Why not a chemistry Cannonball Run?

A successful jerry-rigging
Credit: Benjamin Preston, The Drive

I promise that this isn't turning in to a car blog, but I cannot resist this piece by Benjamin Preston at The Drive, about a Cannonball Run (i.e. a cross-country automobile race.) The stipulation of this particular race is that the vehicle had to have been purchased for less than $3000 and be a vehicle from the 1970s. You should read the whole thing, but I especially enjoyed this part about fixing an alternator that had been problematic the entire trip:

...Perhaps as subliminal compensation for my failure to address the alternator issue back in New York, when it would have made a difference, I had, at the last minute, thrown the Omega's original alternator into the back of the trunk. Covered in oil and grime, it had come with the car's 6-cylinder engine when it had rolled off the assembly line in Flint back in 1974. I had little confidence in this soiled, elderly part, which was why I'd sprung for the remanufactured-in-Mexico Autozone alternator to begin with. 

This stop required more pause for thought, but the headscratching cost us time. After installing the oily original-equipment alternator, Hart and I discussed the heat problems associated with an under-sized alternator. What if, he reasoned, we could find a way to cool the alternator, thereby keeping it from burning out like the others? 

"Can you run without the bonnet?" he asked, suggesting that maybe we could remove the hood and strap it to the roof to allow cool air to flow across the alternator. I wasn't into this one, but then he wondered aloud if we could devise some sort of ducting to cool the overheating part. 

Next to the dead-end parts store we'd stopped at was a Tractor Supply Co., a veritable trove of useable odds and ends. From there, we picked up a length of flexible RV sewage hose, cutting it in half to form two shorter hoses. Zip-tying one end of each into the slots on the car's lower bumper, we routed the hoses between the hood and radiator support, then zip-tied the other ends to the alternator. Hart fixed a bottomless McDonald's cup into one of the hoses to form a sort of intake. The idea was that cold air from outside would, at speed, be forced into the hoses and up onto the alternator to keep it cool. Almost an hour later, we wrapped up our junior high school engineering project and got back on I-40. 

Although the headlights dimmed whenever the fan kicked on, the charge light left us alone for the rest of the trip...

Successful improvisation is really one of those things that has a psychological payoff like no other. It's good for team building (when it works, that is) and it can almost be fun to solve a problem under pressure.

Also, wouldn't it be cool if there was some sort of chemistry-related endurance race? Maybe it could be something where you had to improvise and perform a 4 step synthesis, but each reaction had to be run in a different time zone? I dunno, I'm probably crazy, but I'd enjoy running a recrystallization in the middle of the night while trying to figure out the fastest route to the next fuel stop...

STEM, computer workers and their degrees

Credit: Census Bureau

Someone asked a really good question about chemists and computer occupations over at the Chemistry Reddit:

It seems to me that a disproportionate number of chemists end up taking up programming to some extent, and sometimes transfer to that field entirely. Does anybody else feel the same way? And why do you think this would be?

I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the Census Bureau's data about this, where they correlate the various STEM degrees and the occupational fields of their degree holders through the American Community Survey. As you can see, the green/teal line is the number of B.S. physical science degree holders who go into occupations classified as "computer workers." As you can see, it's large, but not especially large compared to those who get engineering degrees or computer science degrees.

To get further into the weeds, I calculated the percentages of computer workers for degree holders for the "STEM" fields:

Computers, mathematics and statistics degrees: 43% computer workers
Engineering degrees: 15% computer workers
Physical science degrees: 7% computer workers
Biological, environmental and agricultural sciences degrees: 3% computer workers
Psychology degrees: 3% computer workers
Social sciences degrees: 4% computer workers

Looking at the data, it seems to me to be equivocal. If you compare to "TEM" workers, no, chemists do not end up disproportionately as programmers. However, the data does suggest that, of the "S" fields, the physical sciences disproportionately end up as computer workers. 

Daily Pump Trap: 10/20/16 edition

A (very) few of the positions posted at C&EN Jobs: 

Aliso Viejo, CA: Calhoun Vision is looking for an experienced M.S./Ph.D. chemist to be a director of chemical sciences and engineering. They'll be "responsible for the development and implementation for all formulation and automation processes for the fabrication of the silicone polymer lens technology." Also, a principal analytical chemist position from the same company. 

RTP: AgBiome is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. chemist to work on formulation for "novel biological pest and disease control products."

Colorado Springs, CO: The Institute for Defense Analyses is looking for a research analyst to work with the Missile Defense Agency. M.S./Ph.D. desired.

Boca Raton, FL: Duane Morris is an IP law firm; they've posted a patent agent/technical advisor position and an intellectual property associate position. 

Ventura, CA: JH Biotech, Inc. is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. organic chemist for a research scientist position; local candidates preferred. 70-80k offered. 

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respective) "1000+", 345, 10,121 and 19 positions for the search term "chemist." LinkedIn shows 2,273 positions for the search term "chemist". I did a little experiment today where I searched the following job titles both without quotes on the job title, and with. The 'without' quotes is the first number. Analytical chemist: 184/216. Research chemist: 49/39. Formulation chemist: 41/35. Synthetic chemist: 405/15. Medicinal chemist: 51/15. Organic chemist: 63/28. 

What's more expensive, Boston or San Francisco?

A cherished friend of the blog writes in with the following question; it has been [redacted] for privacy: 

I am trying to gauge the growth of the biotech/pharma sector in the Bay Area over the last few years: as you know, Boston is still the top destination, so my main concern is whether I will find other jobs if [things don't work out].  

[Also], I was wondering what a “good” salary is for the Bay Area. Currently [my spouse] is finishing grad school so we are pretty much a single income family, but [they] are getting [their advanced degree in tech] so we’re hoping that [they] will be making a decent amount of money soon. Any sources which can help me compare, for instance, what the equivalent of say a 120K salary in Boston would be for SF would be immensely helpful.

This is a good question, and one that I don't really have a strong sense of. It seems to me that San Francisco will continue to play "1A" to Boston's "1" for the foreseeable future. Absent some sort of bizarre catastrophe that strikes Silicon Valley, Stanford and UC-Berkeley (a series of huge earthquakes and fires?), it's hard for me to imagine that the science and financial ecosystem of the Bay Area will lose its relative position in the biopharma world, either nationally or internationally.

A brief look at median incomes and household income percentiles may be instructive, regarding pay scales. There are plenty of websites that compare cost of living, and I don't really know if any of them are better than others. I invite reader suggestions on that one.

