Weekend longreads

First, this article by Lise Olsen in Texas Monthly on the LaPorte, TX deaths of 4 DuPont chemical operators is horrifying and quite thorough:

"Troubleshooting that alarm fell to a rookie operator named Crystle Wise, a 53-year-old, dog-loving, Harley-Davidson-riding grandmother with electric blue eyes. By chance, Wise had chosen to take her break in a spot dubbed the “smoke shack”—between the control room and the pesticide tower. Wise, one of the latest hires in the plant’s recent wave of turnover, was still finishing her nine-month training period with DuPont. She donned her safety helmet and goggles and grabbed an oversized wrench. Then she crossed a covered passageway to the Lannate tower and opened a heavy metal door that led to a stairwell. She headed for a complex set of valves on the third floor, to clear the clog and relieve the stress on the pipes—and on the rest of the crew. What Wise didn’t know was that she was walking into a disaster."

I tend to agree with the "Swiss cheese" model of accident analysis - in this case, you can really watch the holes line up. More on this later.

Also, does anyone have a good article on the Tianjin incident? I know there's a lot of sodium cyanide in the destroyed warehouse, but that doesn't explain the initial explosion.  

Nomination for the top 5 of the "Hiss and Ping" analytical techniques descriptions

It's taken almost two months, but finally, below are the entries for the contest for the funniest, most accurate description of an analytical technique.

Vote in the comments for your favorites. The top 5 vote winners will be judged by our panel of analytical chemists: 

The fine prize: A 1 pound bag of hard candies, a certificate fit for framing, 50 of the finest Chemjobber business cards, a handwritten thank you note (by me) and a $10 Starbucks gift card:

Biotechtoreador's NMR description: "Stick your molecules in a tube, then stick the tube in a magnet so the dipoles in the atoms in the molecules line up. Turn on a radio, and the atoms sway to one side while dancing with each other. Turn off the radio and watch as the dipoles in the atoms dance back. Repeat until you can draw it yourself."

Anon071720151225PM: "NMR is the chemical equivalent of StoryCorps. Tune into the right frequency and you'll learn something about a specific situation that can also teach you something broad and fundamental about the environment in which it occurs.

NMR is like radio-frequency-based molecular Twitter. Hit your sample with one short, pointed "statement" on a given frequency and then sit back listen to all the related nuclear opinions that come back at you. Fair warning: lot of it will just be noise."

Anon071720151225PM: "Sum frequency generation, where a surface becomes a Thunderdome: two frequencies enter, one leaves."

Brandon Findlay: "Dr. Evil: Alright, here's the plan. Here's the plan. Back in the 60's, I had a mass spectrometry machine that used, in essence, a sophisticated laser beam which we called an "Ninja Assassin." Using these "Assassins," we superheat the sample of interest "Bound" to a base coating of aromatic compounds, which we scientists call "The Matrix." "Animating the Matrix" creates a superheated plume of gas containing every ion in the sample, a "Cloud Atlas" if you will. By timing the "Speed" at which ions "Race" to the detector we can determine their mass with incredible precision. "Reloading the Matrix" with new analyte allows the same detecting plate to be used multiple times, lading to massive profits and a "Matrix Revolutions" in mass spectrometry.

Scott: Why did you pluralize the word revolution and use so many air quotes?

Dr. Evil: It's a V, for Vendetta, not an air quote, Scott. Okay? 

Scott: Huh?

Dr. Evil: Any ways, the key to this plan is controlling the rising gas. Like "Jupiter Ascending' it can quickly overload detector without proper safeguards. Because overall futuristic flair, and the polish source of "The Matrix", we shall call the device the Wachowski Starship. 

Number Two: [pause] That also already been created. It's called MALDI-TOF.

Dr. Evil: Right, people you have to tell me these things, okay? I've been frozen for thirty years, okay? Throw me a frickin' bone here! I'm the boss! Need the info."

Pete: "NMR- play BBC radio 3 at your sample, and record the screams."

The Iron Chemist: "EPR is like NMR but with electrons."

Peter Edwards: "IR is like a TV remote control. You shine an IR source (spectrometer or remote control) at your sample (chemical or TV), and the signal that you get in return doesn't usually tell you anything useful that you don't already know."

Molecular Geek: "FT spectroscopy is like listening to a grand piano crashing to the ground from a 10 story drop in order to determine which notes were out of tune."

qvxb: "GC/MS - Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry: A mixture of compounds and internal standards is injected into the gas chromatograph . The carrier gas sweeps the mixture over hot metal surfaces, where the compounds of interest degrade or rearrange, into a column where they are separated. Molecules that exit the column (i.e., those not pyrolyzed in the injection port) and enter the ion source of the MS, where they are bombarded by electrons and ionized to form one or more positive ions. These ions are separated by a mass filter (typically a quadrupole or quadruple after spell-check) and the relative intensities of each ion with a particular mass/charge ratio is determined by the data system. (Senior citizens will say computerized data system.)

The retention times of compounds may change as the stationary phase changes due to deposition of residues from dirty samples and reaction with oxygen from leaks. For compounds with similar mass spectra (e.g., xylenes) errors in identification may occur. This usually only happens when data are to be published or the sample is a PT sample." 

SeeArrOh: "Sit down by the fire, kids, and let ol' See Arr Oh tell you about the spectral technique every O-chemist loves: Proton-decoupled carbon-13 NMR. You see, back in the 1950s, gents in well-tailored suits with big glasses posed next to giant, room-filling machines capable of only a fraction of today's tablet computers' power. These men - and they were always men, then - would place thin glass tubes of their molecule into relatively misshaped magnetic fields and send in specific radio waves, hoping out the other side to see their recorder pens transcribe a forest of little inky peaks. 

Now, this worked fine if you wanted ALL the information about each and every proton in the molecule, but what if all you wanted to do was count carbons? Sending in radio waves tuned to carbon sent back little patterns of 2, 3, 4 (or more) peaks, depending on how many Hs were bound to each C. Too much info! 

Instead, if you blast all the protons with one high-powered radio pulse, their coupling to C falls apart, and you can sneak in a carbon-only pulse just afterwards. Et voila! Simple, single peaks shifted to match the chemical environment of where you found 'em in the molecule. Carbons next to things that tug on their electrons are on your left. "Saturated" carbons with lots of protons or buried deep with other carbons are on your right. Easy as pie."

Unstable Isotope: "You put your precious sample in a complicated machine and out come lines of great meaning. (This applies to multiple spectroscopy techniques.)"

ForensicToxGuy: "Time of flight mass spectrometry is akin to a foot race between skinny kids and heavier kids. They all start approximately at the same starting line. The gun goes off and the race starts. The lighter kids travel faster and the heavier kids are slower through the race course. The skinnier kids get to the finish line first while the heavier kids finish later.

I can say all of this because I'm a fat kid."

Anonymous07182015142P: "Radiocarbon AMS dating:

You take an irreplaceable archaeological artifact, smash it, pour acid on it, burn it, then catapult any remains as fast as current technology will allow."

standrewslynx: "NMR spectroscopy is like making love to a beautiful woman. You start vertical, but then get excited and end up horizontal. Then you roll around a few times...and relax."

