More details on that Genentech cut

Via FiercePharma: 

In a move away from a "national strategy" in favor of localized operations, Genentech is planning to part ways with hundreds of staffers over the next few months. 

The U.S. unit of Swiss drug giant Roche, Genentech is cutting 474 jobs, according to a notice filed with the state of California. While many of the cuts are in clinical operations, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that 44 division managers and 32 territory managers will be affected by the layoffs. Many of the cuts take effect in mid-September, but some employees will depart in August and some in October, according to the report. 

A spokeswoman told Fierce Pharma the company this year "launched a new customer-engagement approach that will transform the way we serve patients, physicians, providers, payors and pharmacies across the country."

Best wishes to them.  

22 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 22 new positions for July 26.

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

Kodak going into the pharma services business with $765 million of Uncle Sam's money

Via the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (articles by Victoria E. Freile and Brian Sharp), the best summary of this story that I've seen: 

Eastman Kodak Co. will receive a $765 million government loan to help expedite the domestic production of generic drugs to treat a variety of medical conditions and loosen the country's reliance on foreign sources, officials said Tuesday.  Specifically, the Rochester-based company will make the ingredients so often produced overseas so the country can produce its own medications.

The move is expected to create at least 350 new jobs, launching a new business unit for the Rochester-based company that — when at peak production in four to five years — could produce 25% of the active ingredients for  "non-biologic, non-antibacterial, generic pharmaceuticals."  

...Continenza told The Journal that the loan has terms similar to a commercial loan and must be repaid over 25 years. Kodak will produce “starter materials” and “active pharmaceutical ingredients” used to produce generic medicines, he said. “We have a long, long history in chemical and advanced materials — well over 100 years,” Continenza said. He added that Kodak’s existing infrastructure allows the company “to get up and running quickly.” 

...The operation will build on Kodak's existing Specialty Chemicals Group, a segment that is dispersed across a three-building complex at Eastman Business Park, with multiple cells or bays that operate as its own chemical factory so that multiple processes can be run concurrently. That operation already is working with various markets, including pharmaceuticals. In company brochures, Kodak touts the 88 reactors, more than 25 centrifuges, filter and membrane presses.

I think this is a pretty logical move on the part of the Trump Administration, i.e. they clearly want to reshore the pharmaceutical supply chain, and Kodak is (I strongly suspect) the largest group of not-currently-spoken-for large scale reactors in the country. They're making noises about making APIs there, and I'm pretty skeptical of that, but the better part of a billion dollars will get you at least partway there. This bears watching. 

Genentech cutting 474 Bay Area positions

I can't see the whole article, but the San Francisco Chronicle has the details:

Biotech giant Genentech will lay off more than 470 employees, the company reported to state regulators.

Well, that's not good. Best wishes to them.  

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 23 research/teaching positions and 3 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 23 research/teaching positions and 3 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On July 30, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 71 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 27 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 27 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

C&EN: Dow cutting jobs 6% as Q2 revenues down 24%

Well, we kinda knew this was coming (article by Alex Tullo):  

In an effort to preserve cash as the global economy fitfully recuperates from the COVID-19 pandemic, Dow is reducing its workforce by 6%—about 2,200 employees—and aims to shutter uncompetitive facilities. 

Dow is the first major chemical company to announce earnings for the second quarter, the period most impacted by the US lockdowns intended to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Its sales fell by 24% compared with the same period in 2019, to $8.4 billion; it posted a net loss of $225 million. 

Packaging and specialty plastics—Dow’s largest segment—saw growth in nondurable packaging, such as for food, but that was offset by poor sales to durable markets and lower selling prices. Overall, the business’s sales fell 23%...

Bad news for Dow employees, and this bears watching. Best wishes to them, and all of us.  

NYT: Tecan tips are in shortage

Via the New York Times, this interesting comment:

...The Swiss company Tecan, which supplies pipette tips for machines used by hundreds of laboratories in the United States, has been slammed with orders from U.S. customers in recent months, according to Martin Brändle, the firm’s senior vice president of corporate communications and investor relations. The demand has been so high, he said, that Tecan has tapped into an emergency stash, and is racing to install new production lines that he hopes will double the company’s output by fall. 

Pipette tips aren’t the only laboratory items in short supply. Dwindling stocks of machines, containers and chemicals needed to extract or amplify the coronavirus’s genetic material have clogged almost every point along the testing workflow...

An additional clarifying note via Twitter: "specialized tips for automated sampling handling robots to PCR specs." That's definitely something where I can imagine that Tecan was probably not ready for the surge in demand, and is just trying to keep up these days (or outsource?)

I find it continually frustrating, incidentally, that no organization seems to have determined which reagents are in shortage, and what can be done to increase their supply. Isn't this something simple to publish and continually inform the biotechnology/chemical manufacturing industry about? 

Have a good weekend

A little something rousing for the weekend. We made it another week. See you on Monday. 

New unemployment claims up this week

Via the New York Times: 

New state unemployment claims increased last week for the first time in nearly four months, disturbing evidence that the struggling economy is backsliding at a time when coronavirus cases are on the rise. 

After a flood of claims as the pandemic shut businesses early in the spring, weekly unemployment filings fell sharply before flattening in June. But on Thursday, the Labor Department reported more than 1.4 million new applications for state benefits last week, up from about 1.3 million in the preceding two weeks.

Here's the Calculated Risk writeup. Best wishes to unemployed folks, and to all of us.  

BMS layoffs

I have heard rumors of layoffs at BMS this week - can anyone confirm with details? Confidentiality guaranteed: chemjobber@gmail.com 

18 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 18 new positions for July 20.

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

Why does ethanol-based hand sanitizer smell bad?