However, I think one of the main drivers of high cost of living is the relative number of people with high incomes (I note here that I have read exactly none of the relevant social science around this.) So, a comparison of San Francisco County and Suffolk County, Massachusetts (using the Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey):

Suffolk County, MA: median income of $54,169, 26.9% earn more than $100,000
San Francisco County, CA: median income of $78,378, 40.9% earn more than $100,000

Nearby counties:

Middlesex County, MA: median income of $83,488, 42% earn more than $100,000
Norfolk County, MA: median income of $86,469, 43.6% earn more than $100,000

San Mateo County, CA: median income of $91,421, 46.2% earn more than $100,000 

Marin County, CA: median income of $91,529, 58.2% earn more than $100,000

This suggests to me that one would have to earn significantly more than $120,000 ($174,000?) in order to keep the same lifestyle.* That is, of course, likely a ridiculous wild guess. Readers, please tell me how wrong I am.

UPDATE: Thanks to Joe Q., I've decided to add some of the adjoining counties. 

*Or, likely, that's how much you would have to earn to stay in the immediate metro area of the city, and not have a longer commute? 

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 401 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 401 positions. The open thread is here. 

Daily Pump Trap: 10/18/16 edition

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

Plymouth, MN: Cargill, looking for a "Global Bioanalytical Lead". M.S./Ph.D. with experience, looks like. "This position requires strong analytical chemistry skills, especially related to biotechnology field, as well as strong leadership skills. The incumbent will be accountable for overall direction of bioanalytical within the global BioRD, provide leadership in assessing needs of BioRD and making sure those needs are met and coordinated across all BioRD locations."

Kenilworth, NJ: Merck, looking for a M.S./Ph.D. with experience in high-throughput laboratory equipment and biologics testing. 

Los Angeles, CA: Matrix Sensors, Inc. is looking for a B.S. chemist to be a laboratory technician; looks to be something about gas sensors? 2-5 years experience is what they're looking for - I'd be surprised if they can get that.

Virginia Beach, VA: These positions always are eye-catching, especially in their vagueness:

Point One USA, LLC seeks a PhD level Chemist to support advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) courses of instruction specifically designed to train EOD operators assigned to special operations units and to conduct test and evaluation for federal government agencies. Candidates must have verifiable experience working with and synthesizing energetic materials. Candidates must have the ability to teach non-chemist personnel to familiarize and educate them on the hazards associated with chemical warfare agents, terrorist homemade explosives and precursor materials. Willingness to travel both domestically and abroad on a frequent basis is a must. Ability to work in austere, dynamic and diverse environments with multiple professional disciplines is essential. Some lifting, collateral duties and work with hazardous materials is necessary. Candidates with military, biology or radiological training/experience is preferred. 

- Must have a PhD
- Must relocate to Virginia Beach, VA
- Must be willing to travel
- Must be able to teach non-chemist

"....Evaluations for federal government agencies." I like it. 

Ivory Filter Flask: 10/18/16 edition

A few academic positions posted recently at C&EN Jobs:

Los Angeles, CA: UCLA is looking for an assistant professor of computational chemistry. "Expertise in the computational design of catalysts for organic, organometallic, and inorganic reactions is preferred."

Houston, TX: The University of Houston, looking for an assistant professor of bioorganic chemistry.

Montreal, Quebec: The University of Montreal is looking for two assistant professors, one in polymer chemistry and one in inorganic chemistry.

Athens, GA: The University of Georgia is searching for an assistant professor of analytical chemistry.

Lacey, WA: St. Martin's University, looking for two assistant professors:

The Department of Natural Sciences at Saint Martin’s University seeks to fill two full-time, tenure-track, entry-level faculty positions in the Chemistry program. One position is for an expert in the field of Analytical or Biochemistry and the other is for an expert in Environmental, Green, or Geochemistry. The finalist for the latter position will regularly teach Physical Geology, a required part of the curriculum for engineering majors.

I think they're advertising for two positions, but the way that it is worded, it almost seems like 3. It's most likely two.

Baltimore, MD: A postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Andrew Horti in synthetic medicinal chemistry. "Spacious" labs - that's not a detail you see every day.

Colorado Springs, CO: Not every day that you see these types of positions, but I see that Colorado College is looking for a B.S./M.S. medicinal chemist for a research project.

Faculty search: Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University

From the inbox, an open search at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University: 

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University invites applications for at least 5 new faculty positions as part of its planned expansion. Targeted areas for the current search include*: 

Chemistry: Chemical Biology; Materials Chemistry (including Polymer Chemistry, Metal-Organic Frameworks)
Life Sciences: Cell Biology; Theoretical Biology; Behavioral Learning Theory
Mathematics: Discrete Mathematics; Computational Sciences; Big Data Analysis
Physics: Quantum Information; Ultracold Physics; Condensed Matter; Cosmology/Gravitational Waves 

We are seeking applicants with excellent scholarship and creativity. Successful candidates are expected to establish an active program of research, supervise student research and teach in the graduate program. Generous research resources are provided which may be supplemented with external grants. Appointments will be Tenure-Track or Tenured. Starting date is flexible.

*Applications from strong candidates in other fields may be considered.

Full job description here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Nice to see the divide has always been there

Also in this week's C&EN, a fun little letter: 

C&EN’s recent article on the shortage of vanilla beans (Sept. 12, page 38) brought to mind a story from the early days of cellophane at DuPont. 

The cellophane marketing organization was being introduced to a new series of films coated with polyvinylidene chloride from Dow Chemical rather than nitrocellulose from DuPont. The marketing organization was, by design, made up of nontechnically trained personnel. 

After the presentation of the virtues of the new films, two high-ranking marketing managers were heard involved in a discussion on “where would they get all of the vanilla beans?” 

Elwood P. Blanchard Jr.
Mendenhall, Pa.

I'm amused to see that the sniping between technical types and marketing types has always been with us.  

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: Alex Tullo on the new plastic packaging for food
• CRISPR tackles sickle-cell anemia in vitro - pretty cool, if huge ethical implications (by Ryan Cross)
• Long article about the scientists who study the chemical bond by Stephen K. Ritter
• Long and fascinating piece on the German nerve gas program by Sarah Everts
• Linda Wang writes about LGBT chemists at the bench.
• Fun set of campaign donation data, by Glenn Hess
• Someone at Celgene really likes Chris Christie. 
• Interesting piece about the Chinese campuses of major US universities (by Jean-François Tremblay)

View From Your Hood: Toronto edition

Credit: Christine Le

Christine Le, via Twitter: "Though I hate climbing all the stairs from the NMR lab, I get to see this amazing view each time #viewfromthehood #toronto"

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

Always a good time to play "hey, this picture looks funny."

Credit: F.X. Coudert

Let's play the game of nanoparticles… Ag vs ZnO, two different syntheses, two different papers in @ELSchemistry journals. pic.twitter.com/btZFHuOCMy

— FX Coudert (@fxcoudert) October 12, 2016

Why can't we have an NMR in a plane?

Credit: Wikimedia

Via the chemistry Reddit, is that really a mass spec in a NASA plane? (Looks like it is possible, and here's a similar picture?)

I get the sense that no one's mounted a NMR in a plane or a boat or a car. Too bad.

