs.html -
DeleteI have a question for folks who have been on virtual full interviews this cycle. Which of these options worked the best for the virtual chalk talk regarding effective presentation and engaging the audience: (1) connecting a tablet and using it for illustration (2) an actual white board and adjusting your camera (3) a document camera?
ReplyDeleteThe two full interviews I have scheduled both say they are fine with slides and one department encouraged their use saying that their experience with virtual white boards hasn't been great, for what it's worth.
DeleteFor one chalk talk, I tried to use both slides and tablet (as a white board), the idea is to use white board to explain and address questions, but after ~10min, the faculty ended up letting me just use the slides since it worked so much better than virtual white board
ReplyDeleteI made slides
ReplyDeleteI used Google slides, which I annotated on my iPad screen that was shared to Zoom.
ReplyDeletethis sounds like a great idea
DeleteHas anyone heard back from Yale, Scripps, or Penn State?
ReplyDeletex2 here wanting to know about those as well...
DeleteAny news from Texas Tech after the first interviews?
ReplyDeleteFor the pchem position, they are scheduling virtual on-sites.
DeleteDoesn't really add much, but I haven't heard anything after the organic preliminary interviews.
DeleteI was interviewed for the organic position too. Recently, I asked for an update and I got to know that I haven't selected the for the next round.
DeleteTexas Tech is scheduling virtual on-sites for their organic position
DeleteOof. This has been a tough year. Congrats though!
DeleteWhat do you think if I did not hear anything from the school, while there is a rejection email reported in the thread? Was mine missing or in a back-up pool?
ReplyDeleteI'm experiencing a similar situation. If anyone knows the answer, please help.
DeleteI'm in a similar situation. My best guess is that they sent rejection emails to candidates who had a screening interview but did not make it to the "on-site" round, and ignored everyone who didn't get to the screening stage.
DeleteBut in my case, I was interviewed a long time ago and no updates yet.
DeleteI have not seen any updates regarding the theory position at UC Davis. Does anyone know what was happening there?
ReplyDeleteIs there a website similar to Chemjobber for Materials Science positions? Has Chemjobber considered to integrate also Materials Science? I know that many chemists like me are applying for these positions as there is often strong overlap between these fields. Thank you!
ReplyDelete"Has Chemjobber considered to integrate also Materials Science?"
DeleteMaterial Science/Materials Science Engineering positions are reserved for the Chemical Engineering list. In general, I resist requests to expand, so that we can optimize speed and quality.
There is some information in the Future PI Slack. From what I can tell, only Carnegie Mellon and Minnesota have started pre-interviews/interviews. No idea if it's accurate. For what it's worth, I have not been contacted by a single MSE department (I applied to ~12 MSE and related positions), and neither has a friend.
DeleteHas anyone heard anything from Dartmouth, Penn State, Yale, Huston?
ReplyDeleteAssuming you're referencing the Dartmouth organic position, someone at the top of this thread said that it is down to on-sites.
DeleteNothing from Yale on my side. In this thread, there were some postdocs from Yale who had more precise information about the interview process. Perhaps they can comment on this?
DeleteYale is scheduling full interview (no pre-interview).
DeleteAre you saying they have already contacted people for full interviews?
Deletenot 3.05pm, but yes, they have contacted people for full interviews this week.
Delete3.13 pm: If you are willing to share, what field of chemistry?
Delete@8.11 Theoretical chemistry.
DeleteUniversity of Washington is now doing final round interviews.
ReplyDeleteany news from University of Richmond?
ReplyDeleteRichmond has scheduled virtual on-site interviews.
Deletedoes anyone have updates regarding NYU?
ReplyDeleteThey asked for pre-recorded videos to answer some questions. Assume that is a pre-interview.
Delete@5.30pm. Thanks for letting us know. It seems that luck is not on my side this year.
Delete@5.30pm, this is for NYU theoretical/computational chemistry position?
DeleteAnyone have updates on Caltech?
ReplyDeleteThey have posted the seminars in their website. I assume that is the virtual on-site visit.
Delete@ 8:08 pm -- I only see one seminar listed on their website. Am I missing something, or are they only interviewing one candidate this year?
DeleteDid U Nevada-Reno cancelled their search? Or closed it before deadline (01/11)? I've tried to search for it, but there is no job listed in the department of chemistry.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware this was a hard deadline. Did you try contacting the search committee?
DeleteNot 12:52, but I wanted to apply in the past week (it was Thursday or Friday) and it said "The page you are looking for does not exist", I assumed it was a technical problem; tried again over the weekend until I gave up.
DeleteI contacted the search committee and the search is active. They will reactivate the application link until next Monday (Jan 18th). Please spread the word. Good luck.
Delete@2:08 Thank you!
DeleteAnybody else notice Penn St tweeted about their search a week ago? Just a generic link to apply, but deadline was 12/15 so curious if they extended the deadline? No response on twitter - anybody aware of an extension?