From the New York Times' "Wirecutter", this skepticism-inducing set of statements about off smells coming from hand sanitizers: 

...I contacted Bryan Zlotnik of Alpha Aromatics, a perfume manufacturer specializing in additive solutions used to mask unpleasant odors in sanitizers, for an explanation as to why there has been a sudden proliferation of unpleasant-smelling hand sanitizer. 

“That off-putting smell—sometimes described as rotten garbage or tequila-like—is the natural byproduct of ethanol being made from corn, sugar cane, beets, and other organic sources,” explained Zlotnik. “[Ethyl alcohol] production is highly regulated. It stinks because these new brands—many made by distillers who’ve pivoted from producing drinking alcohol to meet public demand for hand sanitizer—are making and using denatured ethanol. This ethanol costs significantly less than ethanol filtered using activated carbon filtration, which would typically remove almost all contaminants and the malodor with it.” 

Those organic contaminants aren’t the only reason unfiltered and denatured ethanol smells downright foul. According to Zlotnik, denatured ethanol is also intentionally tainted with an unpalatable cocktail of chemicals (denaturants) such as methanol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, and denatonium to make it undrinkable. In other words: The base material is intentionally stinky.

I could easily believe that organic sources could provide a bunch of various low molecular weight amines and thiols that could give a pretty nasty funk to ethanol. But methanol, acetone and MEK? No way. Does denatonium bromide have a smell, especially at the low levels used in hand sanitizer? I doubt it. Readers, your thoughts? 

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 18 research/teaching positions and 3 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 18 research/teaching positions and 3 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On July 23, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 52 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

Postdoctoral opportunity: Nanomaterials for Biosensing, York University, Toronto, ON

From the inbox: 

Postdoctoral Fellow/Research Associate in Nanomaterials for Biosensing 

The Chen research group in the Department of Chemistry at York University, Toronto, Ontario, is seeking a full-time postdoctoral research associate in the field of nanomaterials for biosensing. 

We seek an outstanding candidate with expertise in bioconjugated nanomaterials. The highly motivated candidate will join us in working at the interface of analytical and materials chemistry to develop plasmonic nanoparticle-based sensors for the analysis of single cells and the cellular microenvironment. 

A PhD degree in the following discipline is required: analytical chemistry, materials chemistry, biomedical engineering or a closely related field. In addition to having the experience in developing nanostructured sensors or imaging probes, other skillsets encompassing molecular biology techniques (e.g. DNA/RNA extraction and purification, RT-qPCR), cell culturing, tissue sampling, microscopy, microfluidics and microfabrication are desirable. The candidate should have a strong publishing record, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, leadership potential and the ability to mentor students. 

The position is available immediately. A starting date beyond 2020 may be considered for an exceptional candidate. The term is one year with the possibility to renew up to 3 years, depending on performance. 

Please visit jchen.lab.yorku.ca/apply for more information.

Best wishes to those interested.  

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 27 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 27 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

COVID-19 and job-seeking postdocs

Also in this week's issue of C&EN, sad stories of postdocs affected by COVID-19 shutdowns (article by Bethany Halford): 

Terry McCallum didn’t expect to spend this summer creating a personal website and growing hot peppers in his in-laws’ garden in North Carolina. In February, he was a postdoctoral scholar at Cornell University studying the chemistry of organic radicals. After spending the months prior interviewing for academic jobs, he was negotiating the details of a position as an assistant professor. His future seemed nearly squared away. 

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

All McCallum’s plans seemed to evaporate. The school where he was supposed to work hadn’t yet made its formal offer. With budget cuts looming, the university’s chemistry department told him the position was on hold. And because McCallum is Canadian, the university told him it could no longer sponsor his visa to work in the US because of new restrictions from President Donald J. Trump’s administration. 

McCallum is married to an American, so he decided to apply for a Permanent Resident Card using his marital status. But this change in immigration status meant he could no longer work while waiting for the green card to come through—a process that could take more than a year. This meant he had to leave his postdoc at Cornell.

Best wishes to Dr. McCallum, and to all of us.  

Chemical companies' second quarter results

Also in this week's issue of C&EN, this expected but unwelcome news: 

Chemical companies navigating the economic impact of COVID-19 will be reporting second-quarter sales and earnings in the coming weeks, and early indications are that the figures won’t be pretty. Economists are expecting a global rebound in the third quarter, but chemical industry watchers say some markets, namely automotive and aerospace, will continue to be troubled, possibly for years. 

The chemical makers BASF and Covestro and the paint and coatings firm AkzoNobel have given investors a preview of the magnitude of the impact that COVID-19 slowdowns had on second-quarter sales and earnings. All three say businesses serving automotive manufacturing had a rough season, while some other major segments kept pace with last year. 

Lower demand from the auto industry hurt BASF’s sales of materials, surface technologies, and basic and performance chemicals. Overall, the German company expects to report a sales drop of 12.4% to $14.5 billion compared to the second quarter of 2019. The company will report full results on July 29... 

...In the US, the chemical industry will continue to face lagging sales to the auto industry, but companies supplying pharmaceuticals, nutrition, and hygiene raw materials will benefit from upward trends, according to a midyear outlook by Deloitte. The consulting firm estimates full-year US chemical industry sales will be 14–15% lower than last year...

A 14% revenue cut doesn't sound like something that's going to lead to more hiring...

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: "What will it take to make an effective vaccine for COVID-19?" (by Ryan Cross) 
• "Lead fallout from Notre-Dame fire more than originally reported" (by Laura Howes)
• Charcoal to treat cytokine storm? (by Gina Vitale)
• Waters has a new CEO (by Craig Bettenhausen)
• Some d00d yapping about socially-distanced workplaces

Have a good weekend

Well, friends, we've made it another week. Hope you have a great weekend, and see you on Monday. 