UPDATE: Thanks to bad wolf, I see that underground NMR for oil wells is real. Also, check out this company that actually sells NMRs to analyze groundwater. Of all the places where I expected to find NMR, underground was not one of them.

UPDATE 2: In the comments, examples of NMR in cars and proposals for NMR in space! 

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 388 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 388 positions. The open thread is here. 

Conversations with Cramer: How should you talk to undergraduates about graduate school?

A frequent reader was prompted by Professor Cramer's recent advice on applying to graduate school to ask the following question to him: 

In my professional capacity, I frequently work with undergraduate students who are considering graduate school in chemistry. For some of them, that choice reflects a love of chemistry and a genuine intellectual desire to do research and/or pursue a career in science. Many of these undergraduates have read widely and forged relationships with faculty. They make their decision to postpone their career for half a decade or more with eyes wide open. 

Others, however, bright and successful though they may be, are not so well-informed. They may easily gain admission to programs, but their reasons for wanting to go to graduate school do not arise from a genuine interest in chemistry. Rather, they demonstrate an unwillingness to make an immediate career decision and cite a need to procrastinate in their job search. I have even heard reasons like “because my [boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other] is going to graduate school and I want to go with them.” (This makes me want to cringe, but who am I to tell someone how to live their life?) In short, they seem to be choosing graduate school because they feel like they have nothing better to do. 

I never want to discourage anyone from following their heart and I refuse to think (despite or because of my own experiences in graduate school and career) that I know better than anyone who is making this very personal decision. When they ask for my advice, I hesitate to say anything other than “are you sure you have thought this through?” and then I send them in the direction of CJ’s blog.  

I would appreciate hearing someone else’s take on how to handle this with tact and concern. How do you stress to students that graduate school undertaken for misguided reasons may result in anguish and that the rewards are not guaranteed?

Professor Cramer responds:

To be honest, I think we have to salute this questioner for having achieved what seems, to me, to be pretty much the optimal combination of compassion and self-restraint. By contrast, many people confronted with situations like this, while admirably motivated by concern, nevertheless engage in a bit of hubris in assuming that they know better what an individual should do with their life than does the individual. Relying on my own experience as a faculty advisor, and also as a Director of Graduate Studies, I have seen students excel who I never thought would make it, and I’ve seen seeming superstars crash and burn as disconnects between expectations and reality set in. And usually that process takes two to three years — as that’s about 10-15% of the life span of a person that age, one can be forgiven for doing poorly with predictions made based on antecedent circumstances. 

I see at least a couple of factors here. First, people have to be allowed to make mistakes — we learn from them — they build resilience. That said, it is CERTAINLY appropriate to have a conversation that focuses on questions like, “Why do you want to go to graduate school?”, “What do you want to do afterwards that makes graduate school the right choice for you?”, and “Do you feel like you’ve done enough research on what to expect that you understand what graduate school is going to be like?” Sharing information and experience surely cannot hurt, and may moreover be useful in guiding an individual’s choice of programs, assuming grad school continues to be thought to be the preferred option. 

Second, one should not discount the enormous potential influence of both a program and of an advisor. Trying to align desired outcomes with the right programs and people can be decisive in fostering success. Impressing upon ANY student (whether you think they’re burning to be a Ph.D. or not) that they should address those questions during program visits and talks with prospective advisors is noble work. We programs and advisors are supposed to do our best NOT to have a lot of crashing and burning going on! (Mind you, it is simply unrealistic to think that every admitted student will be successful, but that’s a topic for another time.) 

I’ll say again that I like very much how the questioner put it: one should structure one’s response around “tact and concern” while recognizing the fundamental agency of the individual. 

Readers, what do you think? What's the best advice to someone who is waffling a bit about graduate school? How do you inform while respecting their agency?  

Senior ACS members talk tenure

A couple of interesting letters to the editor in this week's C&EN about tenure, one telling their story of finding it unfair:

...After two years, I was reviewed by three tenured faculty members who had been doing the same mundane research for more than 20 years, whereas I was trying to do novel research in an area that was related to, but somewhat differed from, my Ph.D. thesis work. Although I had the second-highest publication rate in the entire department, I was told that I was publishing in the “wrong journals,” which meant that instead of the Journal of the Chemical Society and the Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, I should have been publishing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. I therefore decided that, rather than playing the “games” that the system clearly required, I did not want to be a part of the tenure system and decided to look for a job in the industrial sector. 

Since this was a time when the economy was quite bad and I was not yet a U.S. citizen, it took me two years to find a suitable industrial position. During this period, a faculty member who was considered by students to be one of the worst teachers in the entire department but had the contacts to bring money into the department was awarded tenure. I stayed in the industrial sector for 30 years. 

Leaving the academic sector was the best decision that I have ever made, and I never looked back. I liked the idea that although I could get fired, so could my boss, and that actually happened on a few occasions. Of course, the industrial sector changed radically during my time in it, and eventually I was “retired” by the last company that I worked for. Not being ready to retire, I found a full-time teaching position at a two-year technical/community college where teaching is the only criteria that is used to keep your position. There is no tenure as everyone is given a nine-month contract, and as I am now in my 12th year, this is approaching the longest time that I have worked for any company during my industrial career. 

Stuart C. Cohen
Myrtle Beach, S.C.

I found this one pretty amusing, for some bizarre reason. You should click through to read the "jury duty" aspect of his time serving on a tenure committee:

The interesting articles on tenure were noteworthy for their comments by “victims” but contained nothing from individuals who served on tenure committees.... 

...One final note: All of the people I knew who were denied tenure went on to other appropriate professional positions. In one case, an individual was put in charge of a laboratory and began calling his old colleagues and asking if they knew any recent chemistry graduates he could hire. 

G. David Mendenhall
Pomona, N.Y.

Please allow me to express my mild skepticism about Professor Mendenhall's comments that all the people he knew were able to find appropriate positions. But then again, perhaps there weren't very many, and so it's probably more believable than not. 

A useful paragraph from this week's C&EN

I have long desired a complete profile of the structure of academic and governmental chemical R&D in China. We have a general sense of the Harvard of China (Peking University) and some prominent institutions (Hangzhou University and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, say.) Outside of that, I confess my near-complete ignorance of the structure of the Chinese academic R&D apparatus.

So I welcome Mitch Jacoby's profile about the Beijing-based Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS), and I thought this was an especially helpful comment:

As might be expected from a large bureaucratic country, much of China’s scientific research is organized according to a hierarchical laboratory system. For example, the academy supports many so-called CAS Key Laboratories. CAS awards that prestigious designation—and the ample level of funding that goes with it—to teams of investigators with an impressive research track record in a select area. 

ICCAS is home to eight such labs including the CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, the CAS Key Laboratory of Green Printing, the CAS Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, and the CAS Key Laboratory of Engineering Plastics. 