Jon Lam: "So imagine you're a circus performer in a room, standing by the doorway. Your act consists of you holding a fairly large butterfly net, ready to catch what ever miniature clowns run through that doorway. But the mini clowns don't actually run in, they are actually being shot out of a cannon. Through the door. Into your net. But your cannon is kinda crappy so if the clown is too big, it just kinda plops out of the cannon and doesn't make it very far... Probably won't even make it through the doorway. But if the clowns are small, they get launched from the cannon with impressive speed... Probably too much speed so that when you try to catch them, they rip the net right out of your hands and keep going on their trajectory straight into the audience, perhaps into that section of nuns. It turns out, for the trick to work allowing the audience to see your daring clown capture, you need clowns of just the right size. Since you don't have a scale, the only way to find clowns of the right size is trial and error.

This is essentially how a magnetic sector mass spec instrument works."

Poison Ivy League: "1Hokey-31Pokey

You make your sample up

You book your sample in

You let your sample down and you spin it all around

You send in some RF waves and let the atoms have a shout

That’s what it’s all about."

Elemental Analyfish II:

"Elemental Analysis is like weighing out your sample 

except the sample is on fire

and you're on fire

because passing CHN is Hell."

Daily Pump Trap: 8/20/15 edition

A few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs this week:

Irvine, CA: This information analyst position with Allergan is fascinating, in that it doesn't require a master's in library science degree; instead it asks for a Ph.D. w/10+ years experience. 

Beverly, MA: RAN Biotherapeutics is looking for a B.S./M.S. synthetic chemist. 35-55k, that doesn't seem like much? 

Cambridge, MA: Warp Drive Bio is looking for a B.S./M.S. research associate for LC/MS work towards their natural products work. 

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) "1000+", 635, 9,384 and 19 positions. LinkedIn shows 791 positions for the job title "chemist", 75 positions for "analytical chemist", 31 for "research chemist", 12 for "organic chemist", 5 for "synthetic chemist" and 3 for "medicinal chemist." 

Job post: director of life sciences, ACSH (job description revised)

Friend of the blog Josh Bloom sends a revised version of this job description to the inbox: 

Director of Life Sciences (revised 8/20/15)

The American Council on Science and Health is looking for a Director of Life Sciences. 

We are a 37-year old 501(c)3 non-profit  organization. Our mission is to debunk junk science and medicine, especially as it pertains to public education and policymaking.

The ideal candidate will:

• Have a Ph.D. in biology (required)
• Experience in molecular biology is essential
• Expertise in genetic modification is essential; (we routinely write about GM technology, and personalized medicine based on genetic markers...)
• Microbiology is a plus
• Have excellent writing, and communication skills
• Be able to explain complex, technical issues to a broad audience

We are a small, but rapidly growing organization. This means so we all have responsibilities that are in addition to the our primary positions (editing, recruiting, and managing large projects, whatever it takes). 

This is a full time position with benefits. 

This is an in-office job. It will be necessary to work out of our office in Manhattan. On rare occasions, working from home will be appropriate. We are looking for a high energy, imaginative individual who will do whatever is necessary to help us grow. In return, you will have a challenging, exciting and fun job that will have you looking forward to getting to work in the morning. 

Please send CVs and cover letters to: 

Dr. Josh Bloom
Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science
bloomj@ACSH.org

Best wishes to those interested.  

Why Dr. Naveen Sangji Should Be Talking To Congress

My thoughts on Dr. Naveen Sangji's comments at ACS Boston got long enough that I decided to write a separate post about it.

The silent ivory tower: First, she is absolutely right that the academic chemistry community has closed ranks. There have been few prominent chemists who have directly criticized either UCLA or Professor Harran. (From an online perspective, it's especially silent.) I don't run in academic circles anymore (not that I really ever did), so it's hard to say what kind of conversations about Prof. Harran's or UCLA's culpability have taken place during group meetings and the like.

New details on the incident: I'd like to hear more details that Prof. Harran asked her to perform the tBuLi syringing without the appropriate equipment (what equipment would that be? Certainly one could unpack a cannula and a graduate cylinder.) Personally, I think it's more likely that Prof. Harran asked her to do the syringe transfers and that he never thought that anything bad could have taken place.

Her interactions with the ACS Board: I am curious to hear about her interactions with the ACS Board of Directors to see if they'd make a public statement. How would someone even begin to pressure the board to act? E-mail? I can't imagine that they ever would have. They seem to shy away from that sort of controversy.

The policy proposal: Dr. Sangji believes that the ACS should advocate for the NIH to include an evaluation of a PI's safety record on funding proposals. While I agree that funding is certainly the only true coercive power that the NIH has over the universities, I repeat the same criticism of this potential policy that I have long made (when it was brought up by Beryl Benderly, back in 2009): How is it possible to accurately judge a PI's safety record? How do you get accurate data? How could you possibly avoid the inevitable sweeping under the rug of near-misses and actual safety incidents in order for professors, postdocs and students to continue to get funding? If I was a graduate student that had an accident and I knew that going to the emergency department for stitches meant that I'd be jeopardizing the future funding of my PI and my coworkers, I'd be sewing cuts up myself to avoid the potential damage to my career.

Apart from my policy critique, I believe that Dr. Sangji has a fundamental misunderstanding of the ACS and its relationship to the academic community. It's an organization that derives most of its Society-wide funding from ACS Publications, a publishing house which gets its work product, for free, in raw form from the academic community and then charges those same academics for access to its journals. Why would ACS ever decide to jeopardize this relationship over what is (in the ACS headquarters' eyes, I suspect) an internal employee safety dispute of its chief customer?

If there is one thing that I have learned over the past 6 years of watching the American Chemical Society attempt to deal with the mess that is chemist employment in the United States, it is this: it does not have tremendous power. While I wish that it held power over the chemical industry, it does not. While I wish it held power over academic chemistry, it does not. In fact, I would say that the only actual power it holds is its ability to extract revenue from universities via its subscriptions.*

To be sure, the ACS is an influential organization. However, how much sway does it have with NIH? Who does Francis Collins listen to more? ACS or the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology? Can anyone point to a single example in the last 10 years where the ACS has had any effect on governmental action at the state or federal level? (Maybe the federal Sustainable Chemistry Research and Development Act of 2015?)

Here's my suggestion for how Dr. Sangji could achieve her goals:

• Influence Congress to pass a law mandating that graduate students are employees from an occupational safety perspective and 
• Get federal OSHA to place academic laboratory safety as one of its top enforcement priorities.

Pressing her sister's memory on each and every member of the American Chemical Society is tremendously important from a cultural perspective, but in this nation of laws, it's Congress that holds the true power.

*And this power may be declining over time!

Dr. Naveen Sangji: require NIH to consider PI's funding records

Busy today, but I did want to take note that Dr. Naveen Sangji, the surviving sister of Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji, gave a talk at ACS Boston on Monday. Rebecca Trager has thorough coverage in Chemistry World: 

‘We still await an outcry from university scientists at the loss of the life of a young scientist,’ she added. ‘Where are the letters from the award-winning researchers and Nobel laureates condemning the university and the principal investigator (PI) for the deliberate disregard of safety?’ 

Naveen went on to reveal new details about the case, relaying Sheri’s remarks in the hospital that Harran had asked her to perform large-scale experiments without appropriate equipment, which was packed away in boxes. ‘Sheri stated quite clearly at the burn centre that Patrick Harran had explicitly instructed her to carry out three transfers of 50 cc of t-butyl lithium using a 60 cc syringe,’ Naveen said. As for her sister’s failure to wear a lab coat during the fatal experiment, Naveen said she was likely never issued such equipment. 