Of interest to faculty candidates

This very interesting website, Chemistry Placement Data, which shows the tenure-track placement rates for the PhD graduation classes of 2008-2010. The percentages are about what you would expect, and the success rates of the universities are about there as well.

This website has been around for a while, but the authors have now encouraged sharing the data, especially since Dr. Gaule and his team have a new paper out, titled "Biased Beliefs and Entry into Scientific Careers". It's quite interesting:

We investigate whether excessively optimistic beliefs may play a role in the persistent demand for doctoral and post-doctoral training in science. We elicit the beliefs and career preferences of doctoral students through a novel survey and randomize the provision of structured information on the true state of the academic market and information through role models on non-academic careers. One year later, both treatments lead students to update their beliefs about the academic market and impact career preferences. However, we do not find an effect on actual career outcomes 2 years post-intervention.

I will have more to say about this paper later, but I think it's worth reading and thinking about, even as I suspect readers of this blog will agree with the broad conclusions of the article. 

23 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 10 new positions for July 15 and 13 for July 12.

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

Merck CEO Ken Frazier: "officials are doing a “grave disservice” to the public by talking up the potential for vaccines later this year"

Via FiercePharma: 

Politicians, government officials and pharma executives alike have been predicting a COVID-19 vaccine debut by year's end, but Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier doubts that's possible—and Merck has enough vaccine experience to know the obstacles ahead. Instead, those who are promising vaccines later this year could be hurting the overall fight against the pandemic, Frazier figures. 

In an interview with Tsedal Neeley, the Naylor Fitzhugh Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Frazier said officials are doing a “grave disservice” to the public by talking up the potential for vaccines later this year. There are massive scientific and logistical obstacles to achieving such a feat, he said.  

“What worries me the most is that the public is so hungry, is so desperate to go back to normalcy, that they are pushing us to move things faster and faster,” Frazier said. "Ultimately, if you are going to use a vaccine in billions of people, you’d better know what that vaccine does.” 

I agree with Frazier 100%. I don't have much of a crystal ball, but I think the earliest we'll have access to a mass vaccine is July 1, 2021, and I fear that's far too early.

Read the whole interview for lots of really good insights.  

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 12 research/teaching positions and 3 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 12 research/teaching positions and 3 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On July 16, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 38 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 27 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 27 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

COVID-19 saliva tests

Via the New York Times, I learned that pro sports leagues are using saliva tests: 

In early March, as the coronavirus was spreading across the United States and testing capacity was already a problem, Bill Phillips had an idea. 

Phillips is the chief operating officer of a medical device company, Spectrum Solutions, that provides saliva test kits for companies like Ancestry.com. He wondered if Spectrum’s kits — which require customers to spit in a tube and ship their samples through the mail — could work with detecting this new virus. 

“I just threw it out there: Why don’t we test our device to see if we can use it as a transport medium to get it to the lab?” Phillips recalled in a recent telephone interview.
Spectrum, based outside Salt Lake City, teamed up with a laboratory at Rutgers University, made a few tweaks and found that the effectiveness of their saliva test kit was comparable to the nasopharyngeal test, or the long swab, that was already in widespread use. 

By mid-April, the Food and Drug Administration granted the Rutgers lab an emergency-use authorization. A month later, it received approval for the test kit to be used at home.
That saliva kit is now a key part of Major League Baseball’s plan to return to play, and has also been used by other revived sports leagues, including the PGA Tour and Major League Soccer.

I didn't know this. (I haven't really been paying attention to the various testing methods out there.) I wonder how accurate these tests are? (It's PCR-based, so it taps into the problems the US has had with PCR reagent shortages...) 

I firmly believe we should be testing everyone as much as possible, so this is a good thing. 

Have a good weekend

Well, we made it another week, folks. Have a great weekend - hope you get lots of rest. 

New claims for unemployment this week at 1.3 million workers

Also from the New York Times:

The number of new state unemployment claims dipped last week, but job losses continue to batter the economy as rising coronavirus cases pushed some regions of the country to reverse course and reimpose shutdown orders on businesses. 

More than 1.3 million workers, seasonally adjusted, filed new claims for regular unemployment benefits last week, the government reported on Thursday. Another million first-time claims were filed under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. Taken together, the report paints a disappointing picture of recovery: Total new unemployment claims have edged up from their mid-June lows. 

Although hiring nationwide has picked up in recent weeks, most of the payroll gains were temporarily laid-off workers who were rehired. The pool of employees whose previous jobs have disappeared and who must search for new ones has grown....

The trend in permanent job loss isn't looking good. Here's hoping things turn around. 

Pharma companies start antibiotic startup fund

From the New York Times: 

Twenty of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies on Thursday announced the creation of a $1 billion fund to buoy financially strapped biotech start-ups that are developing new antibiotics to treat the mounting number of drug-resistant infections responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. 

The fund, created in partnership with the World Health Organization and financed by drug behemoths that include Roche, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson, will offer a short-term but desperately needed lifeline for some of the three dozen small antibiotic companies, many of them based in the United States, that have been struggling to draw investment amid a collapsing antibiotics industry. 

Over the past year, three American antibiotic start-ups with promising drugs have gone bankrupt, and many of the remaining companies are quickly running out of cash.

Well, this is a good thing. Here's hoping for more, and more jobs to come with them.  

16 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 16 new positions for July 6.

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

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 9 research/teaching positions and 2 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 9 research/teaching positions and 2 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On July 9, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 24 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 27 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 27 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

It's still hard to find domestically-produced hand sanitizer bottle parts?