A step up from those labs—in terms of prestige and financial support—are the so-called State Key Laboratories. ICCAS is home to three such labs, including the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics & Chemistry, the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Dynamics, and the State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable & Stable Species.

Read the whole thing! 

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles in this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: China's heparin supply chain, by Jean-François Tremblay
• Fascinating stuff, good article
• Bethany Halford's look at this year's Chemistry Nobel winners.
• Naturally, I think Beth got a wonderful quote from Professor Stoddart.
• Fun Nobel "I was wrong" column by editor-in-chief Bibiana Campos Seijo. 
• Death to aquatic invasive species! (article by Marc Reisch)
• Interesting to see that companies are bailing on polysilicon plants - thanks, China! (by Jean-François Tremblay)
• Great profile of ACS Heroes of Chemistry winners by Linda Wang. 

ACS Presidential Candidate Peter Dorhout on #chemjobs issues

I recently sent an e-mail to Professor Peter Dorhout, who is currently running for the ACS President-Elect position to see if he was interested in answering four questions for ACS presidential candidates about chemist employment and unemployment. Here are his unedited answers: 

1. Which ACS program do you think best helps the job-seeking ACS member? How would you improve it? 

The Career Navigator.  There are a number of improvements we can make that would complement what already exists in the CN.  First and foremost, ACS needs to promote this more.  At nearly every ACS talk I give, I ask the audience if anyone knows about it - very few members know anything about it. So, here’s the link: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/careers.html   

I am also a big proponent of getting an external opinion about programs.  I use professional consultants to help me improve my operations at K-State, why wouldn’t I also do the same for the CN?  The external consultant perspective doesn’t mean we’re doing something wrong, it provides a fresh view on things.  It’s how the world sees us that helps us improve the most.  

2. Is it ACS policy to get more students to study in STEM fields, specifically chemistry? If so, how do we reconcile the fact that wages for chemists are stagnant? Does this argue against the idea of a STEM shortage and the need for more STEM students? 

Your readers can review the ACS policy on STEM education for themselves:  https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/policy/publicpolicies/invest.html?_ga=1.182095847.1565174626.1365893466  ACS advocates for education "policies that respond to the challenges and opportunities posed by an aging workforce.”  Encouraging the best and brightest to pursue science careers is different from saying we need more scientists, specifically chemists.   

ACS also advocates for a diverse science workforce - broadening participation in science is key to maintaining creativity and innovation.  ACS and the nation need to continuously assess the workforce needs of the broad industry sector.  ACS also needs to continuously review what and how we need to teach in the chemistry curriculum - as the profession changes, so should the way we prepare students, including undergraduate, graduate, and postdocs. 

3. In the past decade, what was the one action of any ACS President that has had the greatest influence -good or bad - on members' employment and careers? Other than working groups and reports, what tangible steps would you take to increase the number of chemistry jobs in the US, and is this something you think is really achievable? 

This is a bit self-aggrandizing, but I was very impressed with what Joe Francisco was able to accomplish as President.  I was serving as the International Activities Chair when he crafted the International Center (https://global.acs.org/) with me and Judy Benham, who followed me as Chair.  This virtual center cost ACS very little but it was designed to serve to help ACS members find ways to garner skills to be competitive in the global chemistry employment marketplace.  Like the Career Navigator, this is an underutilized resource for ACS.   

Related to employment, Joe also created the Entrepreneurship Center, which was designed to be a hub for information/education on how to become an entrepreneur.  It lost some traction with the Board a few years ago and was not renewed for funding.  I would like to try to revitalize that program, working with SCHB and BMGT along with SOCED to promote this project (again).  I doubt either of these activities/projects will create new jobs in the US, but I do think they will help our chemists be more competitive. 

4. One of the chief roles of the ACS to advocate for chemists in the US Congress. Which of the following options would you prioritize, and why? (increased grant funding, more training in entrepreneurship for students, shifting funding from academia to more SBIRs or retraining postdocs?) 

In my job, I spend several days each quarter in DC advocating for various research projects and support for Kansas State.  We have been very successful at moving the needle in several areas, particularly in agriculture and physics.  I understand much of the “lay of the land” when it comes to how Congress operates (if “understand” is synonymous with figure it out each time), but we will have new leadership in 2017 and the opportunity to craft new directions.   

Industry currently accounts for >65% of all funding for R&D (total R&D funding in 2015 was $453bn).  Those investments in R&D need to be recognized as valuable contributions to not only manufacturing jobs, but basic, applied, and development jobs.  Credit for those investments made in the US enterprise would encourage companies to continue to invest in innovation and creative thinking that will help our companies prosper here.

 Thanks to Professor Dorhout for his responses.

What compounds soften rubber tires?

I'm a big fan of Tyler Rogoway, the defense journalist who blogs at the car-oriented website "The Drive." Thanks to a random clicking, I noticed this odd little story by Steve Cole Smith about NASCAR driver Tony Stewart being sued because of a dispute related to a racetrack that he owns: 

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver and team owner Tony Stewart appears to be headed back to court as part of a lawsuit filed against his Eldora Speedway, the dirt track in Ohio, and this one has nothing to do with the death of Kevin Ward, the New York sprint car driver who was killed when he charged Stewart’s still-moving sprint car during a race. 

This time, certifiably legendary dirt late model driver Scott Bloomquist, along with Jimmy Owens, Gregg Satterlee, Brandon Sheppard, and Ricky Thornton Jr., have sued Eldora, Stewart and sanctioning body UMP for damages that total $16.5 million. 

In dirt track racing, the softer the tires, the faster, and teams have been known to treat tires with chemicals that are readily available to make them softer. The makers of the chemicals label them as either difficult or impossible to detect, because using aftermarket additives on your tires is against the rules of most all sanctioning bodies, including UMP. The sanctioning body is controlled by World Racing Group, owner the World of Outlaws sprint car and late model series, and WRG was named in the suit as well.

So here's what I want to know - what kind of compounds will soften tire rubber? I'd think just about anything would, but how could it possibly be difficult to detect? (Also, aren't there straight property tests to detect if tire rubber was softened?) Random shows that some amateur racers use toluene (not a surprise), but how is that not detectable? 

I am so not a race fan, or someone who knows anything about cars - anyone out there know anything about this? 

Job postings: Takeda, San Diego, CA

From the inbox, two positions at Takeda San Diego: 

Staff scientist, medicinal chemistry: Pretty standard looking position, willing to hire a B.S. (12 years experience), M.S. (10 years experience) or Ph.D. (0-3 years experience.)  

Computational medicinal chemist, DSRE: "PhD in organic synthetic chemistry is desired although will also consider computational chemistry, biochemistry or related discipline with demonstrable understanding of medicinal and/or organic chemistry."

Best wishes to those interested.  

Postdoctoral openings: separations postdoc, Merck, Kenilworth, N.J.