ReplyDeleteThey also tweeted the same message on December 16th and December 31st. Well, the original ad stated "Review of completed applications will begin on December 15, 2020". It was not a strict deadline, and it seems that they have not finished their review or maybe they simply were not satisfied with their pool of applicants.
DeleteAny news from University of North Florida ?
ReplyDeleteHas anyone here applied overseas? Has the process been any different? I am exploring the possibility given the recent events and trajectory of the country.
ReplyDeleteI have applied to Europe, but there are even less openings than in US/Can. It is very country-dependent. A handful of them would advertise tenure-track positions (e.g., Scandinavian countries, Switzerland, UK, Ireland...), but most will rely on national funding agencies or EU grants (ERC, extremely competitive). Often you will need an intermediate senior postdoc appointment before jumping to a faculty position.
DeleteReceived an email from Mount St. Mary's University that my application is still being considered and applications should be moved to next step within two weeks, just a heads up.
ReplyDeleteRejection from the US Naval Academy saying the position has been filled.
ReplyDeleteAt an R1 institution, what is reasonable startup equipment funding request for a physical chemist? Is something in the $1m range typical?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the institution, some R1 schools can go up to 3, others way less than 1.
Delete3m excluding personnel? Wow! Any suggestions on a tactful way to approach this at an interview if I have no idea what a school can do (not a top 20 department)? I assume they wouldn't give me an interview if I were so out of budget for them, but who knows.
DeleteJust figure out what specific equipment you need/want and ask for that (price it out/get quotes of course). Some research areas are more expensive than others and the department will generally have some idea about what would be needed in your area, especially at an R1. Don't settle for less than you need, and don't try to ring up the total beyond what is reasonable. Being wildly off in terms of not understanding what you need for your research looks bad in either direction. You usually send the chair a list of equipment with pricing info and negotiate from there. You usually don't start by negotiating a total dollar amount.
DeletePersonnel will usually be in line with other recent hires. Equipment varies based on need.
If an application at a reputable school doesn't require a cover letter, but has options to upload "other documents," has anyone written a cover letter anyway and uploaded it there? I wasn't going to add a cover letter since it wasn't asked for, but I don't want to have missed some unwritten expectation.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend you upload a cover letter. It is better than the alternative (submitting without a cover letter when it was somewhat expected)
DeleteAgree with 4:20pm. There's no harm in doing extra, but if they are expecting one and you didn't upload one, it would work against you.
DeleteYes, send a one page cover letter and put it on letterhead. With tons of applications, the cover letter is probably the most important document to get a reader's interest. Ideally one page and focused on what you want to do. The two page cover letters droning on about the past are really boring especially since your CV is part of the package.
DeleteIt seems to me that this year many R1 schools are not posting seminar announcements with the selected candidates (Yale, Caltech, MIT, Princeton, Berkeley, etc.). Am I wrong?
ReplyDeleteAt one of your listed schools, the candidate seminars are not on the public calendar and are only advertised by departmental emails.
DeleteYou are not wrong. My advisor who serves at the local search committee told me that they decided not to post faculty candidates dates on their public calendar --all announcements about seminars will be sent internally via emails. I don't understand the reason for such secrecy though.
DeleteFor another data point, if you look back to December on the U Washington calendar, the candidate seminars are listed by division, but candidate names are not listed.
DeleteGood question... I can't really think of any advantage to posting those details for the department and there could be some pitfalls. It is probably helpful for the most part to candidates because it helps name recognition whether they get the job or not.
DeleteIt looks as though Caltech only has one interview listed on it's site.
DeleteIs it another radio-silent period for the remaining offers or is it over for this job hunting 2020-2021 cycle ?
ReplyDeleteFor R1 positions? Still a few that had priority dates 12/15 and later that we haven't heard anything about. This thread doesn't necessarily get all of the info, but it's pretty good. Chances dwindling, but not necessarily over!
DeleteHas Northeastern (Carbon Neutral) even asked for recommendation letters?
ReplyDeleteI believe they have scheduled pre-interviews
DeleteYale Chemistry posted what seems like the faculty candidate seminars.
ReplyDeleteyes, but only three seminars for a week of January 18. There will be two more seminars on 25th and 26th and the announcement will show up later.
DeleteThis is very confusing...how it is possible that all the seminars are theoretical when the position was open to all fields? In other words: did the search committee already know they were looking for a theory candidate and they did not say this in the advertisement?
Deletei am surprised to see so many people realizing that search committees are not that concerned with the well-being of the applicants or the fairness of the search process...
DeleteIt is indeed an unfortunate reality that the search committee cares not about wasting your time by doing an "open search" when it is not actually open to all fields. Sometimes this can stem from higher ups approving a hire and the department posting their search before deciding what needs they want met, but regardless it causes a lot of frustration and I wish this practice would be abandoned. The support system each applicant has prior to applying is different for everyone, so it probably is a surprise to some people. This is one of the many difficulties and unfair practices involved in academic hiring though.
DeleteClosing this thread tomorrow morning.
ReplyDeleteClosing this thread now. New thread: https://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-2021-faculty-jobs-list-252.html
ReplyDelete