An interesting detail from a New York Times piece on China's dominance of medical supply manufacturing: 

Such efforts helped put China firmly at the front of the industry, as Rakesh Tammabattula discovered. An entrepreneur in the Los Angeles suburbs, he shifted his business making nutrition supplements and moisturizer to the production of medical masks and hand sanitizer in response to the epidemic. To do that, he needed a machine that could compress and cut fabric to make masks. 

He discovered that the machines were made only in China. He had to charter a jet to fly the huge device — 36 feet long, six feet high and five feet wide — from southern China to Los Angeles... 

...In Los Angeles, Mr. Tammabattula has found that even producing hand sanitizer is hard. He has been unable to find any company in the United States that still makes plastic bottles with pump handles. He imports them, on expensive chartered aircraft, from China. 

Mr. Tammabattula has applied for a federal loan for small businesses trying to produce medical supplies, but the paperwork has proved extensive, daunting and slow, he said. 

“If we were to compare to the Chinese government,” Mr. Tammabattula said, “there’s just no support for domestic manufacturing.”

It's hard for me to imagine that there are no US or North American manufacturers of plastic bottle pump parts, but I'm guessing that they are solidly booked by Proctor & Gamble or whomever.  

June 2020 Chemical Activity Barometer

From the American Chemistry Council: 

WASHINGTON (June 30, 2020) – The Chemical Activity Barometer (CAB), a leading economic indicator created by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), eased 0.3 percent in June on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis following a 4.6 percent decline in May. On a year-over-year (Y/Y) basis, the barometer fell 12.0 percent in June. 

The unadjusted data show a 3.5 percent gain in June following a 2.2 percent gain in May and a 6.3 percent decline in April. The diffusion index rose from 35 percent to 53 percent. The diffusion index marks the number of positive contributors relative to the total number of indicators monitored. The CAB reading for May was revised upward by 2.68 points and the April reading was revised upward by 0.05 points. 

“While the latest CAB reading is consistent with a recession, two consecutive months of gains in the unadjusted data is a positive development,” said Kevin Swift, chief economist at ACC. “We’ll want to see at least another month of gains in order to conclude that the economy has turned a corner.”  

 Here's hoping this turns around. 

Layoffs news: Sanofi, UT-San Antonio

On June 25, Reuters reported that Sanofi was planning restructuring, including cutting 1000 jobs in France: 

The reorganisation could involve several European countries and possibly others outside the region, as well as all the divisions of Sanofi except the vaccines and rare diseases unit Genzyme, the sources said. 

Three sources said around 1,000 jobs in France were at risk. One of the sources said the cuts would take place over a three-year period, with no forced redundancies.

On July 1, the San Antonio Express-News reported: 

The University of Texas at San Antonio notified 312 employees Wednesday that their positions were being eliminated to help close a $36 million budget shortfall caused by the coronavirus pandemic’s damage to state finances. 

The losses included one-tenth of the university’s non-tenured faculty, ranging across all academic departments.

Best wishes to them, and all of us. 

Have a good weekend

Well, it's been another week. See you on Monday. 

June unemployment rate was 11.1%

Credit: Calculated Risk blog

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday that the national employment rate is 11.1%, and nonfarm payroll employment rose by 4.8 million in June.

The broader U6 measurement of unemployment was 18.0%.

The chemical manufacturing subsector saw a rise in positions from 830400 to 832900, a drop of 31000 positions (seasonally adjusted).

The unemployment rate of college graduates was 6.9% for June 2020, while by contrast the unemployment rate for people without a high school diploma was 16.6%. 

31 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 12 new positions for June 30 and 19 new positions for June 28.

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

In June, 96 jobs were posted. 

Chemical industry outlook for 2020 doesn't look great

Also in this week's C&EN, the outlook from the American Chemistry Council (by Alex Tullo): 

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the US and world economies into the worst recession in decades, and the US chemical industry will see a sharp decline before rebounding next year, according to the an updated outlook from the American Chemistry Council (ACC). 

The trade association’s baseline prediction is for a 9.3% decline in US chemical production volume this year. Its pessimistic outlook, in which COVID-19 cases start spiking again, is for a 14.7% production decline, and its optimistic scenario, where the economy benefits from a V-shaped recovery, is for a 7.0% decline. The US industry, the ACC predicts, will cut about 20,000 jobs this year, a decline of 3.6%. Capital spending, as companies tighten their belts and delay projects, will decline about 17.6%, to $29 billion.

This is a far cry from the ACC’s prediction in December that US production will increase by 0.4% this year. “COVID-19 has obviously changed that,” says Martha Moore, senior director of policy analysis and economics. “It has spread to every corner. And the government-imposed lockdowns have caused just this collapse in economic activity. It’s the deepest recession we have seen since the 1930s.” 

The ACC expects global economic activity to decline 4.6% in 2020 and then surge 5.3% in 2021, assuming the world gets over the pandemic. The US will see a 6.0% economic decline this year, followed by 4.6% growth next year. “We think that a recovery is already underway, that activity has bottomed out,” Moore says...

Here's hoping it's a short, very sharp decline in the chemical industry, and the job losses (or lack of job growth) don't impact chemists very much.  

This week's C&EN

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

• Pandemic strands graduate students and postdocs away from their labs (by Andrea Widener)
• Can Pepcid treat COVID-19? (by Bethany Halford)
• Bringing drug production back to the US (by Rick Mullin)
• Concerns about scientist immigration to the US have amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic (by Andrea Widener)
• How to 3-D print tissue-repairing implants inside live mice (by Prachi Patel)

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 8 research/teaching positions and 2 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has has 8 research/teaching positions and 2 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On July 2, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 17 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

Job posting: research scientist, Glycoscience Center of Research Excellence, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS

From the inbox:

The Computational Chemistry and Bioinformatics Research CORE (CCBRC) of the Glycoscience Center of Research Excellence (GlyCORE) at the University of Mississippi, is seeking applications for a Research Scientist.  This position will manage the day-to-day operations of CCBRC. 

