Warning Letter of the Week: wood burner edition

Via a friendly note from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the Chairman and Managing Director of Vipor Chemicals Private Ltd. (Gujarat, India):

2.      Failure to have the procedures and processes necessary to ensure the API manufactured at your facility meet established specifications for quality and purity.
Batch Control
You do not have a procedure to control the issuance, usage, and reconciliation of batch manufacturing records (BMRs). Your production personnel record manufacturing activities in personal notebooks or on draft BMRs. Production managers then transcribe the data onto another BMR, which is then circulated to the production operators and supervisors for their signatures. Production management stated that drafts are incinerated in a wood burner. Your firm’s representative asked our investigator why such a practice was problematic.

 Have you tried sourcing a good shredder? They're expensive! 

Job posting: principal investigator, Nephron Technologies, Minneapolis, MN

From the inbox, a position with a new startup in Minneapolis, MN:

Job Title: Principal Investigator
Company Name: Nephron Technologies
Location: Minneapolis, MN 

Education Requirement: PhD or MS in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering or related field. 

Skills: Analytical chemistry, Chemical/Process Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Prototyping, Systems Analysis, Controls, Computer Programming, Mass Transport. 

Job Description: Nephron Technologies is a seed-stage startup company focused on revolutionizing dialysis technology. We are searching for a Principal Investigator to lead our proof-of-concept operations, contingent on award of an NIH SBIR Phase I grant. The term of employment begins as soon as the grant is awarded. If we are successful with the Phase I grant, which covers six months of work, we will apply for a Phase II grant, which covers an additional year of work. We will then seek other sources of funding to continue our efforts. 

Because this is a startup company, we cannot guarantee that this will be a stable source of employment. We can only employ you if we are successful with grants. Compensation will include equity in the company in addition to a salary. 

Your work will include designing and testing a benchtop dialysis device. We will collect data, write reports, and plan experiments. There may be an opportunity for publications. Because you will be a technical leader on the project, there is an opportunity to become an executive officer depending on how long you want to stay! 

Please email me only if you meet the requirements above, and you are seeking a fast-paced, high-risk, high-reward position like this. Unfortunately, we cannot support relocation. 

Contact Information: goodman.danielj@gmail.com

Best wishes to those interested.  

This week's C&EN

From this week's issue of Chemical and Engineering News:

• Cover: "Epitranscriptomics: The new RNA code and the race to drug it" (by Ryan Cross)
• Interview with James Comey, former FBI director and chemistry major (by Cheryl Hogue)
• Thanks to this article, I learned that the FBI's chief bomb expert has a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Cornell. 
• Good earnings news in 2018 for pharma (by Ryan Cross)
• Cargill grows seaweed? (by Melody M. Bomgardner)
• Lonza's making cannabinoids in China? (by Rick Mullin)
• "MOFs make dialysis more efficient" (by Mitch Jacoby)
• Some d00d yapping about his wife.

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 562 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 562 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On February 20, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 514 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread.

Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

2018-19 Chemistry Bumper Cars is at Marshall Brennan's site.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 18 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 18 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

Update from St. Andrews

Credit: University of St. Andrews

A remarkably thorough report from St. Andrews, especially consider the fire happened 6 days before the report. As respected folks have noted on Twitter, at some point, it would be good to get more detail on this paragraph:

It began on the third floor of BMS late on Sunday afternoon when a routine post-experiment wash-up went wrong. Colleagues followed safety procedures to the letter – a fire blanket was used immediately to try to extinguish the first flames in room 305, and when that failed they raised the alarm and evacuated.

I'll note that I don't have a ton of experience fighting serious fires, i.e. most of the laboratory fires that I have dealt with (three or four) have been instances where a fire extinguisher was sufficient to put out the flames. There is an aspect of "I will get this thing back under control" that I am sure every laboratory chemist feels, but fire is a beast unto itself, and I am guessing there are insufficient fire extinguishers in the typical laboratory to deal with, say, a working 8-foot hood doing organic chemistry that has gone up and is emitting 4-5 foot flames. (Note: I am not a chemical safety expert, nor a fire expert.)

Be careful out there, folks. Glad to hear that everyone at St. Andrews is safe. 