From the inbox, a Merck postdoctoral position in Christopher Welch's laboratory:

Position Overview:
As a postdoctoral fellow in the Separations & High Throughput Analysis group within Process Research & Development you will work interactively with a highly collaborative team of scientists from the Analytical Separations, Mass Spectrometry, NMR, Process Research, Discovery and Informatics areas to conceive, design, and perform experiments aimed at the comparative evaluation of different technologies for improved rapid quantitation of unknown compounds at very small scale.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Extensive, hands-on utilization of HPLC-MS, SFC-MS instrumentation as well as alternate detectors such as CAD and CD.
• Modification and design of laboratory equipment
• Use of automation and robotics platforms
• Data interpretation, manuscript preparation, publication and presentation of results

Full posting here. Papers published by Merck postdocs here. (CJ's note: thumbs up.) Best wishes to those interested. 

BREAKING: Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa are 2016 Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry

Here's the Nobel Prize citation on the website.

I look forward to our future with molecular machines - it will be interesting to know where they first show up in commercialized products, and what they look like (and how much they look like the machines of Sauvage, Stoddart and Feringa.)

Daily Pump Trap: 10/4/16 edition

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

Billerica, MA: Entegris is looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be a senior research scientist. Looks to be membrane-related research? Offering 80-90k - a touch low?

I feel like this is a first:

Develop new methods for activating C-F or C-H bonds on inert polymeric membranes.

Would love to know if I'm wrong.

Bristol, PA: Two B.S. production chemist positions with UCT, which appears to be a manufacturer of various silanes and silicones.

West Sacramento, CA: Bayer CropScience is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. chemist with a natural products background for work on analytical/compound elucidation work. Sounds fascinating.

San Antonio, TX: Southwest Research Institute, running it's periodical "we need a M.S./Ph.D. medicinal chemist to be a project manager" ad.

Berkeley, CA: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is looking for a synthetic postdoc aimed at porous materials. Looks like a good position for the right Ph.D. I wonder how much it pays and how long the postdoc actually is (just 1 year?)

Des Moines, IA: I would really like to know about this Kemin Industries postdoctoral position researching plant-based extracts and products. Specifically, how is this a postdoc? Is there training? Is there publication of results? Or is this a Very Junior Senior Scientist position? Finally, this seems to be fascinating legalese:

The exempt-level position is considered to be 40 hours per week, but requires tremendous flexibility and may require operations monitoring on off-shifts including weekend and holiday work to meet deadlines.

I sure wonder if this position pays more than $47,476...

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 368 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 368 positions. The open thread is here. 

Cramer's Corner: admissions/the application process for professorships

Friend of the blog Chris Cramer (professor at the University of Minnesota, computational/theoretical chemist, former director of graduate studies for the University of Minnesota's department of chemistry) has a number of great contributions to the chemblogotweetosphere. 

First, a series of tweets from Chris about how to think about applying to graduate school.

Second, a longer comment from him about the process in hiring a new professor. It's longer, so I'm putting it below the jump:

Ivory Filter Flask: 10/4/16 edition

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

Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin - Madison is conducting an open search for two tenure-track positions. "Starting at 90,000.00"

New Concord, OH: Muskingum University (that's a new one on me) is looking for both an assistant professor of physical chemistry (tenure-track, "w/expertise in instrumentation and/or computational chemistry.") and an non-tenure track position for a biochemist.

LaCrosse, WI: The University of Wisconsin - La Crosse is looking for an assistant professor of organic chemistry. Offered salary: $54,000.00 - 56,000.00. Wikipedia tells us "According to 2009–2013 ACS estimates, the median household income was $40,457 and the median family income was $57,744."

Huntsville, AL: The University of Alabama in Huntsville is looking for a professor to be the chair of the department of chemistry.

Surely, "Dean of Organic Chemistry Instruction" cannot be far behind: I feel like this Delaware position is a new one: "Assistant Professor for Organic Chemistry Instruction." Naturally, it is non-tenure track.

Job postings: medicinal chemist positions, San Francisco, CA

Via Twitter, a fair number of chemistry positions at Nurix and two from FLX Bio.

Best wishes to those interested. 

Job posting: formulations chemist, Vancouver, WA

From the inbox, a B.S. chemist position at Alpha-Tec Systems, Inc. (Vancouver, WA): 

Position Summary: Under general direction, the Formulation Chemist is responsible for formulating bulk solutions which includes weighing and measuring of chemicals [some hazardous], equipment set-up, mixing, filtering and some filling. This position supports the production departments and is responsible for the accurate completion of related formulary documentation.  The Formulation Chemist is also responsible producing some of the reagents used in the quality control and R&D departments within the organization and assists in design and development of new formulas and producing small batch formulations for new products under development.  

Education and/or Experience: Minimum requirements include a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry, Chemistry or Biology with a high GPA.  Desired: Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and one year experience as a formulation / production chemist preferably in a cGMP laboratory or FDA regulated environment.   Excellent communication and technical writing skills in English are required. 

Full description here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Fun Nobel nominations database

Credit: C&EN

I have been remiss in not telling you all about this neat little database of the Nobel nominations from 1901 and 1950 from Chemical and Engineering News. Here are the methods and all the people from C&EN who worked on it.

From it, I learned that Lise Meitner (a hero of mine) was nominated 19 times, but never won. I also learned that the United States had 78 people nominated (would not have expected that - did not know what the state of American chemistry was, pre-1950.) Pretty neat!

It's Nobel week, so I guess that if anyone wants to predict who is going to win the Biology Chemistry Nobel this year, put it in the comments. I have zero predictions, other than this: it will not be CRISPR. Between the patent fight and the Shuailiang Lin story, that's too much controversy for the Nobel Committee. (This post guarantees, of course, that Doudna, Charpentier and Zhang will be sharing the stage in Stockholm.)

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles in this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: Fascinating story about non-alcoholic steatohepatitis treatments by Lisa Jarvis
• Fair warning: I did not expect to see pictures of human livers. 
• Electronic skin? (article by Katherine Bourzac) 
• Missed a perfectly good "Star Trek: First Contact" reference there. 
• An inorganic helix (article by Stephen K. Ritter.)
• The University of Hawaii was fined $115,000 for safety conditions, regarding the Thea Ekins-Coward incident. (article by Jyllian Kemsley)
• Blast at Wanhua Chemical kills four (article by Jean-François Tremblay)
• "Company CEO Zengtai Liao spoke to C&EN earlier this year about setting Wanhua as an example the rest of the Chinese industry could learn from."
• Fascinating Greenpeace report linked in the article: "China averaged 29 chemical accidents per month so far this year"
• Chevron swaps out hydrofluoric acid for an ionic liquid. (article by Michael McCoy) 
• This seems like a fairly major safety advance.

The View from Your Hood: flash flood edition

Credit: M.K. Elston

A View from Your Hood from H.J. Elston: "Taken on the Mamalahoa Highway on the island of Hawai'i - pretty much the definition of "Flash Flood."  The road closed moments after we went through."