In 2009, Naveen requested that the ACS Board make a public statement condemning Harran’s behaviour, which she claims includes destruction of evidence and refusal to make full disclosure. The organisation’s executive director and CEO at the time, Madeline Jacobs, declined to publicly comment on the matter. Naveen urged ACS’ current executive director and CEO, Thomas Connelly, to make such a statement, and go even further. 

Specifically, she wants Connelly to write an open letter to the head of the NIH, Francis Collins, advocating for that a PI’s safety record be considered in the agency’s peer review process. 

‘The ACS has tremendous power, and with that there is responsibility to protect the young scientist you hope to nurture,’ Naveen stated. ‘What the NIH adopts, other funding agencies will follow.’ She said that PIs are busy, and funding is chief among their priorities. ‘Tie funding and safety together, and change will happen overnight – future generations of scientists will be better protected than Sheri was,’ Naveen asserted.

More on this soon.  

ACS Boston Career Fair: 229 openings, 846 job seekers

These numbers reported to the ACS Council this morning:

Job Seekers: 846
Employers: 58
Jobs: 229
Recruiters Row: 15

Résumé Review: 444
Mock Interview: 254
Headshots: 513

I've been keeping records on-and-off since April 2009. This is the third best ratio since then, I think (3.69 job seekers to jobs, top being ACS Boston in 2010 at 2.2-to-1). This is the 3rd largest absolute number of jobs (Boston 2010: 484, Denver 2011: 261). 

Missouri cuts health care subsidies for graduate students with less than 24 hours notice

A very interesting little story coming out of the University of Missouri. Here's a snippet from the Columbia Daily Tribune (article by Megan Favignano): 

Graduate students employed by the University of Missouri will have a harder time paying for health insurance after MU told students Friday it is taking away subsidies that help with premium costs. 

MU Associate Vice Chancellor for Graduate Studies Leona Rubin said the change is the result of a recent IRS interpretation of a section of the Affordable Care Act. The law, which requires adults to have health insurance or face tax penalties, “prohibits businesses from providing employees subsidies specifically for the purpose of purchasing health insurance from individual market plans,” the university said in a letter sent to students Friday. 

The IRS, Rubin said, considers the university’s student health insurance plan from Aetna an “individual market plan.” Because of the IRS classification, the university cannot give graduate students with assistantships a subsidy to help with health insurance costs, Rubin said. 

If the university continued to do so, Rubin said it could be fined $36,000. 

“We’re trying to comply with the interpretation of federal law,” Rubin said. “We’re not trying to hurt” students. 

MU is using the $3.1 million it had budgeted for graduate student employee health insurance subsidies to create one-time fellowships for those employees. All graduate students with qualifying titles — a group that includes teaching assistantships, research assistantships and fellowships — will be eligible for the one-time fellowship this fall.
“We wanted to make sure the students who needed insurance had the money ... in the fall,” Rubin said. 

In the spring, those students will have to pay completely out of pocket for health insurance....

I am told that the graduate students were given less than 24 hours notice of this change.

Suffice it to say this is an interesting and probably not desired outcome of the Affordable Care Act and one of the reasons that I am, in general, pretty skeptical of most federal legislative efforts. It's rare that anyone can accurately predict second- or third-order effects and it always seems like there will be small (or big) groups of people who are negatively affected by these massive legal and regulatory shifts.

I can't imagine that Mizzou chemistry grad students make much; I suspect this won't help their recruiting for the following year. (I suspect that they will be planning to increase their stipends for the following year?) Best wishes to the affected Mizzou students.

Below the jump, the text of the actual e-mail sent from Professor Rubin (formatting, etc. removed):

Daily Pump Trap: 8/18/15 edition

A few of this week's positions posted on C&EN Jobs:

Hanover, NH: Avitide is looking for bioprocess R&D chemists (2-4 years experience desired.) Gotta say, is there any downside to living in Hanover, NH, other than the lack of an MLB team?

Azusa, CA: Norac Pharma is looking for a B.S./M.S. process chemist.

Clark, NJ: L'Oreal posted 9 positions, including a raw material R&D scientist position (all levels of education, 1-6 years experience desired.)

Hannibal, MO: BASF has a QA/QC managerial position open. M.S./Ph.D. with experience desired.

New York, NY: Interesting that Roche is hiring a PK/PD postdoc - I wonder what happens to these folks.

Wasco, CA: Who knew there were fermentation process R&D managers? B.S. and 3+ years experience desired.

Wuhan/Shanghai, China: QR Pharma has posted a variety of positions for those interested in working in China.

ACS Boston Career Fair watch: The final count is was 224 positions. I'd cut that down by 14, considering that's how many were posted by ACS. (Juicing the stats? Maybe a little.)

Ivory Filter Flask: 8/18/15 edition

A few of this week's academically-related positions in C&EN Jobs:

Latest update: There are 108 positions on the joint ChemBark/Chemjobber 2016 faculty jobs list.

Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University is looking for an assistant professor of chemistry, specializing in "experimental soft matter." Associate/full professor applications would be entertained.

New York, NY: NYU is looking for a professor in experimental physical or biophysical chemistry as part of its  Laboratory for Molecular Nanoscience; all levels entertained, but they expect to hire an assistant professor.

College Station, TX: Texas A&M has an all-areas, all-ranks ad out.

Middlebury, VT: Middlebury College is looking for a laboratory instructor for a 3.5 year appointment; wonder where people go after they take this position. M.S./Ph.D. desired.

Auburn, AL: Auburn's School of Pharmacy has an ad for a synthetic/medicinal postdoctoral position.

Philadelphia, PA: The University of the Sciences is looking for an assistant professor of organic or inorganic chemistry.

Stanford, CA: Stanford has 2 openings for staff radiochemists; B.S. in chemistry minimum. 

No Career Fair whiteboard at ACS Boston

Credit: @curiouswavefn

 Some nice posterboards, though.

Credit: @curiouswavefn

C&EN layoffs and chemical employment coverage

Within the bounds of respectfulness and privacy, I want to comment further (and briefly) on C&EN's recent layoff of eight production staff and reporters.

With today's issue, the Chemical and Engineering News masthead no longer has Sophie Rovner or Susan Ainsworth's names. This represents 67% of C&EN's reporters covering what I tend to call #chemjobs issues, with the third being the excellent, indefatigable Linda Wang. They have been doing a fantastic job covering the negative effects of the Great Recession on the ACS' member chemists.

I do not understand why this choice was made, but regardless of the reason, the effect is the same.

I sincerely hope that C&EN will continue to cover chemical employment issues with the same quality and quantity as they have before.

Best wishes to Susan and Sophie, C&EN and to all of us. 

ChemBark: The 2016 Chemistry Faculty Openings List

ChemBark and I are collating all available US/Canadian tenure-track positions in chemistry in 2016. They have to meet 3 criteria:

• tenure-track faculty positions with anticipated start dates in 2016
• in chemistry departments or with a focus on chemistry
• at institutions in the United States or Canada

(Obviously, there will be interesting edge cases as to what gets included here.) 

Our/my hope is to make things easier for people who are applying. Click here to see the list of current positions at ChemBark; here is the current list in downloadable spreadsheet format.