View From Your Hood: Seattle sunset edition

Credit: Indrek Kalvet

Via a reader Indrek Kalvet: "The otherwise gorgeous view from our lab looking over the Seattle skyline and the Olympic mountains got a serious upgrade by this beautiful sunset."

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

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 298 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 298 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

19 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 19 new positions posted for February 4.

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 14 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 14 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 274 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 274 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: ship it! edition

In a letter from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the general manager of Hangzhou Guoguang Touring Commodity Co., Ltd.:

2. Your firm failed to establish an adequate quality control unit with the responsibility and authority to approve or reject all components, drug product containers, closures, in-process materials, packaging materials, labeling, and drug products (21 CFR 211.22(a)). 

Your quality unit failed to exercise its authority to approve, release, and distribute OTC drug products before all analytical testing was completed and reviewed. In addition, your firm approved and released OTC drug products that did not meet their final specification. For example:

• For [redacted] batches of [redacted], your sales manager was provided with test results from your contract laboratory that were out of specification [redacted] for [redacted] assay. The batches were distributed without the quality unit’s review of the failing test results.
• A batch of [redacted] (Lot [redacted]) was released by your quality unit on August 3, 2017, and was shipped on August 7, 2017, before your firm received the results of assay testing. 

In your response, you provided an updated standard operating procedure and the associated training records concerning the release of OTC drug products with inadequate quality oversight. However, your response is inadequate because you have not determined the root cause of this violation.

 Eh, the assay probably would have shown the material to be in spec anyway... ship it! 

In other news...

Serious fire at St. Andrews' University in Scotland.

This story of a reprimanded professor at the University of Minnesota's medical school is quite remarkable. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Mitch Jacoby on why glass recycling is less common in the US
• Interesting story on the turnaround of MFG Chemical in Georgia (by Rick Mullin)
• The pictures of the Cave of Crystals is just crazy pants - don't miss (by Emma Hiolski)
• Vaping flavoring chemicals are bad for you, who knew? (by Tien Nguyen)
• Lanxess is hit by IP theft (by Marc Reisch)
• This TSMC story about bad photoresists is just... irresistable? (by Michael McCoy)
• Fascinating story about a polyvinyl chloride accident in China (by Jean-François Tremblay)

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 559 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 559 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On February 13, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 511 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread.

Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

2018-19 Chemistry Bumper Cars is at Marshall Brennan's site.

Postdoctoral position: self-assembling peptide design, Korendovych lab, Syracuse University

Via Twitter, a postdoctoral position at Syracuse: 

A postdoctoral position will be opening in the Korendovych lab at Syracuse University, subject to final approval by HR. The lab’s major foci include designing self-assembling peptides for catalysis (e.g. Nat. Chem. 2014, 303; ACIE 2016, 9017 and ACS Cat. 2018, 59) and minimalist design and directed evolution of protein catalysts (e.g. JACS 2015, 14905; ACIE 2013, 6246, Nat. Commun. 2017, 14876).  

Experience in peptide synthesis and characterization, familiarity with spectroscopy, biophysical characterization techniques, recombinant protein expression and ability to handle air sensitive samples are desirable. Most importantly, the Korendovych lab is looking for an energetic, motivated, critically thinking individual.  

Interested candidates should contact me directly at ikorendo@syr.edu.    

Best wishes to those interested.  

Job posting: two positions, Davidson College, Davidson, NC

From the inbox, two positions at Davidson College: 

VISITING ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN CHEMISTRY and INSTRUCTOR IN CHEMISTRY at DAVIDSON COLLEGE 

The Chemistry Department at Davidson College invites applications for a two-year visiting position in chemistry at the Assistant Professor level and a two-year visiting position in Chemistry at the Instructor level to both begin July 1, 2019.   

Details regarding the chemistry program can be found on the department website (http://www.davidson.edu/academics/chemistry). Please direct inquiries to Durwin Striplin, Professor and Chair of Chemistry, at dustriplin@davidson.edu.  Only online applications submitted to http://employment.davidson.edu will be considered.  More detailed information can be found on the employment site at Davidson College.   