Candidates should have a computational PhD with specialization in glycoscience, medicinal chemistry, chemistry, biology, biophysics, bioinformatics, or a related field; three years of relevant postdoctoral experience; and an outstanding publication record. Candidates must have excellent written and oral communication skills. Highly valued personal characteristics include a dedication to scholarship, excellent communication skills, experience in collaborating with others, and a commitment to promoting diversity and advancing an inclusive climate that stimulates excellence.

Additional description of the center here. Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Postdoctoral position: carbohydrate chemistry, Axelrod Lab, Purdue University

From the inbox:

Postdoctoral Position Available in Oligosaccharide and Glycan Synthesis  

The research group of Dr. Abram Axelrod in the department of Chemistry at Purdue University is seeking a postdoctoral researcher skilled in carbohydrate synthesis for our biologics programs. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, and a proven track record of accomplishments in the laboratory, demonstrated through publications. Required experience includes strong capabilities in multi-step synthesis, analytical techniques and characterization. Experience in glycopeptide synthesis or enzymatic transformations are a plus, but not required. In addition to research, other responsibilities will include mentoring students and assisting manuscript preparation. The candidate will have access to world-class instrumentation and new facilities, and be part of a dynamic atmosphere in team of researchers focused on translational immuno-oncology research. The position offers competitive salary and benefits. The successful applicant will be assessed on their productivity on an annual basis with the option of a yearly renewal if agreed upon by both parties.  

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and CV with research summary to aaxelro@purdue.edu, and arrange for 3 letters of reference from individuals familiar with the candidate’s experience, accomplishments, and potential. The position is open immediately, but the start date is flexible. 

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested: 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 23 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 23 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

June 11: Johnson Matthey cutting 2500 employees worldwide

News from June 11. I'm a little late with this, but I think it's significant nonetheless: 

Johnson Matthey PLC on Thursday cut its dividend for fiscal 2020 in light of the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic, and said it is targeting cost savings which will lead to around 2,500 job losses. 

The FTSE 100 specialty chemicals company declared a final dividend of 31.125 pence per share for the year ended March 31, bringing the full-year payment to 55.625 pence--down from 85.5 pence a year earlier and below the market consensus forecast of 68.07 pence taken from the company's website and based on thirteen analysts' estimates. 

Chief Executive Robert MacLeod said that the group is targeting cost savings of at least 80 million pounds ($102 million) by the end of fiscal 2023--in addition to GBP120 million already announced and delivered--and this will lead to around 2,500 job losses globally. The company said it was unable to provide any financial guidance for fiscal 2021 given the ongoing uncertainty.

Johnson Matthey has 14000 global employees, so this is a significant cut. It will be interesting to see if this is unique to them, or if this augurs a broader trend amongst chemical companies. Best wishes to them, and to all of us. 

Have a good weekend

Well, it's been another week. Here's hoping that you had a good one, and that next week will be better. 

Calculated Risk author downgrades all economics forecasts for H2 2020/2021

Bill McBride is an economist, and the author of Calculated Risk, an economics blog that longtime readers know I have been following for many years. His claim to fame (with his co-blogger Tanta) was calling the mortgage crisis and subsequent downturn correctly. He has a new outlook, and it is quite grim (emphasis mine): 

...It doesn't take an official lockdown to push local economies back into recession - many people will pull back as the number of cases and hospitalizations rise.  Based on recent hospitalization data, I expect further layoffs in some states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida.  

I do expect another round of disaster relief in July - extending the extra unemployment benefits (perhaps at a lower level), extending the PPP, and providing relief to the States.   Without this disaster relief, the entire US economy might slide back into recession in August. But even with another round of disaster relief, it seems likely the recovery will stall unless progress is made in slowing the spread of the virus.  The longer the widespread pandemic continues, the more structural damage to the economy.   And the more severe the economic damage, the longer it will take to recover from the pandemic.

Everyone is hoping for a vaccine in late 2020 or early 2021, but even if there is a vaccine, the damage to the economy will be extensive if we don't lower the infection rate significantly in the near term. Perhaps there will be a sudden change in behavior while we wait for a vaccine - or some other breakthrough that will slow the spread of the virus - but I'm not sanguine. 

After a decade of making fun of bearish analysts and writing "the future is bright", it pains me to be pessimistic.   I hope I'm wrong on the virus, but if I'm correct, then I expect every major economic forecast will be revised down for the 2nd half of 2020 and for early 2021.

This bodes poorly for all of us, and it's not clear to me how chemistry will be affected. I imagine that the real problem will stem from two places. First, it's quite clear the pandemic is hurting academia most, and there will be a tremendous slowdown in the hiring of tenure-track professors, and even more of a burden shifted towards non-tenured teaching faculty. Second, I think that it's the non-pharma sectors within the industrial chemical enterprise that will be affected the most - while there is undoubtedly plenty of excess plastics being purchased for PPE, etc, it's the people who are not buying new cars, new planes and new houses that will be problematic for the Dows and DuPonts of the world. It's hard for me to know how best to think about this, but that's what I have been thinking, and I haven't seen a lot to change my perspective yet.

Best wishes to us all. 

33 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 17 new positions for June 23 and 16 new positions for June 18.