Please send Paul (paul at ch____rk.com) or I (chemjobber@gmail.com) new listings, unlisted positions or corrections. 

Finally, I want to note that this was 100% Paul's idea and I'm honored to be recruited for the effort. 

A sobering aspect of the Internet and chemistry jobs

Also from this week's C&EN, an interesting article by Jean-François Tremblay that covers how pharmaceutical R&D has been impacted by online communication:

...Relying on foreign contractors is part and parcel of the business model of many of the “virtual” pharmaceutical research companies that have emerged in the past decade or so in the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world. Jay Wu, president and CEO of VM Discovery, in Fremont, Calif., says that not having labs helps to secure a more stable career path for his research managers. 

“Being a lab researcher in California can be very depressing,” Wu says. Owing to their limited venture capital funding, most small biotech companies in California work on only one compound, and if that candidate fails to advance to clinical trials, as is usually the case, then everyone at the company is laid off. But if the compound beats the odds and succeeds in progressing to the clinical trial stage, the entire early discovery lab is laid off anyway. “Either way, most scientists are looking for work every three to five years,” he says. 

By contrast, VM’s small overhead—largely the result of not needing to maintain lab space—enables the company to pursue at least five projects simultaneously. Compared with betting on a single candidate, the pursuit of multiple projects at once offers a much better chance of success, and that means everyone in the company—10 people or so, at the moment—can keep their jobs, Wu says. Currently, he notes, the company has a few candidates undergoing Phase II trials. VM develops oral drug candidates to treat central nervous system disorders, cancers, and other diseases. The firm relies on Chinese contractors to not only conduct laboratory work but also to manufacture small batches of its drug candidates for U.S. trials...

I don't work in the virtual space enough to understand how well this works out for companies; I guess it's about embracing the instability, sigh.  

This week's C&EN

This week's C&EN is a double issue, focused on how the Internet has changed chemistry:

• Here's Lauren Wolf's opening essay. 
• A survey on how chemists use the Internet. 
• I love this Martyn Poliakoff piece on the periodic table and the Web. 
• Carolyn Bertozzi talks about online serendipity. 
• Derek Lowe's comments on the chemistry blogosphere and the literature. 
• Here's Paul Bracher's piece on ChemBark.
• Comments on the job market by some rando. 
• This story on new beryllium safety standards by Andrea Widener is interesting - I had no idea that it was used outside of nuclear weapons. 
• Bethany Halford covers work by the Buchwald group on embedding air-unstable compounds in paraffin capsule. It's so simple, I feel dumb for not having thought of it before. 
• C&EN has released chemistry emoji (article by Linda Wang.) 

Boston open thread

Anyone want to plug anything at ACS Boston?

A few things come to mind:

• I see Deborah Blum will be speaking on Monday afternoon. 
• Friends of the blog Raychelle Burks and Matt Hartings (among others) will be speaking on a panel on Monday as well. 
• There's a University of Minnesota-run polymer chemistry symposium on Tuesday.
• Don't forget the Technical Achievements in Organic Chemistry symposium on Wednesday. 

Friends of the blog Integrated Chemistry Design (makers of Asteris and ChyrisDraw) will be at booth #1225 at the expo. 

Wish I could be there! Maybe in San Diego?

(If Chemjobber readers decide to have a get-together in the comments to the post, do take a picture and send it.)

Update: A few chances to meet fotb Organometallica. Also, I understand there will be a chemistry Twitter meetup on Monday night. 

"Rosie Revere, Engineer": a reading

For a couple of years now, I have been involved with the DIY Science Zone at Geek Girl Con. This is an annual science fiction convention; prominent online science communicator Raychelle Burks has been putting on the Zone, where children (and adults) are invited to interact with hands-on science demonstrations and the like. It's a lot of fun and I have enjoyed participating in it.

We do a lot of fundraising for the Zone for supplies, etc. One of the things we're supposed to do is Acts of Whimsy when we meet certain fundraising goals. Because we reached $1500, I did a dramatic reading a portion of the infamous arsenic life paper.

A commenter noted that the reading was not exactly in the spirit of Geek Girl Con; I agreed and so I convinced someone I know to read a book that is much more relevant to the ideas behind Geek Girl Con and the DIY Sci Zone. The book is "Rosie Revere, Engineer" by Andrea Beaty.



Hope you enjoy. If you feel like donating, here's a link.

(And if you do donate $20 or more and tell me, I will send you a handwritten thank you note and write a post of your choosing.) 

Scientists Invent Bottleneck-Destroying Machine

CAMBRIDGE, Where Else? (Chemjobber News) It sounds like something out of Medicine Man, but it's true. In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers have announced the discovery of the "Holy Grail" of chemistry: a machine that eliminates bottlenecks.

Textbooks will need to be shredded as the research challenges the long-held notion that bottles require necks, or that any container requires a narrower opening.

"The findings truly are astounding," said lead author of the paper, Professor Jones. "It's taken a lot of hard work and long nights in the lab, but I'm glad that this work is finally out there. We have destroyed all known bottlenecks. They're gone. That Diet Coke bottle you had in your office? Get it within two feet of our machine and it'll be a cup. Aldrich 4 liter bottles are gonna be jars from here on out."

The scientists' work is a silver bullet for a problem known to many people around the globe who hate the "glug-glug" of pouring things and is the key to unlocking a mystery that paves the way for research in this emerging interdisciplinary field, namely how to possibly get funding in a 13% payline world.

The breakthrough is sure to be heralded as good news for managers who love to prattle on about "de-bottlenecking". But some will be asking questions about the need for this research in our increasingly open-top, all-access society.

Dr. Smith, who was not involved with the research, says that the results are "intriguing" but there is not yet enough information to draw any conclusions. "Surely Congress or the Pentagon has some bottlenecks remaining," he added.

Come up with your own science story here at Buzzfeed. (Okay, so this one's a little embellished.) 

A clarifying graph of ages of laid-off Intel employees

Age distribution of a July 2015 layoff of Intel employees
Credit: Oregonlive.com

This is an interesting graph of a recent layoff of ~1200 employees, written up by Mike Rogoway and David Cansler of Oregonlive.com. Apparently, the employees were shown a graph of who was laid off (as part of federal law?) The actual data (XLS) can be downloaded if you click through.

I would like to see the distribution of overall employees at Intel - one presumes that they would be shifted to the left a bit, but I don't really know anything about semiconductor manucturing production/R&D to speculate on the median age of the workforce. 

I don't seem to remember similar graphs coming out of the 2003-2013 period of layoffs in pharma - I wonder why? 

Sure looks like the upper end of the age distribution took the biggest hit, though, doesn't it?

UPDATE: A commenter points out a portion of the article I meant to comment on:

This layoff skewed older – considerably so. The average age of an Intel employee in the United States is 42.6. The average age of an employee laid off last month was 48.1. Workers in their 50s were 1.7 times more likely to lose their job than the average worker overall; workers in their 60s were 2.7 times more likely to be laid off than the average. Meanwhile, workers in their 20s and 30s were considerably less likely to lose their jobs. Employment attorneys say this isn't unusual, and it could be difficult to make a discrimination case in court."

I gotta check out some more of the literature around this issue, see if there's more chemistry/pharma-relevant stuff.  

Daily Pump Trap: 8/13/15 edition

A few of the positions posted on C&EN Jobs:

Cambridge, MA: Warp Drive Bio looking for 2 natural product chemists. Sounds pretty cool.