At Davidson College, we believe the college grows stronger by recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and staff committed to building an inclusive community.  In order to achieve and sustain educational excellence, we seek to hire talented faculty and staff across the intersections of diverse races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, socio-economic backgrounds, political perspectives, abilities, cultures, and national origins.

 Best wishes to those interested. 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 18 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 18 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

Moisture balance pans

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• Marshall Brennan is hosting Chemistry Bumper Cars
• Sustainable Nano on chemistry and art in Morocco
• Prof. Yudin's latest
• Kat Day on the periodic table
• Cool "Up Goer Five" take on the periodic table

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring 
you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

LOL skills gap

From the inbox, a hilarious example of "skills gap" language (emphasis mine)

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is warning that the UK needs to fill an increasing number of science skills gaps in order to retain its prominent position for medicines and vaccines research and development.... 

...“We have long been concerned by the skills gap in clinical pharmacology, as identified in the ABPI’s report. These skills are crucial for leading research and clinical trials, and for ensuring the best healthcare for patients,” commented Dr Anna Zecharia, director of Policy at the British Pharmacological Society. 

To help address the situation, the trade association says it is working with allied organisations, including the British Science Association, to inspire more young people to pursue STEM careers, and is involved in the development of standards for a new high-level Clinical Pharmacology Scientist apprenticeship.

This situation is terrible, which is why we're (checks notes) talking to pre-college students about studying STEM, making sure that our solution is at least 4 years out?

(Also, there aren't enough clinical pharmacologists in the UK? Surely this is not a huge field there? (There were 120,000 medicinal scientists in 2016, clinical pharmacologists fall under this classification in the US. I can't imagine there are more than ???? 12,000 ??? clinical pharmacologists in the UK? with a need for ~400 new ones a year? Who knows?) 

Got a career dilemma?

I'm always game for writing answer requests for advice in my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 288 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 288 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

18 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 18 new positions posted for February 4.

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 13 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 13 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 270 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 270 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: different HPLC conditions and other test methods edition

An epistle from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the Chief Executive Officer of Soleo in Gyeonggi-do, Korea:

2.      Your firm failed to establish and document the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of its test methods (21 CFR 211.165(e)).
Your firm did not validate analytical test methods used to determine assay for the active ingredients in your drug product before release for distribution. Your notebook and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) report included different instrumentation parameters for the same active ingredient analysis. For example, in the HPLC report the flow rate and injection amount for biotin was [redacted] mL/[redacted] and [redacted] µL, while in the notebook these parameters were recorded as [redacted] mL/[redacted] and [redacted] µL.

In your response, you stated, “In the main component analysis, other components besides the main component will be subjected to quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis through an external analysis institution”.

Your response is inadequate because you did not provide sufficient information regarding the validation of your test methods, including a timeframe to complete method validation and which analyses your third-party will be conducting. You also did not provide an interim plan of action.

I guess "uh, we'll have someone else do the QC testing" won't fly as an excuse.  

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Microplastics (by Alex Scott)
• Cool story by Alex Tullo on new engine oils and their effects on MPG
• Interesting interview with the new president of Chemours (by Marc Reisch) 
• I'm no soothsayer, but I wonder if the spin-off of Chemours may be seen as one of the watershed events in environmental history of the last ten years...
• Not in a good way, mind you
• Important article on the slow-but-sure decoupling of admission to graduate school in chemistry and the GRE (by Bethany Halford) 
• Slowing in chemicals purchases in the 4th quarter (by Melody Bomgardner)
• "Committee on Ethics encourages member input" (by Judith Currano)

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 555 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 555 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On February 6, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 506 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread.

Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

2018-19 Chemistry Bumper Cars is at Marshall Brennan's site.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 18 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 18 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

View From Your Hood: beach clouds edition

From friend of the blog Lisa Balbes: "I really was reading journal articles."

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

Job posting: medicinal chemist, Caltech, Pasadena, CA

From the inbox, a position at Caltech:

We are seeking a highly motivated and talented individual with a strong background in synthetic organic chemistry to join our pharmaceutical chemistry team in the Caltech Chemistry Department.  