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

Postdoc: synthetic organic chemistry, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

From the inbox:

A Postdoctoral Research Fellow position is available in Drexel University’s Department of Chemistry. The successful candidate will have a PhD in synthetic organic or organometallic chemistry and a strong background in catalysis and/or multi-step organic synthesis. The highly motivated candidate will be responsible for both method development and target-oriented molecule synthesis. 

Interested applicants should apply by email to Professor Dionicio Martinez Solorio at dionicio@drexel.edu. Please attach PDF files of the following: (A) cover letter; (B) CV (including publications with list of authors, summary of research and teaching experience, and contact information for three professional references); and (C) one-page personal statement discussing career goals and mentoring/teaching philosophy. 

Review of applications begins immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Link here. Best wishes to those interested.  

Contest: Dumbest thing ever put in a glass waste container?

There's probably a couple of 4L jugs
and a hairbrush in there.
Credit: MIT

A funny-if-horrifying story from respected commenter Old Biddy:

I used to work with with some people testing toothpaste additives. They were in the lab next door to me. They used to have to do some tests involving pig tongues. 

One day I noticed my broken glassware/waste container smelled bad. For a day or two I assumed it was just glassware with traces of amines, but then I realized they were dumping the pig tongues in there. Worst waste container smell ever. I can't even imagine what they were thinking, because the containers only got emptied when full.

Can anyone top Old Biddy? I can't, but it sure annoys me when non-glass things end up in glass waste boxes.

I should promise a fine prize to either Old Biddy or the winner, but I can't think of something at the moment... 

Microbial corrosion?

I was amused to read this Popular Mechanics story (via Foxtrot Alpha): 

Wash your hands, airman!
Credit: Paul Sancya/AP

...But materials specialists at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) recently have come to realize that organic contaminants—mold, mildew, fungi, bacteria—corrode aircraft surfaces more seriously than they had thought. Corrosion caused by living organisms is generated by moisture, humidity, human contact and by the increasing use of drop-in biofuels, and the microbes they bring with them are for all intents and purposes, eating airplanes. While the Air Force spends approximately $6 billion annually on corrosion issues, up to $1.2 billion of that could be spent on microbiologically-influenced corrosion. 

"Microorganisms can eat away at surface materials, and some of the worst areas affected are tight, hard-to-reach areas that maintainers have difficulty disinfecting," said AFRL Biological Materials and Processing team leader Wendy Goodson.

Apparently simple handling by maintenance staff is enough to transmit bacteria onto the surface of planes. (Gloves?) Also, it's fascinating that biofuels tend to introduce more microbial contamination. David Tracy of Foxtrot Alpha talks about the Air Force's solution:

The process is called the Joint Biological Agent Decontamination System, and it essentially just heats up the aircrafts in an oven to about 180°F to kill bio agents and viruses. According to the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base, the process “eliminates over 99.9 percent of biological contaminants on aircraft surfaces.” Plus, since it kills microbes, the chance of them regrowing is hugely decreased.

So I know 180°F isn't very hot, but doesn't this heat treatment itself introduce aging issues? (Apparently not, if they're deciding to go with it.) 

Warning Letter of the Week: smelly smells edition

This morning brings us a warm missive from the Food and Drug Administration to Mr. Hung Chih Wu of Cheng Fong Chemical Co., in Taoyuan City. A fairly typical set of findings, but this one is new:

3.    Failure to properly maintain buildings used in the manufacture of API in a clean condition.
 
For example, our investigator observed filth, insects, wet layers of [redacted] unidentified material on the floors, and foul odors in the cold rooms used to store raw materials and intermediates used in the manufacture of your finished API. Firm officials noted that the rooms had never been cleaned.

We acknowledge your corrective actions, including cleaning, and adding the cold rooms to your pest control program.

Gotta say, "foul odors" is one that I haven't seen before.

(How is that not a discretionary judgment on the part of the inspector? Granted, if you're smelling something rotting, it's probably a prima facie case of your warehousing not being sufficiently clean.) 

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 333 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 333 positions. The open thread is here. 

Daily Pump Trap: 9/27/16 edition

A few positions posted recently at C&EN Jobs:

Seattle, WA: Startup looking for an experienced (2-4 years) Ph.D. polymer chemist.

Menlo Park. CA: The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis is searching for 2 Ph.D.-level associate staff scientists; looks to be computational in nature.

The person who takes this position is so screwed: Whoever is writing copy for Polysciences' (Warrington, PA) is completely different than before, I feel. A new opening for a Technical Services Manager (B.S., 3-5 years experience desired), with this gem:

This is a newly created position and we’re looking for someone who is a fearless critical thinker with an entrepreneurial sense.  We want a rock star who is ready to take this position and make it their own!

[Insert Paula Abdul clapping here.]

Columbus, OH: First time I've seen one of these process formulations positions with Scotts Miracle-Gro. Looks like a good position for the right B.S.-level chemist.

A vague description: Not typical for a R&D consulting position to be posted. Huh.

The vaguest description you will see today: From Affinity Research Chemicals (Wilmington, DE):

We are seeking highly motivated synthetic chemists at MS/Ph.D level to join our dynamic team. The main job responsibilities include, but not limited to:  deesign and execute scientific work such that there is a timely delivery of project objectives;  solve complex synthetic problems relating to assigned projects using scientific and technical expertise.

 Huh, dunno what to think of that.

Faculty postings: assistant professor, inorganic chemistry, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

From the inbox, a position at Drexel: 

The Department of Chemistry at Drexel University is seeking an outstanding early-career candidate for a tenure-track position at the assistant professor level. Candidates must hold a Ph.D. degree in chemistry or an allied field, develop a strong commitment to teaching in inorganic chemistry and be able to establish a vigorous, externally funded research program.  

Candidates should have experimental research interests that fit into one of the department's two core research areas: sustainability or synthesis. Potential areas include, but are not limited to, green chemistry, energy, photovoltaics, reaction efficiency, catalysis, bioinorganic chemistry and organometallic chemistry. Candidates should upload a cover letter, C.V., a research proposal (5-10 pages), and a statement of teaching philosophy (1-2 pages) to https://www.drexeljobs.com  

Candidates should also arrange for at least three letters of reference to be sent to Dr. Tony Addison (AddisonA@drexel.edu) and The review process will start on October 17, 2016 and continue until the position is filled. The successful candidate must be qualified to work in the United States. Drexel University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from qualified women, members of minority groups, disabled individuals and veterans.

Best wishes to those interested.  