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

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: "One molecule’s journey from discovery to market" (by Michael McCoy)
• "Former US Chemical Safety Board member Kristen Kulinowski reflects on her term" (by Jeff Johnson) 
• Cool article about plastics manufacturers during coronavirus (by Alexander H. Tullo)
• "Chemistry helps reconstruct the origin of 2017 ruthenium plume" (by Laura Howes)
• "Universities must tell NIH about sexual harassment allegations" (by Andrea Widener)
• The Senior Chemists Committee during COVID-19 (by Arlene A. Garrison, Chair, Senior Chemists Committee)

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 7 research/teaching positions and 2 teaching faculty positions

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has has 7 research/teaching positions and 2 teaching assistant professor positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On June 25, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 13 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

Postdoctoral position: Cheloha lab, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

From the inbox: 

We are soliciting applications for funded postdoctoral positions in biochemistry and chemical-biology. Research will center on the synthesis of new chemical and immunological tools to study cell surface proteins, such as disease-relevant G protein-coupled receptors.  

See the following link as a primer on the types of tools to be developed in the laboratory: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15884-8

A PhD in biochemistry, chemistry, or pharmacology (or related fields) with completion planned in 2020 or early 2021 is required. US citizenship is not a requirement. Applicants should be detail-oriented and highly organized with the ability to plan and have ownership of tasks to completion.  

Additional attributes of interest (but which are not required) include knowledge of peptide or organic chemistry, protein expression and purification, and experience in cell-based assay development. 

Instructions: Please provide by email a summary of your PhD work (≤ 1 page) and your role in the work. Provide a short description (1-2 paragraphs) of how your skills are suited to the areas of focus in the Cheloha lab. Also provide contact information for three references that can comment on your research and laboratory experience.

Full ad and contact information here. Best wishes to those interested. 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

Copper in anti-coronavirus products

Interesting article in the New York Times: 

In recent months, there’s been a surge of interest in materials laced with the metal, including socks, bedsheets and coatings that can be sprayed onto surfaces. Multiple companies are marketing face coverings and masks with built-in copper linings, touting their germ-killing properties. One company even offers a “nasal wand” designed to apply “the touch of solid copper” to the hands, face and nostrils at the first sign of illness. 

But while copper does have antimicrobial qualities, Dr. Johnson and others said you should think twice before buying into many of these products’ claims.

Who knew copper was so popular? 

Merrill Lynch and Goldman estimate Q2 GDP down 33-35%

Via Calculated Risk, the latest forecasts for the second quarter of 2020:

Important: GDP is reported at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR). So a 33% Q2 decline is around 8% decline from Q1 (SA). 

From Merrill Lynch: We revise up 2Q GDP to -35% qoq saar from -40% and 3Q to 20% from 7%, given the faster and more successful reopening. [June 18 estimate] 

From Goldman Sachs: We have adjusted our real GDP growth forecasts and now expect -33% in Q2, +33% in Q3, and +8% in Q4 (vs. -36%, +29%, and +11% previously) in qoq annualized terms. [June 18 estimate]

Well, that's bad. Here's hoping the damage isn't too deep. 

Have a great weekend

Well, I hope you had a good week - we've made it to the weekend. See you on Monday. 

Houston Chronicle: Oil field services employment approaching 4 year lows

Via the Houston Chronicle: 

Oil-field services employment in the United States is approaching its lowest point since the 2014-16 oil bust, as low crude prices continue to put a damper on drilling and completion activities, according to a report by the Petroleum Equipment and Services Association. 

The sector's workforce, which includes drilling rig crews, hydraulic fracturing fleets and equipment manufacturers, shed more than 105,000 jobs during a 12-month period ended in May, the trade group said in an analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data...

I imagine this will have interesting ripple effects through the chemical industry...

Best wishes to O&G chemists, and to all of us. 

Public sector employment down 1.5 million jobs since March

Via Inside Higher Ed, this Pew Charitable Trusts report:

In the public sector, officials responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by furloughing workers at shuttered facilities and trimming payrolls in the face of substantial projected budget shortfalls. Colleges, school districts, and other areas of state and local government have shed approximately 1.5 million jobs since March, but most have been furloughs or temporary layoffs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In all, employment for the sector has fallen to its lowest levels since 2001, eclipsing the declines that followed the Great Recession. 

Private industries have generally incurred greater percentage losses than the public sector. The lifting of lockdowns across the country brings hope for the return of private sector jobs, but many governments face bleak financial outlooks that continue to leave workers vulnerable.... 

...The state government education workforce, mostly public colleges and universities, similarly suffered a substantial blow, decreasing more than 9% in the weeks since the shutdowns began in response to the pandemic.

I am beginning to wonder if the results of the COVID-19 recession will be that the academic jobs of chemistry will suffer substantially more than industry and perhaps more than government positions. 

People were buying 55-gallon drums of DCM off eBay?

Via NPR, this odd news:

On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Amazon and eBay to stop selling certain pesticide-containing products, many of which claimed to fight off and disinfect from the coronavirus. 

The orders also bar the e-commerce giants from selling products that contain toxic chemicals like chlorine dioxide and methylene chloride, which is federally regulated as a toxic substance. 

Exposure to methylene chloride can cause death, but in one instance, eBay marketed and sold 55-gallon drums of methylene chloride as a coronavirus disinfectant and paint stripper, according to the EPA press release.

Here's the EPA link. I think it is quite possible that someone was selling DCM as a COVID-19 disinfectant (people do dumb things), but actually arranging for delivery? A drum weighs 600 pounds! Can't get that in a UPS truck. 

The 2020 Faculty Jobs List: 6 positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 6 research/teaching positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

On June 18, 2019, the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 9 positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? Go to the first open thread.

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 21 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 21 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

Congress giving (more) money to US manufacturing?

Via The New York Times, moves afoot to bolster the US semiconductor manufacturing industry in Congress: 

China’s technological ambitions are eliciting rare bipartisan agreement in Washington, with lawmakers considering investing tens of billions of dollars in America’s semiconductor industry over the next five to 10 years to help the United States retain an edge over Beijing. 