Chemists at Caltech have developed a proprietary platform technology for creating small molecules to treat patients with unmet medical needs. The technology allows unprecedented structural tailoring of small molecules and will enable the development of molecules with better target receptor docking and other desirable properties. This project is driven by a collaboration with a drug development start-up and a highly respected medical school’s translational oncology group.  

The oncology group will provide their proprietary knowledge of unknown oncologic dependencies and experimental expertise and the start-up will provide operational support and access to deep in-silico and drug development expertise. Our collaborators have also developed a broad database of intriguing biological targets. As the project progresses there may be an opportunity to become involved in the external start-up, where there are additional non-salary compensation incentives.

M.S/Ph.D. and 2 years of experience desired. Full job posting here. Best wishes to those interested. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: new snake anti-venom research (by Dinsa Sachan)
• People in the rest of the world prefer powdered detergent to liquid? (by Michael McCoy)
• New undergraduate chemical education approaches at Michigan State (by Megha Satyanarayana) 
• "Baby poop may hold a secret to food allergies" (by Megha Satyanarayana) 
• Fascinating story on strikes by Indian graduate students looking for higher pay (by K. V. Venkatasubramanian)
• Looks like a bad outcome for the CRISPR baby scientist (by Ryan Cross)
• The comment section is unusually active there. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 282 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 282 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 11 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 11 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

41 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 12 new positions posted for January 30 and 29 new positions posted between January 24 and January 28. 

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 267 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 267 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

For fans of the Warning Letter of the Week

A longer article from Bloomberg Businessweek's Drew Armstrong on the state of the American generic pharmaceutical market, including some pretty hair-raising anecdotes: 

...three federal inspectors arrived at Mylan NV’s manufacturing plant in Morgantown, West Virginia, and flashed their credentials. A tipster had raised concerns there might be unscrupulous activity at the factory where the generic giant makes some of its top-selling drugs. So, with Mylan executives looking over their shoulders in a conference room, the inspectors from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, dressed in button-down shirts and ties, began an intense two-week examination. 

The team of chemistry experts sifted through thousands of random files containing what appeared to be forbidden exploratory tests, which some drugmakers have used to prevent quality failures from coming to light. The inspectors suspected Mylan laboratory staff had recorded passing scores on drugs that originally fell short of U.S. quality standards.  

The files didn’t identify which drugs may have been involved in any exploratory tests. Instead they had obscure names like “lop” and “Medium”—and one that ended in LMFAO, a popular acronym for “Laughing My [Redacted] [Redacted]* Off.”

 Well, far be it from me to disallow QC chemists from having their fun.

*redactions to circumvent corporate firewalls re: language issues

Warning Letter of the Week: shipping before testing edition

A love note from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to the General Manager of Hangzhou Guoguang Touring Commodity Co., Ltd.:

3.  Your firm failed to have, for each batch of drug product, appropriate laboratory determination of satisfactory conformance to final specifications for the drug product, including the identity and strength of each active ingredient, prior to release. Your firm also failed to conduct, for each batch of drug product, appropriate laboratory testing, as necessary, required to be free of objectionable microorganisms (21 CFR 211.165(a) and (b)). 

Your firm distributed [redacted] lots of [redacted] and [redacted] lots of [redacted] to the U.S. supply chain without testing the identity, strength, purity, and quality of the active ingredient. Additionally, all your OTC drug products have a specification for the absence of [redacted]; however, this test was not performed during finished product testing. Furthermore, you have not established any specifications for the “[redacted]” used in all your OTC drug products, nor is any testing performed on the “[redacted].” 

In your response, you provided assay testing results for products within expiry that have been distributed in the United States. However, these products have not been tested according to all your specifications, including the absence of [redacted]. Furthermore, you did not provide any established component specifications for the “[redacted]” used in all your OTC drug products.

Well, here's hoping that the [redacted] did not ever make in into someone's system, otherwise the [redacted] would really hit the fan. 

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 549 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 549 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On January 30, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 503 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread.

Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

2018-19 Chemistry Bumper Cars is at Marshall Brennan's site.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 18 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 18 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

Specifications

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• Marshall Brennan is hosting Chemistry Bumper Cars
• Ash on "open borders" 
• Beth Haas on unique periodic tables
• Sustainable Nano on "running towards a degree"
• Prof. Yudin's latest
• Phil Baran, on making/running test tube columns
• Th'Gaussling, on professors and patents

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring 
you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

Got a career dilemma?