Groton, CT: The rather wonderfully-named "FreeThink Technologies" is looking for Ph.D. principal scientists, presumably to work on their accelerated stability measurements.

St. Louis, MO: Monsanto looking for a "seed treatment process specialist"; looks to be a B.S./M.S.-level position, chemistry or chemical engineering degree desired.

Coventry, RI: Rhodes Technologies looking for a B.S./M.S. chemist for process development work.

Apopka, FL: Coca-Cola desires an analytical chemist; all levels of education accepted, minimum of 5 years industrial experience.

Juneau, AK: NOAA is looking for a chemist to "lead original research in trophic structuring and energy flow through large marine ecosystems using chromatographic methods such as isotope
mass ratio, lipid class and fatty acid analysis." Yeah, that.

Guilford, CT: 4Catalyzer desires an M.S. biochemist to help develop "modelocked sub-nanosecond solid-state lasers for medical products." Sounds interesting.

Decatur, GA: GeorgiaPacific is looking for a "tall oil chemist"; Ph.D. desired. (For the uninitiated (like me), this is apparently a wood products term.)

Howell, MI: ChemTrend looking for a number of positions, including a bench chemist position.

ACS Boston Career Fair Watch: 180 positions as of this morning.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov shows (respectively) "1000+", 628, 9393 and 0 positions. (Guess it's a rough week for the government.) LinkedIn shows 1534 positions for the job title "chemist", with 65 for "analytical chemist", 29 for "research chemist", 14 for "organic chemist", 5 for "synthetic chemist", and 3 for "medicinal chemist." 

Seems that I won't be trying to be a lecturer in chemistry in India

Via Neil Withers, an ad from an Indian newspaper on the very popular Language Log linguistics blog.

Even though I might be qualified, I think I'll pass on this job opportunity, thanks.

(Some needed context: apparently "chowdikar" is a pseudo-security guard. Also, the second position is suspected to be two positions folded into one salary.) 

Warning Letter of the Week: Can't Pass Up the Kardashians Edition, with extra stevia extract bonus

A pretty funny little story about Kim Kardashian West's celebrity endorsement (via Instagram) of a morning sickness pill that triggered an FDA warning letter. Here's David Kroll's take:

...But the FDA’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion has ruled in a warning later dated last Friday, August 7, that those URLs were insufficient and inconsistent with the full material information required when such a drug is advertised in any medium. It turns out that this wasn’t just a happy celebrity sharing her health tips with her 40.8 million closest friends (the post alone received 464,000 likes). 

The OPDP became involved because the post was a paid endorsement to Kardashian West by the drug’s maker and, as required, had been submitted in advance to the Office for review. And as a piece of trivia, I believe this is the first time that an FDA warning letter has contained the acronym OMG...

Glad to see that FDA is on the case.

(One presumes that this was really the corporation and her social media underlings that screwed up.)

In other warning letter news, I was sort of puzzled to see that Ten Ren Tea of San Francisco received one for putting stevia into its teas? Apparently, the FDA has approved rebaudioside A for addition to drinks*, but not whole stevia leaf extract.

(For those of you who do not haunt Chinatowns on a regular basis, Ten Ren is a tea store chain. I've spent a few bucks in at the one in Chicago on Wentworth Avenue.)

*This feature of the regulatory state (give the okay to one specific molecule that only major multinational conglomerates can produce/purchase, disallow the extract) is a less than wonderful aspect, I think. That said, I can see the risk analysis (this molecule is okay, who knows about that whole leaf?) behind their thinking. 

Daily Pump Trap: 8/11/15 edition

A few of the positions posted on C&EN Jobs recently:

Northboro, MA: St. Gobain looking for a senior polymer research engineer at all levels of education; experience desired.

Cambridge, MA: Moderna looking for senior research associates for their process group. I love the title: "mRNA innovator." I also love that it's a B.S. chemist position, 0-2 years experience. (Zeroes!)

(Also love that they advertise the Kendall Square location.)

Is it Boston Week, or what?: Cambridge Isotopes looking for someone to manage their international sales - who knew there were regulatory controls on exports of solvents?

Carlsbad, CA: Verdezyne looking for a senior process development chemist; looks to be extraction-oriented.

Bayport, TX: Albemarle looking for a process/product development engineer.

Greenville, NC: New startup company looking for a senior flavoring chemist.

ACS Boston Career Fair watch: 173 positions listed.  

Postdoc: ORISE Fellow, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, CO

From the inbox: 

Project Description: 

Applications are invited for a full-time research position in the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellowship Program at the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (DVBD), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Fort Collins, Colorado. The individual will participate in a broad range of laboratory activities related to the study of Lyme disease with a specific focus on the discovery of metabolic biomarkers for various stages of this infection and treatment response. This work will require handling human specimens including serum and urine, extensive computer analysis using complex software programs and the use of mass spectrometry. 

The selected individual should be able to perform the design and execution of experiments; the proper recording and reporting of experimental data; the writing of draft research manuscripts; and the presentation of data at scientific meetings. 

Qualifications: 

The individual in this position must have a Ph.D. or equivalent in the fields of infectious diseases, microbiology, biochemistry or chemistry. The selected individual will receive training in all procedures involved in the work. However, previous experience working on Lyme disease, metabolomic approaches or mass spectrometry is preferable. 

This is a fellow position with initial appointment for one year and an annual stipend not to exceed $62,850 depending on education and experience. Extensions for additional periods may be made not to exceed a total of 4 years. The individual may be a U.S. citizen or a non-citizen with an appropriate visa. 

Requested start date is September 20th, 2015. Please apply for this position at the following ORISE webpage: http://orise.orau.gov/cdc/default.html under current research opportunities.

Deadline is this Friday, August 14, 2015. Click here for more details.  

Ivory Filter Flask: 8/11/15 edition

A few of the academically connected positions posted on C&EN Jobs: 

Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University wishes to hire an assistant professor of organic chemistry. 

Wooster, OH: The College of Wooster is looking for two assistant professors of analytical and inorganic chemistry ("Applicants with experience and interest in polymers, organometallics, or mass spectrometry, and those who can contribute toward the College’s Environmental Studies Program, are particularly encouraged to apply.")

Tucson, AZ: Interesting bioanalytical position at Arizona's "Center for Integrative Medicine." It's part-time at the moment for $27,500.00, to be doubled to 55,000.00 pending funding. Ummmmmmm. 

Appleton, WI: Laurence University is looking for an assistant professor of general/inorganic chemistry.

Williamstown, MA: Williams College is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. chemist to be a full-time instrumentation specialist. (Do you really need a national search for this?) \

Windsor, ON: The University of Windsor is searching for a professor of environmental chemistry at any rank. 

Got tips to relieve grad school stress?

C&EN wants to know!

I hate to admit it, but exercise was a good way to relieve a bit of stress for me. Sounds cliched, I know. 

A little medical/chemical mystery

John Spevacek has a good one on acroosteolysis, a disease that would afflict those chemical operators who were assigned the manual cleaning of vessels used to make PVC:

The disease was observed for the first time in mid-1963 in Belgium (Jemeppe) in a chemical plant operated by Solvay, and affected two workers whose job was the manual cleaning of vessels used for the polymerization of vinyl chloride; similar cases occurred in almost all PVC production plants all over the world, but not in the plants where the main activity was the production of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). 