A bipartisan measure introduced this week is one of several proposals that would provide substantial funding for the semiconductor industry, which manufactures chips that serve as the tiny brains or memory of electronic devices from smartphones to fitness trackers. 

The efforts reflect a shifting consensus in Washington, as lawmakers look to more expansive government intervention in private markets to help American firms compete. That includes Republicans, who have long criticized government-led industrial plans as inefficient and redolent of communism but have watched with dismay as such efforts in China have allowed it to dominate industries from steel and solar panels to shipbuilding...

It's pretty amazing to watch the moves towards the direct subsidization of American manufacturing. One imagines that this may begin to happen with the pharmaceutical industry as well, especially on the manufacturing side.* Overall, I suspect it will produce more boondoggles than be actually successful, but we shall see. I'm skeptical. 

*If the COVID-19 recession continues, maybe this will change, but I still don't see Americans volunteering to put a chemical manufacturing facility in their town, I just don't. 

Bad ways to lay people off

Via The New York Times, two ways not to do it:

One of the many unwelcome lessons we’ve already learned during this recession is just how terrible companies are at firing people. Last month, WW International, the company formerly known as Weight Watchers, laid off employees in an arpeggio of simultaneous Zoom calls lasting just three minutes each. 

A few weeks before that, Bird, the Santa Monica-based scooter rental company, lured 406 employees to a mysterious Zoom “webinar” only to have them stare at a slide that read “Covid-19” while a disembodied female voice told them their services were no longer required. “It felt like a Black Mirror episode,” said a former employee.

I don't think pharma or the chemical industry has gotten there yet...

Have a great weekend

Well, we made it another week in this crazy time. Hope you and your family are well. Have a good weekend, and see you on Monday. 

Charles Lieber indicted by federal grand jury

From Chemical and Engineering News' Bethany Halford:

Charles M. Lieber, an expert in nanoscience and former chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 9. The grand jury formally charged Lieber with two counts of making false statements about his association with China’s Thousand Talents program. He will appear before a Boston federal court to answer the charges at a later date, according to a press release from the US Department of Justice. 

Lieber was first arrested for alleged fraud on Jan. 28. He has been out on $1 million bail since Jan. 30. He is currently on leave from Harvard... 

...“The government has this wrong. Professor Lieber has dedicated his life to science and to his students,” Lieber’s attorneys Marc Mukasey and Torrey Young say in a statement. “When justice is done, Charlie’s good name will be restored and the scientific community again will be able to benefit from his intellect and passion.”

Here's a link to the Department of Justice press release, and the actual indictment. I still predict no prison. The charges have penalty of "...a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000.  Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors."

(I suspect DoJ has Professor Lieber dead to rights - I wonder what they will want? For him to resign his position? Pay a fine? I dunno.) 

Well, it's official: NBER calls it a recession

Via The Associated Press: 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus struck the nation, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record. 

The economists said that employment, income and spending peaked in February and then fell sharply afterward as the viral outbreak shut down businesses across the country, marking the start of the downturn after nearly 11 full years of economic growth. A committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private nonprofit group, determines when recessions begin and end. It broadly defines a recession as “a decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months.” 

For that reason, the NBER typically waits longer before making a determination that the economy is in a downturn. In the previous recession, the committee did not declare that the economy was in recession until December 2008, a year after it had actually begun. But in this case, the NBER said the collapse in employment and incomes was so steep that it could much more quickly make a determination. 

“The unprecedented magnitude of the decline in employment and production, and its broad reach across the entire economy, warrants the designation of this episode as a recession, even if it turns out to be briefer than earlier contractions,” the NBER panel said.

Best wishes to all of us.  

31 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 17 new positions for June 7 and 14 new positions for June 4.

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

"Science was being the only black person in the program for four years."

The above is a remarkable story of a Black student in biochemistry, Brandon Taylor. He speaks gorgeously about his love for the details of science, so I recommend listening to the whole thing. He also speaks of his alienation in his graduate program due to the fact that he was the only Black graduate student. He doesn't work in science anymore (he's a writer and a novelist). He writes beautifully in his Buzzfeed essay on the same topic:

Science was being the only black person in the program for four years. Science was saying nothing because I was tired of being corrected about the particulars of my own experience. Science was being told that I should consider moving to the other side of town where more black people live. Science was someone suggesting that I find a church in order to find community. Science was having my hair stroked and touched. Science was being told that I was articulate. Science was watching people’s eyes widen slightly in surprise when I told them what program I was in. Science was the constant humiliation of wondering if I had justified my presence or if I had made it harder for the next black person to get admitted. Science was having to worry about that in the first place. 

Science was a place I ultimately left, not so much because I wanted to, but because I had to. Science is not being able to say that because I reflexively feel the rebuttal waiting on the other end of that sentence: You could have made it work if you wanted it enough. Science is not knowing whether I wanted it enough.

Read the whole thing.

The 2021 Faculty Jobs List: 5 positions and first open thread

The 2021 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 5 research/teaching positions.

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

In 2020-2021, we will be adding teaching professor positions, targeting positions that demonstrate an intention to renew permanently, 3 year terms and a promotion ladder and/or are titled "assistant teaching professor" or "associate teaching professor." We are adding community college positions if they explicitly offer tenure.

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List finished with 557 positions and 80 teaching professor positions.

Want to talk anonymously? Have an update on the status of a job search? This will serve as the first open thread.

This thread closed at 12:00 PM Eastern on November 11, 2020. Click on the "load more" to see more. 

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 20 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 20 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

USP decides to stick with horseshoe crabs for endotoxin testing

Via the New York Times, sucks to be a horseshoe crab: 

For decades, drug companies have depended on a component in the blood of the horseshoe crab to test injectable medicines, including vaccines, for dangerous bacterial contaminants called endotoxins. 