I'm always game for writing answer requests for advice in my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 274 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 274 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 11 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 11 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

35 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 25 new positions posted for January 22 and 10 new positions posted on January 17.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 263 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 263 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: the new drugs of 2018 (by Lisa Jarvis)
• "Chemistry preprints pick up steam" (by Tien Nguyen)
• This story about polyester made from coal in China is pretty fascinating stuff (article by Jean-François Tremblay)
• Jumping crystals? Man, that's cool. (article by Mitch Jacoby)
• Congratulations to the 2019 ACS National Award winners (article by Linda Wang)
• Some d00d yapping about "how to say 'no'" to volunteer opportunities and the like.

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 543 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 543 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On January 23, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 497 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread.

Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

Chemistry Bumper Cars

Chemistry Bumper Cars have gone from See Arr Oh's Just Like Cooking blog over to Marshall Brennan's Colorblind Chemistry for the 2018-2019 season.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

Fascinating piece on STEM studies at the University of Washington

I thought this long article in the Seattle Times about the increase in STEM majors at the University of Washington was really interesting, if a bit odd in places. Here are the core facts: 

...The number of history majors nationwide is down about 45 percent from its peak in 2007, and the number of English majors has fallen by nearly half since the late 1990s, according to research by Benjamin Schmidt, an assistant professor of history at Northeastern University who has been documenting the trends. 

Since 2008, on the UW’s Seattle campus, the number of students studying in STEM programs (science, technology, engineering and math) has increased 37 percent. Among all three campuses, it’s up 50 percent. On the main campus, non-STEM programs have declined by 13 percent. 

At UW Seattle, there are now almost as many students studying in STEM programs as in non-STEM programs. That’s a dramatic flip: Just 10 years ago, there were twice as many students in non-STEM majors as there were in STEM majors....

Because humanities classes cost less (professors are less costly, no startup packages for new laboratories, etc) and some unique budgeting rules in Washington, this shift is costing the universities money.

...It’s not true, Cherniavsky says, that there’s no job market for graduates who can write, do critical analysis or have the ability to view knowledge from diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives — a concept known as multicultural literacy. “It’s not that the corporate world has no use for these skills,” she said. Instead, companies tend not to pay much for the jobs that require them, she said.... 

...Both Microsoft and Amazon offer mentorships exclusively for College of Arts & Sciences majors. “We are using these programs not as recruitment tools, but as myth-busting,” said Matt Erickson, manager of college-to-career initiatives in the College of Arts & Sciences. 

Erickson said the UW is sometimes guilty of reinforcing the idea that only STEM degrees lead to good jobs in Seattle. But UW humanities majors have found jobs at every big tech firm in Seattle — including majors in history, English, art history, sociology, German, French and linguistics. They’ve found roles in human resources, community engagement, customer outreach and marketing, he said.

Microsoft President Brad Smith has also written about the need for tech companies to hire liberal-arts majors, particularly in artificial intelligence. “As computers behave more like humans, the social sciences and humanities will become even more important,” Smith wrote in an introduction to the book “The Future Computed.”

Brad Smith is well-known as a proponent of tech-related immigration, i.e. H1b visas. I am grimly amused that Mr. Smith is both a big fan of saying that there is a shortage of STEM workers in the United States, and that we don't have enough* liberal arts majors as well.

Overall, I don't think it's a surprise at all that people are piling into computer-oriented fields. What is the field that seems to have stable, well-paying jobs that lead to seeming riches? It seems like it's computer-related stuff more so than any other field.

*Okay, he really doesn't say that. 

View From Your Hood: smiling observer edition

Credit: @LeitchLab

Via Twitter, from the laboratory of Professor Dave Leitch: "This observant observatory watches us all day. What makes it smile? We think it’s happy about our latest results. And that the rain is gone. #EmojiIRL #UVic #ViewFromMyHood @Chemjobber @chemistryatuvic @UVicScience"

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

TIL: Radon health mines

Via the New York Times, this amusing summary of people who use radon as a health cure at "Roadside America":  

...A half-dozen defunct gold and uranium mines south of Helena, Montana, attract ailing tourists, who bask in radioactive radon gas and drink radioactive water to improve their health. Each summer, hundreds of people, many of them Amish and Mennonites, come to the radon health mines to relax and treat arthritis, lupus, asthma and other chronic cripplers. 