Faculty position: assistant professor, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI

From the inbox:

Assistant Professor in Organic Chemistry available in the Chemistry Department at Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan, to begin August 2017.  This tenure track position requires a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching and research.  Ph.D. in Chemistry required; ABD will be considered with Ph.D. completed by August 2017. The Department values candidates who demonstrate an ability to work in a collaborative environment with a diverse population of colleagues and students.  Responsibilities include teaching in all areas of the organic curriculum and possibly general chemistry, mentoring undergraduate research students, and service.  Applications must be submitted online at jobs.gvsu.edu. 

See the Position Announcement at gvsu.edu/chem for complete details and application instructions. 

Application review will begin October 17 and continue until the position is filled.  Grand Valley State University is an EOE which includes protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. See http://www.gvsu.edu/affirmative/

Official posting here. Best wishes to those interested. 

(An amusing-only-to-me observation: Grand Valley State University is close to Grand Rapids, MI. There is a Big Rapids, MI. There is, however, no "Big Valley State University.") 

Ivory Filter Flask: 9/27/16 edition

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

tOSU bolus: 5 positions from The Ohio State University.

Birmingham, AL: UAB is looking for an assistant professor in experimental analytical, inorganic, or materials chemistry. 

Atlanta, GA: Georgia Tech is seeking a professor of chemistry or biochemistry with a focus on renewable energy feedstocks. (open rank search)

Logan, UT: Utah State University is searching for two assistant professors, one in environmental chemistry, the other in analytical/physical chemistry. 

Sacramento, CA: Sacramento State is looking for an assistant professor of biochemistry.

Greeley, CO: The University of Northern Colorado has two positions available.

Los Angeles, CA: UCLA is looking for their Boyer/Cram/Libby Scholars, i.e. teaching postdocs. 

Overly honest ads: From Wofford College (Spartanburg, SC), some unusually honest statements for an assistant professor position: "The position became available in early June when our Analytical Chemist accepted a position outside of academia."

Is there demand for scientific glassblowers?

Lovely story on NPR yesterday about scientific glassblowing by Hansi Lo Wang: 

Some cutting-edging science today relies on the centuries-old art of glassblowing. When researchers in chemistry, physics and medicine need special glass tools for complex experiments, they sometimes sit down with a glassblower to sketch out designs for customized beakers, flasks and condenser coils. 

New Jersey's Salem Community College is trying to keep that tradition going with the country's only degree program in scientific glassblowing. Housed among corn and soybean fields about an hour south of Philadelphia, the school's Glass Education Center in Alloway, N.J., specializes in one of the most popular materials in a research lab. 

"It's clear. You can see what the experiments are doing. It holds no chemical history. And it can be shaped into any form you like," explains Dennis Briening, the instructional chair of the college's two-year scientific glass technology program. "Whatever your imagination is, it can be made." 

His students learn how to make tools for research universities and glass manufacturers at workbenches across a row of glowing furnaces....

So, here's my question: is there demand for scientific glassblowers? Would you recommend someone become a scientific glassblower as a career? How many openings are there a year for scientific glassblowers? My thoughts:

• This seems to me a field with a very limited number of standard, benefits-providing full-time positions. You probably have to be a decently large Ph.D.-granting institution to employ one glassblower with their shop. I estimate that there are less than 400 full-time scientific glassblowers in this country.
• There's not a lot of evidence, one way or another, as to what job growth might be. The Occupational Outlook Handbook is pretty silent, classifying glass workers under "artists". (I could believe there are plenty of amateur glassblowers who are good at making various smoking implements; I don't think they're qualified for scientific glassblowing, but maybe I'm wrong.) 
• Never mind! I've figured it out - the Occupational Outlook Handbook calls glassblowers "Molders, Shapers, and Casters, Except Metal and Plastic". There are 4,000 of them working for glass manufacturers - would be interesting to know how many work for Ace or ChemGlass. 
• It seems to me that the real requirement for bespoke laboratory glassware is something that the folks at ChemGlass or Ace could easily handle.

That said, some opinion on Twitter and Reddit is suggesting there's a little demand. So, readers, what do you think? I'm probably wrong, but I don't think so. 

Anyone think there's a market for renting lab equipment?

Also in this week's C&EN, an interesting little article by Marc Reisch about a new intermediary for lab equipment rental? 

Up and running for a year and a half, the firm acts as an intermediary between potential renters and instrument suppliers. Robin Salter, Kwipped’s chief marketing officer, calls his firm an “Uber for the equipment space,” referring to the phone app that hooks up drivers with customers who need a ride. 

Like Uber, Kwipped connects manufacturers and refurbishers with prospective renters of electronics testing, environmental testing, medical, and even heavy construction equipment. Kwipped’s staff directs inquiries to potential suppliers, who submit bids that are then passed back to renters. 

Although Kwipped can make rental arrangements for a variety of equipment, laboratory equipment has been the firm’s most active category, Salter says. The bulk of inquiries, many about renting for less than a year, come from contract and clinical research organizations in the pharmaceutical industry, he says. 

...Wallis Blumm, project management vice president at Innovis, a clinical development consulting firm, says that was the reason she helped arrange a freezer rental through Kwipped. Her client, the operator of a clinical research site, didn’t want to invest in a freezer needed for just one short-term project, but the study sponsors would pay for the rental, she says. 

“Most of the sites we work with have all the equipment required for a clinical study,” Blumm says. “In this case, one site was missing a freezer.” Kwipped, she says, saved her the trouble of calling a variety of suppliers for quotes because it acted as a clearinghouse...

This is an interesting idea, but my problem with Kwipped's business model is that it still relies on refurbishers, who have a terrible track record on the Dovebids and LabX's of the world. Selling as-is used equipment with nonexistent customer service seems to be standard; I guess the fact that one would be renting, rather than buying, would be the upside.

I'm probably too down on this. 

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles in this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover story: Anthrax and biodefense (article by Matt Davenport)
• Profile of NIEHS by Britt Erickson.
• Evonik doing crowdsourcing? (article by Marc S. Reisch)
• Fun little web application about Chemistry Nobels.
• Amused at this story about chemical company CEOs in front of Congress (article by Glenn Hess)
• "DuPont’s pending mega-merger with Dow Chemical is “procompetitive and good for farmers,” DuPont Executive Vice President for Agriculture James C. Collins said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee." LOL
• I would be remiss if I didn't tell people that Volkswagen deservedly won a Chemistry IgNobel (article by Bethany Halford)

Ask CJ: How should a candidate answer "Why don't you want to do a postdoc?"

From the inbox, a darn good question (lightly edited for grammar, redacted for privacy) from a senior graduate student we'll call EBZ:

During the onsite interviews I've had, I always get asked: Why don't you want to do a post-doc? I feel like my answers for this are never well received (I usually say that during my PhD, I've worked on a variety of different types of chemistry and I'm excited to work in the fast-paced world of drug discovery). Do you know what kinds of answers they are looking for? 