Little more than one hundred cases are described in the scientific literature, and this number increases by a few dozen if we consider known but unpublished cases. These figures confirm the rarity of the disease, which peaked at the end of the 1960's and disappeared during the 1970's, probably due to the complete elimination of manual reactor cleaning. Observation of the disease lasted no more than fifteen years and the disease was not replicated in experimental conditions on animals.

I think the "horses not zebras" explanation would be one of the additives used in PVC production. But I sure would like to know what level PPE those operators were using, and what gas-phase compounds they were exposed to...

Letter to the editor: look where some of the kidz are going

From last week's C&EN (because they're doing a double issue next week, so they're taking this week off...), an interesting letter to the editor: 

“Making Legal Marijuana Safe” outlined many issues with the current extraction solvent known as butane hash oil (BHO) (C&EN, April 20, page 27). This method requires a large up-front investment in closed-loop, high-pressure systems to contain and recover solvents. Safety concerns include explosion and fire risks for workers. 

The article then proposes a new extraction system using the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Although this CO2 extraction process seems to be a viable alternative, it only modestly shifts the safety risk from explosion to asphyxiation while doing nothing to eliminate the hazards of keeping gases under high pressure. Extraction by CO2 will still require closed-loop systems and large up-front capital investment to produce the desired extracts. 

A new Seattle-based company called BT Ingenuity has tackled the extraction process using a green chemistry approach. The company, founded by ACS member and ACS Medicinal Chemistry Fellow Tyrell Towle, uses a solvent that is ­biodegradable, does not bioaccumulate, and is nontoxic. The patented process does not require a closed-loop system and requires only minimal postextraction processing using Food & Drug Administration-approved ingredients. This new process eliminates the risk of both fire and asphyxiation for workers. It is highly versatile and provides control over the finished product. Finally, the solvent is recovered and can be reused in multiple extractions. 

The legal marijuana market will only continue to increase, and improved safety as well as green production processes will continue to be important for both producers and consumers. Innovative thinking will allow the industry to dramatically improve safety. 

Duncan I. Mackie
Carrboro, N.C.

Couple of things here. First, I agree that if there is one single thing that chemists getting into the cannabis industry should do, it would be to run the home butane hash oil business out of business. It's apparent to me that BHO is unsafe and causes tremendous amounts of injuries and property damage.

Secondly, I think it's interesting that Dr. Towle is quite young. I wonder how many young people are getting into the cannabis industry because of the relative lack of employment opportunities in more traditional arenas of chemistry? Also, undoubtedly, there is money to be made there. Developing... 

Weekend discussion topic: where should you move to, right now?

Derek Lowe noted Jones Lang LaSalle's ranking of biopharma hubs, with its absolutely ridonkulous placement of RTP over the Bay Area. Here's FierceBiotech's summary: 

A new survey from the property analysts at JLL, or Jones Lang LaSalle, ranked Beantown as the top biotech cluster in America, followed by Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, San Diego and New York City. 

The key factors for a top ranking centered on the concentration of biotech employment in the metro area (with a 25% weighting) followed by VC funding (20%), NIH funding (20%), life sciences patents (15%), the concentration of life sciences establishments (10%) and employment growth (10%).

Whaaa?

Here's my criteria: Boston and San Francisco are the only places where I would tell a new M.S. chemistry graduate "You could probably move there without a job, live in a closet of a hovel and maybe network and find some work in a couple of months." No other place in America would I say that.

Thoughts?  

Technical Achievements in Organic Chemistry Symposium at ACS Boston, Wednesday

From the inbox, an invitation to the Technical Achievements in Organic Chemistry symposium on Wednesday, August 19 at the Boston ACS meeting. This covers the gamut of industrial organic chemistry - as my correspondent mentions, "all manner of advancements and contributions to reaction development, process and technology all the way to commercialization of drug product."

This is the only award for B.S./M.S. chemists, which is an interesting thing to note. See all the talks here.

Date: Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015
Place: Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 205B/C

This is my favorite title of the bunch, from Mark Bundesmann of Pfizer: 

"Flow chemistry: A technology for control freaks."

Truly.

A couple of pieces on the "skills gap"

A good piece from the Los Angeles Times' Michael Hiltzik: 

Alice Tornquist, a Washington lobbyist for the high-tech firm Qualcomm, took the stage at a recent Qualcomm-underwritten conference to remind her audience that companies like hers face a dire shortage of university graduates in engineering. The urgent remedy she advocated was to raise the cap on visas for foreign-born engineers. 

"Although our industry and other high-tech industries have grown exponentially," Tornquist said, "our immigration system has failed to keep pace." The nation's outdated limits and "convoluted green-card process," she said, had left firms like hers "hampered in hiring the talent that they need."

What Tornquist didn't mention was that Qualcomm may then have had more engineers than it needed: Only a few weeks after her June 2 talk, the San Diego company announced that it would cut its workforce, of whom two-thirds are engineers, by 15%, or nearly 5,000 people. 

The mismatch between Qualcomm's plea to import more high-tech workers and its efforts to downsize its existing payroll hints at the phoniness of the high-tech sector's persistent claim of a "shortage" of U.S. graduates in the "STEM" disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics....

Actions speak louder than words.

Also, an interesting piece from the Boston Globe's David Scharfenberg on the "skills gap":

But critics insist there is a superficiality to those surveys. Ask any chief executive if he has trouble finding workers, and he will say yes. 

MIT labor economist Paul Osterman and then-doctoral candidate Andrew Weaver conducted a more detailed survey of manufacturers in 2012 and 2013 and found most were seeking basic skills: reading a simple manual, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. And while a substantial minority, 38 percent, sought more advanced math skills for their core manufacturing jobs, most cited disciplines offered at a decent high school — algebra, geometry, trigonometry. 

Weaver noted that employers, for the most part, are simply not demanding the high-level talents that the skills gap rhetoric would suggest. And policy makers err, he said, when they argue workers are falling behind. “The standard story that you hear a lot is ‘American workers just aren’t prepared for the 21st century . . . [they] just haven’t gotten the memo that they need to get a bunch more education,’ ” he said. The reality, he added, is that workers are, by and large, developing the skills they need to fill the available jobs. 

And when Osterman and Weaver asked managers the proof-in-the-pudding question — do you have any long-term vacancies? — more than three-quarters said no. 

Back at his humming Oxford factory, Kenneth Mandile reported no long-term vacancies of his own when the Globe visited. And after a lengthy chat in a small conference room off the factory floor, it was clear his story did not quite match the skills gap narrative. His difficulty finding workers who can operate the firm’s Swiss screw machines is not the result of some broad, new mismatch between 21st-century jobs and the skills of the workforce. It is, instead, a niche problem that goes back decades. 

These days, Mandile says, his chief concern is not technical skills; he can teach those in-house. It’s finding workers with a good attitude and a good work ethic. The problem, he suggests, is not mechanical, it’s cultural. And that may be harder to fix. 

I hadn't heard of the Osterman/Weaver study; I'll have to look it up. Good stuff, more soon.  

Anyone seeing offers get reneged on?

About a month ago, the Wall Street Journal's Lindsay Gellman wrote about new college graduates reneging on accepted job offers: 

In May, Michael Armstrong of Southern Co. called two students he’d recruited from a Southeasten public college to wish them a happy graduation and fix their start dates in the fall. The calls went to voice mail. Then the emails came in. 