With colorful names like the Sunshine Health Mine, Free Enterprise, Earth Angel, Radon Tunnel, and the Merry Widow, the mine shafts tout radon levels as much as 175 times the federal safety standard for houses. Yet, visitors claim miraculous recoveries and disease remissions in the damp, cool passages. Some have arrived in wheelchairs, then walked out on their own. 

The health mines opened in the early 1950's when little was understood about the health and hazard aspects of atomic radiation. One claim is that the gas stimulates the nerves and helps the human body heal itself. 

The typical vacation at a radon health mine lasts a week or two. Visitors are recommended to sit in the mine two or three times a day, until they hit the maximum annual exposure level designated by the state. The permitted total visit is determined by the radiation level of the particular mine. The average visitor is 72 years old. The mines appeal to "plain people," such as the Amish or the Mennonites, because of the "natural" healing aspects, the lack of commercialization, and the relatively low cost-per-hour for treatment sessions...

I think I've exposed myself to sufficient levels of ionizing radiation for one lifetime by being a reasonably frequent air traveler and a summer or two working with radioactive phosphorus. I don't think I'll be heading into the radon mines for this...

Job posting: Alchemie, Customer Success Specialist, Troy, MI

From the inbox, a position at chemical education software startup Alchemie: 

As part of the Alchemie team you will be interacting with two groups of customers, college faculty and their students. In this position you will demonstrate our Mechanisms app and Epiphany data platform to professors, through on-line demos and in-person meetings, with a goal of increasing adoption of the technology as an active learning platform for college classrooms. You will work with both faculty and students in on-boarding the technology and answering their questions as issues arise. Your subject matter expertise will be used to create new content, both by authoring new problems for mobile applications and in creating support material for student use. As part of our content team, you will also work with our researchers to produce literature for peer-reviewed publications and for our own technology blog. 

This position will put you at the forefront of educational technology, as we position Alchemie for growth by building Augmented Reality applications and advanced assessment analytics for chemistry and other STEM courses. 

We are looking for a person with strong interpersonal and communication skills, with a gift for writing and creative problem-solving. You will work side-by-side with software developers, data scientists, content specialists, and marketers to build the Community of Practice for the Alchemie technology suite. 

Requirements: 

Chemistry or Chemistry Education degree, with a minimum of a BA/BS
Instructional experience – either through peer-led tutoring or classroom experience (organic chemistry instruction is not a requirement, but is a strong plus)
Strong technology skills, especially with Google Apps and Microsoft Office Suite
Aptitude to learn new technology platforms, such as CRM software...

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested.  

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 285 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 285 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 11 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 11 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

15 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 15 new positions posted for January 12.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 262 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 262 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Rest in peace, Sheri Sangji

Ten years ago today, Sheharbano (Sheri) Sangji died of her injuries sustained while running a reaction with tert-butyl lithium in the laboratory of Professor Patrick Harran at UCLA. My thoughts and prayers are with her friends and her family.

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 538 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 538 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On January 16, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 489 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? Here's a link to the current open thread.

Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

Postdoctoral position: Pierce Lab, NC State University

Via Twitter, a postdoc at NC State: 

A funded postdoctoral position in the research group of Professor Joshua Pierce at NC State University is available to work at the interface of synthetic chemistry and infectious disease drug discovery. The position is to support a project aimed at commercialization of small molecule anti-infective agents and is currently supported for one year, with the opportunity to extend this funding based on milestones. Candidates who have an interest in commercialization and transitioning to a start-up pursing these efforts are of particular interest. 

Candidates should have a PhD in Chemistry or Chemical biology, and experience with microbiology is preferred but not required. If interested, please send a CV and list of 3 references to Professor Pierce by e-mail (subject line: Postdoc Position Application) and additional materials will be requested as necessary. Review will begin immediately with a start date in the first half of 2019 preferred. 