Conservationists and some businesses have pushed for wide acceptance of an alternative test, to protect the horseshoe crabs and birds that feed on their eggs. Earlier this year, these people seemed to be on the brink of success as the nongovernmental group that issues quality standards for such tests moved toward putting the alternative test on the same footing. 

But on Friday, that organization, the U.S. Pharmacopeia, announced that the alternative test known as rFC (recombinant factor C) requires significantly more study. Pharmacopeia representatives said they have 30 years of data on the current test and only two years on the new test so they needed more information. Internationally, the European Pharmacopeia has approved widespread use of the alternative test.

The debate has been widely monitored as demand has grown for testing new vaccines against the coronavirus. Billions of vaccine doses would eventually require endotoxin testing.

This is only one of the likely hundreds of supply chain challenges that COVID-19 vaccines will face, but I regret the horseshoe crabs will be on the short end of the stick... 

BASF a leading recipient of UK coronavirus aid

From The Guardian: 

The German chemicals company BASF has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the Bank of England’s emergency coronavirus loan scheme, borrowing £1bn in cheap government-backed funding. 

Threadneedle Street revealed for the first time the names of 53 big companies that have borrowed £16.2bn between them, amid rising pressure on the government to place tougher conditions on firms that receive state-backed support. 

The list of businesses benefiting from the cheap funding, which is designed to help businesses weather the economic storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic, included many with a sizeable carbon footprint.... 

...BASF employs about 850 people in Britain at eight plants across the country, producing farming pesticides and chemicals for the car industry.

That's a surprisingly few people, especially for 8 plants. 

(It seems to me that the whole point of initial coronavirus funding was that it needed to be shoveled out the door/dropped from helicopters quickly, so the fact that some large firms got money initially isn't the end of the world in my opinion. Presumably, it could be clawed back?)

Have a good weekend

We've made it another week - I hope you and your family have a good weekend. (The artist is Anthony McGill, the principal clarinet chair at the New York Philharmonic.)

45 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there are 20 new positions for May 31.

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

"Injustice contaminates everything"

Going to let Derek Lowe speak for me:

But we’ve had an equal-protection-under-the-law disaster for a long time, as evidenced by the number of times black men (in particular) get this kind of treatment. Anyone who might have been willing to look away from all that (because they’re not black themselves?) should realize that injustice contaminates everything, and that a state that’s willing to apply such brutal, unequal treatment can apply it to anyone they feel like. Look around you. This country has a lot of things that need to be fixed, and recent history has made that more obvious than ever.

Recent Twitter posts on the paucity of Black/African-American chemists, including the fact that of 2018's 1711 chemistry Ph.D. graduates from the US who were citizens or permanent residents, just 77 (4.5%) of them were Black or African-American.

Google Meet?

This year, I'd like to do a Google Meet with people who used this year's faculty jobs list (and may be interested in next year's list?) for suggestions on improvements, and to tell me your experiences. If you're interested, send me an e-mail: chemjobber@gmail.com 

Two new faculty lists

Over on the Chemistry Reddit, a list of faculty movements and hires for the 2019-2020 season.

Via Twitter, a Chemistry Bumper Cars account, including a Google spreadsheet. 

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 557 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching faculty positions

The 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 557 research/teaching positions and 80 teaching assistant professor positions.

This will be the last post for the 2020 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List.

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

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

On May 28, 2019, the 2019 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 586 positions.

Open threads: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth. The current thread is the eleventh.

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

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 20 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 20 positions.

This list is curated by Sarah Cady and @nmr_chemist. It targets:

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

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

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

Job posting: polymer chemist, Nalas Engineering, Centerbrook, CT

From the inbox, a polymer chemist position:

Nalas Engineering is looking for polymer chemist with an interest in energetic polymer chemistry. Work will focus on designing, preparing, and characterizing new energetic monomers and polymers. 

Qualifications: 

Candidates must have a PhD in Chemistry with a focus or emphasis on polymer chemistry. The ideal candidate would bring experience in the development of new polymers to our team. Energetic material experience is not required, although interest in the topic would be beneficial. 

Interested candidates should send their resumes to matthew.burk@nalasengineering.com

Full ad here. Best wishes to those interested. 

Stories from the job front

Via The New York Times, a readout of the job market for experienced people: 

Craig Stacey was vice president of marketing at McKesson, the health care company, until he was let go last September amid a reorganization. He immediately began searching for a new job, and said he was a finalist for several senior marketing roles. 

“Silver and bronze medals are good in the Olympics, but not in the job market,” said Mr. Stacey, 52, of Minneapolis. 

He started interviewing for two jobs in early March. After the virus hit, one company told him it was suspending the search; the other simply stopped communicating with him. 

“I was ghosted,” he said.

Here's a (dubious) approach to the issue:

Ms. Nazem recently joined a 14-week “virtual networking and development cohort” called the Grand Quest. For $1,200, she will join biweekly Zoom meetings with other job seekers who are looking to identify their career goals and pursue new opportunities. 

The hope, she said, was that the group would provide “an opportunity to join a supportive community that understands career transitions for entrepreneurs while facing these unprecedented challenges.”

Best wishes to them, and to all of us.

Unusual career path: chemistry professor-turned-State Department intelligence official

In Chemical and Engineering News, interesting profile of a chemistry professor and former State Department employee by Cheryl Hogue:

Rod Schoonover doesn’t fit easily into a particular academic niche. He spent a dozen years as a chemistry professor, yet his published papers are in physics journals. A career twist then landed him working in the US intelligence community, where he spent a decade focused on climate change, environment, health, and other scientific issues. 

“I’d never planned on doing this,” he says. “The idea that someone like me would end up in the intelligence community did not seem likely.”

Read the whole thing.