To be frank, I have no idea how to answer this question. My answer, if I were EBZ, would be something like "My understanding is that a postdoc is more training, and demonstrating that I can get started on a new project, and make an impact quickly, and I feel that I have already done that blah blah buzzword synergy disruption BOOM." (To the literal-minded: this would not be a good answer.)

Readers, do you have a good answer to this question? Help EBZ out!

*I would personally never ask such a question, because I wouldn't ask "Why don't you want to saw off your pinky toe?" or "Does this striped shirt make me look fat?" either. (Yes, CJ, it does. -ed. Thanks for the honesty! Anytime. -ed.)

Jin-Quan Yu is a 2016 MacArthur Fellow

Links:

• His official MacArthur Fellow profile
• Los Angeles Times article
• San Diego Union Tribune article (which notes that he's in China right now) 

Congratulations to Professor Yu and his group! (Someone at the MacArthur Foundation sure likes chemists!) 

Warning Letter of the Week: simultaneous analysis edition

In a friendly note to Hebei Yuxing Bio-Engineering Co., the FDA notes a problem with their analytical methods: 

2.    Failure to follow and document laboratory controls at the time of performance, and failure to document and explain any departures from laboratory procedures.
During the inspection, your firm provided our investigator a chromatogram for an assay analysis of [redacted] batch [redacted] dated August 30, 2014, at 9:46:39 a.m. Your firm later submitted to FDA a different chromatogram corresponding to the same analysis, instrument, date, time, and batch. The second chromatogram appears exactly the same as the one provided during the inspection, but it includes a different method file name, column type and serial number, and system temperature. Both versions of these documents cannot represent the actual assay analysis that you conducted for batch [redacted] on August 30, 2014, at 9:46:39 a.m.

I don't quite understand the circumstances where this could have happened, but perhaps the good folks at Hebei Yuxing have an answer.  

Now that's #altchemjobs!

I presume that the good folks at Willamette University (Salem, OR) have made an error. 

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 298 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List has 298 positions. The open thread is here. 

Clever trick w/IP addresses and job searching

Via Twitter, an interesting post from zwitterionique, an anonymous professor with this little interesting tidbit regarding a simple professional website and their job search: 

Data collection: 

I recorded application due dates, application submission dates, requests for letters of recommendation, requests for phone/skype interviews, invitations for on-campus interviews, interview dates, and rejections. 

In addition to formal communication, I maintained a simple professional website with an IP tracker.  The site came up on the first page of results for a search on my name and I included the web address in my application materials.  I checked the hits at least a few times a week and in the case where the IP address mapped to a university, I recorded the first and second visit dates.  If I applied to multiple positions at a university, I assigned the hit to the earliest application date unless there was a good indication of department in the IP (e.g. genetics.yale.edu).   

For large geographical areas with only one university, I counted hits from the city where the university was located even if it wasn’t through a university assigned IP address (e.g. for University of Utah, also hits from Salt Lake City).  I did not do this for cities with multiple universities.  Thus, IP tracking data is much more robust for large state universities than it is for universities in areas like Boston, New York and San Francisco.  

It is likewise more accurate for universities with one open position than with multiple open positions.  Finally, it is much more accurate for applications with earlier due dates (say August through November) because later on there started to be too many hits to parse with as much granularity.   The data set suffered a bit because the task grew in complexity as other demands on my time increased and my anxiety over finding a position diminished.

One of the things that all job applicants express is the frustrating with the Great Job Application Cone of Silence that happens. It seems to me that this is one of those small ways to break that Cone - if your website is getting hits from places that you're applying, you're at least making one cut.

Readers, what has your experience been with professional websites (like about.me, etc.) 

Faculty positions: multiple, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL

From the inbox, a variety of positions at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL:

• Assistant professor, environmental chemistry
• Assistant professor, biochemistry
• Assistant professor, organic synthesis
• Energy conversion in a multi-department cluster, all levels (up to three positions)

Best wishes to those interested. 

Stories of tenure denial

I wanted to highlight Linda Wang's article about tenure denial in this week's C&EN. It's more hopeful than I might have imagined, although there's plenty of sad moments. I suspect Mary Ellen Lane (who was denied tenure at Rice) sums up one of the most painful aspects of it: 

Another consequence of tenure denial is that you can lose your sense of belonging. “It felt like I was being cast out of this place that I had felt a part of,” Lane says. “In addition to the shame that comes with failure, there’s also the social disintegration. That was the biggest surprise to me. I didn’t have a lot of friends outside of science and Rice, and that network was suddenly gone.”

Another hopeful bit of the article was the story of Rebecca Conry, who was denied tenure at University of Nevada-Reno:

Typically, after a tenure denial, faculty are granted a “terminal year,” where they wrap things up and look for another job. “It certainly was an awkward year, but there wasn’t a lot of time to sit around feeling sorry for myself,” says Rebecca Conry, who was denied tenure at the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1999. “You have students to educate, job applications to prepare and submit, and you have to fit in job interviews. Just one foot ahead of the other and get through the year.” 

Conry has also found a good fit. She says that one of the things she enjoyed most about her faculty position at Reno was mentoring undergraduate students. So after she was denied tenure, she focused her search on primarily undergraduate institutions. “Many people find out that the negative tenure decision is an indication that the institution is not quite the right fit,” says Conry, who is now a tenured chemistry professor at Colby College. “You can learn from your experiences to figure out what might be a better fit.” 

When Conry interviewed for positions at primarily undergraduate institutions, she highlighted her strengths in teaching and mentoring. She told the hiring committee, “Here’s how this position is a good fit for me, here’s what I’ve learned, and here’s what I bring to the table.” That helped her overcome the stigma of having been denied tenure. 

Read the whole thing.

(This is another place where we are woefully short on statistics. What percentage of assistant professors are denied tenure? Is the rate of tenure denial going up or down in the last ten years, due to shortages of federal funding? Where do tenure-denied chemistry professors go? What percentage of them go to different institutions? What percentage of them go to industry? What percentage of them leave chemistry altogether? What happens to their students - over a ten or twenty-year period, how do their salaries track with students who graduate from the groups of tenured professors?)  

This week's C&EN

A few of the articles from this week's C&EN:

• Cover story: looking at tenure, by Andrea Widener
• Article by Celia Henry Arnaud about new universities without tenure.
• Piece by Linda Wang on tenure denial, and what comes afterward.
• Pretty cool data visualization on Nobel prize winners by Matt Davenport. 
• Fascinating science tracking recreational drug use post-crisis in Athens, Greece (article by Katherine Gammon)
• Someday, surveillance of sewer systems is going to be a thing, I suspect. 
• Renewable jet fuel? (article by Melissae Fellet)
• PETA has a research division? (article by Alla Katsnelson)
• Sweeps month? 

The View from Your Hood: snow clouds edition

Credit: Anonymous

From an anonymous reader: "These were taken on top of our building in winter 2014 (November 18th to be exact) in Buffalo when that crazy storm dropped 8 feet of snow on most of the city."

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