Joshua G. Pierce PhD
Associate Professor of Chemistry
University Faculty Scholar
NC State University
jgpierce@ncsu.edu

 Best wishes to those interested. 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

Bankers' boxes

A list of small, useful things (links):

• The latest from Stellen für Chemiker
• The latest from All Things Metathesis
• At Sustainable Nano, the holiday gift bow edition
• Nessa on her paper reading strategy
• Org Prep Daily, inorganic chemistry edition
• The latest from the Baran Lab
• New Year's resolutions for scientists
• Kat Day's 2018 roundup
• Prof. Francl, with a bit of fiction

An open invitation to all interested in writing a blog, a hobby that will bring 
you millions thousands hundreds tens of dollars joy and happiness. Send me a link to your post, and I'd be happy to put it up.

Have a good weekend!

There is no skills gap, 2019 edition

Via Twitter, Vox's Matt Yglesias on a favorite bugaboo: 

...The theory here was that high unemployment reflected a structural shift in the labor market such that jobs were available, but workers simply didn’t have the right education or training for them. Harvard Business Review ran articles about this — including articles rebutting people who said the “skills gap” didn't exist — and big companies like Siemens ran paid sponsor content in the Atlantic explaining how to fix the skills gap. 

But nothing was really done to transform the American education system, and no enormous investment was made in retraining unemployed workers. And yet the unemployment rate kept steadily falling in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 as continued low interest rates from the Federal Reserve let a demand-side recovery continue. Donald Trump became president, injected a bunch of new fiscal stimulus on both the spending and tax sides, and in 2017 and 2018 the unemployment rate kept falling and the labor force participation rate kept rising. 

Now along comes a new paper from Alicia Sasser Modestino, Daniel Shoag, and Joshua Ballance presented this week at the American Economics Association’s annual conference that shows the skeptics were right all along — employers responded to high unemployment by making their job descriptions more stringent. When unemployment went down thanks to the demand-side recovery, suddenly employers got more relaxed again....

You can read a draft copy of the paper here. (scroll down, PDF)

I think it would be interesting to see the written requirements for a principal scientist in medicinal chemistry at Merck or Pfizer over the last 15 years to see if the requirements did any significant shifting from 2003 to 2008 to 2013 to now. 

Got a career dilemma?

I'm always game for writing answer requests for advice in my column at Chemical and Engineering News. Please feel free to write me (chemjobber@gmail.com) if you have a career-oriented dilemma that you'd like me to write about in the magazine. Also, you can submit your questions with this handy web form. Thanks!

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 271 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 271 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 11 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 11 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

40 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 18 new positions posted for January 7 and 22 positions posted for January 5.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 258 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 258 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Chemistry arranged by purity

with apologies to XKCD

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 530 positions

The 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 530 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

On January 2, 2018, the 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 481 positions.

Interested in how this is tracking overall? Check out these sweet graphics done by Andrew Spaeth.

Want to chat? This will be the open thread starting noon Eastern, January 7. Here's a link to the November 2018-January 2019 open thread. Here's the October/November thread. Here's the pre-September thread, here's the September/October thread.

Otherwise, all discussions are on the Chemistry Faculty Jobs List webforum.

Job posting: Core Facility Research Specialists, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

From the inbox, two positions with a core facility at the University of Iowa: 

The University of Iowa Materials Analysis, Testing, and Fabrication (MATFab) Facility is an Office of the Vice President for Research core resource, offering a wide array of instrumentation to research investigators.  

Position 1: The MATFab Facility is seeking a Core Facility Research Specialist to: support X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and chemical fabrication and characterization instrumentation including spin coating, chemical etching, and optical profiling. 

Position 2: The MATFab Facility is seeking a Core Facility Research Specialist to: support medium- to ultra-high vacuum, electron emission and detection, deposition, and etching instrumentation for materials fabrication and characterization including e-beam lithography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), reactive-ion etching, atomic-layer deposition, photolithography, and chemical vapor deposition.