Each student thanked him for the opportunity, but declined the jobs they accepted months before. Other, better jobs had simply come along, they wrote, leaving Mr. Armstrong, campus recruiting lead for the Atlanta utility, with spots to fill. 

One of the strongest graduate hiring seasons in recent memory has had an unpleasant byproduct for campus recruiters, who say their college hires are jilting them at the last minute. The trend has vexed hiring managers, flustered students and left colleges torn between helping graduates get ahead and staying in the good graces of companies that recruit on campus. 

“We want to believe that an accepted offer is an agreement,” said Gordon Miller, who retired last month from his role as senior recruiting manager at Procter & Gamble Co., where he has observed a rising number of students reneging on offers. Students who back out after accepting rationalize that they’re “looking out for their best interest,” he said. ( Scott Isenhart, who currently heads P&G recruiting in North America, said he hasn’t noticed an uptick in students backing out of offers.) 

Turning down any job offer, much less reneging on one, would have been unthinkable for most college graduates a few years ago, when post-grad employment was harder to come by and many fresh graduates went underemployed or jobless...

I don't think I've heard about any reneging on job offers, but I have heard as least one story of a candidate turning down a job offer because they wanted another position. Readers, what's this B.S. chemist job hiring season been like for you?

(I presume that Ph.D. chemist-level hiring sees very, very few offers get reneged on - chemistry is a small field, and people have long memories. I'm a champion grudge-holder*, and I'll get other people are as well.)

*something I'm trying very hard to work on, I note. 

A few from the inbox

A couple NMR positions and one national lab posting:

San Antonio, TX: The University of the Incarnate Word is looking for an analytical instrumentation specialist.

Bedford, MA: Beryllium is looking for an NMR scientist (scroll down, Ph.D.-level.)

Idaho Falls, ID: An B.S. analytical chemist position ("environmental analytical radiochemistry") for a national lab contractor. 

Daily Pump Trap: 8/6/15 edition

A few of the positions posted on C&EN Jobs this past week:

Indianapolis, IN: Dow Agrosciences looking for a Ph.D. discovery chemist with less than 5 years experience.

Pittsburgh, PA: Sonneborn looking for a B.S. analytical chemist; $35,000 offered. Another data point for the STEM shortagists!

I got a gal: Kalexyn (Kalamazoo, MI) is looking for two experienced organic chemists.

Houston, TX: Fritz Industries is a company I've never heard of, but they're looking for chemists in the Houston area; prior oilfield chemistry experience desired, not required for the Scientist I position.

Albany, NY: 3 more from AMRI, including this Ph.D. analytical chemist position. (I keep mentally predicting their demise, and I keep being wrong.)

Stamford, CT: Another one from Cytec for a Ph.D. colloidal chemist - where do people get that training, I wonder?

ACS Boston Career Fair Watch: 135 positions, up from Tuesday's 120 positions.

A broader look:  Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) 1000+, 647, 9530 and 23 positions. LinkedIn shows 1520 positions for the job title "chemist", with 68 for "analytical chemist", 30 for "research chemist", 12 for "organic chemist", 3 for "synthetic chemist" and 2 for "medicinal chemist." 

A dramatic reading of (a portion of) the arsenic life paper

As part of the Acts of Whimsy for this year's Geek Girl Con, I decided to make a recording of the (in)famous "arsenic life" paper. I hope you enjoy.



If you can, feel free to donate to the cause. Just like last year, if you donate and tell me, I will offer you a handwritten thank you note and for any donation of $20 or more, I will write a post of your choosing.

I do not love soliciting funds, but teaching science and the scientific method to kids is worthy in my opinion. Thanks for listening.

Process Wednesday: stress tests aren't just for the Treasury

Credit: Practical Process Research and Development

From our mentor-by-literature Neal Anderson's second edition of "Practical Process Research and Development", a good thought about stress tests of plant processes on page 416:

With stress tests reaction mixtures are purposely exposed to more extreme conditions to assess the potential impact. For instance, a key reagent may be added in portions to determine wither higher level of impurities will form due to micromixing. Another example of a stress test is shown in figure 15.1 (CJ's note: above). Merck researchers anticipated that by using n-BuLi as base, small amounts of excess base could lead to metalation of one aryl ring, leading to a bis-aldehyde. When two equivalents of n-BuLi was charged in a stress test, 10% of this side product was indeed formed. Further screening showed that EtMgBr could be used as a base, even in 20% excess, avoiding the need to titrate and control the addition of the n-BuLi solution. 

Every once in a while, you have this terrible "what if" dream where the horrible "what if" scenario is "what if the operator makes a math error and adds twice as much as they should of a key reagent?" Performing these sorts of stress tests (and yes, math errors definitely happen) are a good idea and an important part of developing a plant process.

This section also talks about identifying a "normal operating range" and a "proven acceptable range" for operating parameters - I think part of the issue is that the temptation is to make the proven acceptable range to be the norm, and then mistakes happen, and then you're into "here be dragons and impurities and reworks" land. 

The C&EN layoffs

I'm going to start and end this piece with a contextual reminder: I begin each week reading C&EN either as the last thing I do on Sunday night or first thing in the morning on Mondays. As much as it is possible to have a emotional relationship to a newsmagazine of a massive professional society, I have one. I think of many C&EN staffers as friends, including some of the people who were let go. So what I am about to write needs to be read in that light.

I find the news that C&EN conducted a layoff last week to be terribly disappointing. It's clear (according to Derek Lowe's sources) that the falloff in ad revenue is playing a role in the move. I think that, before I would lay off staff,  I would have moved to ask ACS to change the structure of its support of the magazine. It is my understanding that the magazine's printing/structural costs are paid for by ACS, while the staff is paid for by ad revenue. Why couldn't ACS decide to take on some of the cost of salaries? Certainly that would have helped keep experienced people on staff.

I think the last ten to twenty years have shown that it's quite possible to cut your way to temporary profitability, but it's extremely difficult to cut your way to quality. I think that's been true of the chemical industry, I think that's been true of the pharmaceutical industry and it's probably true of magazines as well.

Chemistry is such a broad and important field that it needs a meeting place. For now, we have the ACS. (If the American Chemical Society didn't exist, we'd have to invent it.) C&EN is how that Society informs itself - cutting its already extremely hardworking, incredibly knowledgeable staff strikes me as the wrong move.

But, of course, I count a lot of its staff as friends, so I would say that, wouldn't I? 

Help C&EN's Bethany Halford for a story

C&EN’s Bethany Halford is trying to track down James Peel, who worked for Bruker in 2005.

If you know him or know where he might be, please drop her a line at b_halford -at- acs dot org (note spam-proofing.) 

Daily Pump Trap: 8/4/15 edition

A few of the industrial positions posted on C&EN Jobs:

Good news?: Quite a few new positions, which is nice to see.

I like it: Nice to see a bunch from Celgene (10 overall, looks like). They're all in Summit, NJ; here's a research associate position and an interesting process-related "scientist/engineer" position.

The Kochtopus, reaching: Georgia-Pacific posted 11 positions, including a B.S.-level analytical chemist position and an M.S./Ph.D. "organic research chemist" position in Decatur, Georgia.