Position 1 ads here and here, Position 2 ads here and here. Both positions close on January 21. Best wishes to those interested. 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 29 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 29 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady. It targets:

• Full-time STAFF positions in a Chem/Biochem/ChemE lab/facility at an academic institution/natl lab
• Lab Coordinator positions for research groups or undergraduate labs 
• and for an institution in Canada or the United States

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions.

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

How to make a popular bourbon

Via the New York Times, a fun story of experimentation in the development of Kentucky Owl, a prominent new bourbon and Dixon Dedman, its creator: 

Among them was Jim Rutledge, the master distiller at Four Roses. Mr. Rutledge, who recently retired after 49 years with the distillery, is widely regarded as one of the greatest whiskey makers of his generation. Starting in 2010, Mr. Dedman would buy barrels of whiskey, then bring samples to Mr. Rutledge’s home for him to assess. 

Unfailingly polite but highly opinionated, Mr. Rutledge was not impressed. It turned out that even with access to good barrels, Mr. Dedman had something to learn about picking the right ones. “One day he had five samples, and we met over breakfast,” Mr. Rutledge recalled. “I tried them and thought, ‘How do I tell him not to ever put these in a bottle?’ I told him he might have to blend them” — a laborious process that involves taste-testing endless combinations of barrels. 

Undeterred, that’s what Mr. Dedman did. After closing up the inn at night, he would set up dozens of barrel samples at a table in the back of the restaurant and methodically mix them, paying close attention to their age, alcohol level, even where they had been sitting in the warehouse (temperature affects how a whiskey ages, and temperatures vary widely in an unheated warehouse). 

It took nearly four years, but he finally settled on a blend he liked. He combined the barrels, paid someone to bottle and label them, and then took them around to local liquor distributors... 

...By almost all accounts, that first batch of Kentucky Owl was a transcendently beautiful bourbon, reminiscent of whiskey made in the mid-20th century, often considered a golden age of distilling. “When you pick up that bottle, Kentucky Owl just feels like Kentucky,” Mr. Minnick said. “And when you taste the early releases of Owl, it just tastes like old Kentucky bourbon from the 1950s.”

I wonder if he kept a notebook? Maybe design of experiments techniques would have helped Mr. Dedman work faster? Still, a lot of tasting to blend a good bourbon.

UPDATE: In other important bourbon news, Thomas reminds us of a NPR story about the use of a GC to recreate an old bourbon.

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 270 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list (curated by Joel Walker and myself) has 270 positions.

Want to help out? Here's a Google Form to enter positions, but if you want to do the traditional "leave a link in the comments", that works, too.

Want to chat about medchem positions? Try the open thread.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States, computational positions (this will likely change), academic positions (likely never.)

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List: 11 positions

The Analytical Chemistry Jobs List has 11 positions; this is curated by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry. Want to help out? Fill out this form. 

11 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 11 new positions posted for December 20.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 256 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 256 positions.

Want to help? Here's a form to fill out.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Warning Letter of the Week: can't come in edition

From a love note to the Director of Skylark CMC Pvt. Ltd. from the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research:

...Your firm limited the inspection and/or refused to permit the FDA inspection as follows: 

1. Barring access to areas 

During the inspection, your firm limited the investigator’s access to the manufacturing area. Your employee stated that your firm was currently manufacturing and packaging drug products; however, you prevented the investigator from entering the manufacturing area. 

2. Refusal to provide copies of documents 

During the inspection, FDA requested records, including a list of drug products you manufacture, as well as some of your facility’s shipping records. Your firm limited the inspection by refusing to provide copies of these records to FDA. 

Access to Information During Inspection 

When an owner, operator, or agent delays, denies, limits, or refuses an inspection, the drugs may be deemed adulterated under section 501(j) of the FD&C Act....

Welp, that's one way to avoid getting a long detailed list of findings.

This week's C&EN

From the last issue of Chemical and Engineering News from 2018:

• Cover story: C&EN's year in chemistry
• Interesting piece on new antibiotic development (by Megha Satyanarayana)
• Fascinating to see BASF's continued efforts in China (by Jean-François Tremblay)
• Predictions for 2019 in chemistry (by Lauren K. Wolf)
• "7 chemistry accounts we love on Instagram" (by Dorea I. Reeser)
• Some d00d yapping about predictions for the job market in 2019