Orange County, CA: Allergan looking for an experienced B.S./M.S. synthetic chemist for a medicinal chemistry associate position. This is the new Actavis-assimilated Allergan, I believe.

Waltham, MA: Alkermes searching for a M.S./Ph.D. process position; looks to be formulation/drug delivery related? "Experience in combination products, device design control and human factor engineering is strongly desired."

Rolla, MO: Brewer Science looks for more process engineer types; this one says "Ph.D. in chemical engineering required", which is new. I wonder who their customers are?

Atlanta, GA: Not everyday that CocaCola is looking for a fermentation technologist; Ph.D. in industrial microbiology required preferred. (thanks, anon!)

ACS Boston Career Fair Watch: Last check, 96. Today: 120 positions.

Job posting: assistant professor, DePaul University, Chicago, IL

From the inbox, an organic/polymer assistant professor position at DePaul University:

The Department of Chemistry at DePaul University invites applications for a tenure-track position in organic/polymer chemistry at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning with autumn 2016. The ACS-certified Chemistry Department at DePaul offers several B.S. degree tracks in chemistry, a standard M.S. degree with several track and thesis options, and a new M.S. degree in polymer and coatings science. Successful candidates will be expected to teach at all levels of our program, with a particular emphasis on organic and polymer chemistry, plus courses in DePaul's Liberal Studies Program.

Best wishes to those interested.  

Ivory Filter Flask: 8/4/15 edition

A few of the academically-related positions posted at C&EN Jobs:

Raleigh, NC: NSCU desires an assistant professor of organic chemistry.

Oswego, NY: Anyone want to be an assistant professor of forensic chemistry at SUNY - Oswego?

Pomona, CA: Cal Poly Pomona is looking for an assistant professor of biochemistry to start Fall 2016. They're also looking for an assistant professor of organic chemistry.

Boston, MA: A group at Harvard Medical School is looking for a synthetic carbohydrate chemist for a postdoctoral position.

Camarillo, CA: CSU-Channel Islands desires an assistant professor of physical chemistry.

Atlanta, GA: Emory University looking for a synthetic/polymer postdoc. 

"Transferable skills" watch: Whole Foods edition

It's funny to see what pops up on a Google Alert for a specific phrase in the news media. Here's the Chicago Tribune, talking about a major employer: 

"One of our bakery team leaders is from the (Northwest Indiana) area," Amick said. "She started last year and trained in our Orland (Park, Ill.,) location. She became the associate team leader there and will be the bakery team leader in Schererville." 

Not all jobs at the new Schererville store will require retail grocery experience. Amick said the chain seeks out people with "transferable skills." 

"If someone worked in customer service before — that is a transferable skill. If you have worked in a kitchen before, that's a transferable skill. We can teach them about the food, but the energy and excitement, that's transferable," Amick said. 

Some of jobs require a certain level of skill and previous related experience, such as a cake decorator, meat cutter, cook, Amick said. 

"In grocery, there are buyer/specialists positions and those are full-time and have to have a lot more product knowledge out-of-the-gate," Amick said and added these types of employees need to be able to anticipate sales and be able to coach, mentor and train new team members.

But has the meat cutter been to graduate meat cutting school? Perhaps the meat cutter is lacking in the soft skills meat cutters need in today's market.  

This week's C&EN

A few of this week's C&EN stories:

• Good cover story by Lisa Jarvis and others on life in the bustling life sciences metropolis that is Boston. 
• I wanted to note Susan Ainsworth's really good, really thorough article on job seekers in Boston. 
• Also, Lisa Jarvis covers the diaspora that happened when Cubist was bought and closed by Merck. 
• Looks like we'll have two candidates for ACS president-elect: Bryan Balasz and Allison Campbell. (article by Sophie Rovner)
• Sarah Webb has a conversation with Martin Burke about his new robotic synthesizer.
• Burke likes to use the word "bottleneck": "Until now, synthesis has represented an important bottleneck in gaining access to all of that function." I don't think that's actually true - I don't think synthesis has been a bottleneck for access to materials. It's cost of synthesis that is a barrier, or design that is the slow step. 
• This piece on, among other things, the gap between US and Chinese patent numbers by editor-in-chief Bibiana Campos Seijo is.... interesting. 
• I'd like to know if there's a quality/quantity divide on US/China patents. Is the numerical comparison valid? Perhaps there needs to be a financial comparison (i.e. these patents have derived this value, those patents have derived that value. Probably a difficult comparison to make.) 
• I thought this piece about gaps in one's employment history was pretty good. 

Podcast: Brandon Findlay and Chemjobber

Brandon Findlay of Chemtips recently has accepted a position as an assistant professor; he and I talk a little about the process of finding and getting a job in Canadian scientific academia.



0:00 to 5:00: Introduction
5:00: Beginning the search
6:50: Which websites were useful for searching for academic jobs in Canada?
9:00: Skype interviewing
12:30: Useful online resources, including Doc Becca's academic job search posts (apologies for sound quality here)
13:15: The onsite interview, including Brandon's incredibly clever jet lag hack
22:30: Letters of reference
24:40: Getting The News
27:30: What will the Findlay Lab tackle?
33:00: Praise for Ken Hanson's "Get A Job, Ken" posts.

Job posting: petrochemical testing chemist, Philadelphia, PA

Via Reddit:

Hello, we are hiring a chemist or two in New Jersey, just south of Philadelphia. We do testing on petrochemicals such as crude oil, jet fuel, diesel, gasoline, and heating oil. If you are interested, please apply at the link below and send me a message letting me know a bit about yourself. Please note the chemist position is for an experienced chemist with 5+ years experience. 

We also have a technician spot open for new or less experienced chemists. You can apply on the same site and I'll have your information. Thank you!

Link here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Daily Pump Trap: 7/30/15 edition

A few of the industrial positions posted on C&EN Jobs this past week:

Kingsport, TN: Eastman Chemical is doing a little hiring: 3 positions, including a Ph.D. organic chemist position.

Don't see one of these very often: Ascend Performance Materials (Pensacola, FL) is looking for a nylon process engineer. Not exactly the most common of positions, for sure. (Ascend is apparently one of the world's largest processors of nylon?)

Charlotte, NC: Nor one of these - Albemarle Lithium looking for a Ph.D. inorganic chemist.

Fremont, CA: Spectranetics is looking for a B.S. chemist to perform QC testing of "drug-device combination products."

Wichita , KS: Flint Hills Refinery is looking for an experienced M.S. chemist to perform analytical work.

ACS Boston Career Fair Watch: 97 positions so far. Looks good, I think.

Endeavorist seeking part-time workers

From the inbox, a scientific crowdsourcing site looking for help:  

Endeavorist Ambassador position: part-time, virtual, potential for some serious beer money.  

Help us bring curious people together to crowdfund education, business ventures, or experiments- and get paid to do it!  

Endeavorist Ambassadors represent and promote Endeavorist within their academic and social environments, primarily with the purpose of driving new, active users to the platform. They are passionate individuals who understand the scope and mission of Endeavorist. Help us  identify open-minded students and researchers in need of funding for their projects, and encourage them to crowdfund their work via Endeavorist. 

For every campaign that is launched by the ambassador, we pay $100. If the campaign successfully completes, we pay $50 or 2%, which ever is greater.  

Applicants can read more about responsibilities here or email ambassadors@endeavorist.org for more information. 

Best wishes to those interested.