The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 77 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 77 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.)

29 new positions at Organic Chemistry Jobs

Over at Common Organic Chemistry, there's 29 new positions posted for November 21 and November 29.

The Process Chemistry Jobs List: 56 positions

The Process Chemistry Jobs List has 56 positions.

Want to chat process jobs? Try the open thread. 

Job postings: Toronto Research Chemicals, North York, ON

From the inbox, three different positions from Toronto Research Chemicals, including:

Synthetic Organic Chemist (M.S./Ph.D., North York, ON)
Synthetic Chemist, Level 4 (B.S./Ph.D., North York, ON)
Analytical chemist (B.S./M.S., North York, ON) 

Best wishes to those interested. 

ACS Public Policy Fellowship applications open

From the weekly ACS newsletter:

Science and technology are increasingly important in public policy. From environmental sustainability to homeland security, policy-makers routinely make decisions that require input from and have impact on the chemical community. Yet only five percent of the members of Congress have backgrounds in science and engineering, and scientists often lack the opportunity and expertise to successfully engage in the policy process. 

The ACS Congressional and Science Policy Fellowship Programs are designed to address both these concerns. The programs provide a unique opportunity for ACS members to gain practical experience and insights into public policy by working on Capitol Hill or at ACS in Washington, DC.

Successful applicants must demonstrate:

• Significant familiarity with the chemical sciences or engineering disciplines (e.g., a doctorate or a master’s degree and equivalent experience). All degree requirements must be completed before the fellowship start date.
• A working understanding of the chemical community
• Technical excellence as appropriate to career stage
• Interest in the public policy process, and an awareness of and sensitivity to the political, economic, and social factors that influence policy-makers
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, including experience communicating effectively (orally and in writing) with non-technical audiences...

Application information here. Deadline is January 15, 2018. Best wishes to those interested.

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 446 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 446 positions.

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

On December 4, 2016, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 508 positions.

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

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

Faculty opening: assistant professor of inorganic chemistry, ETH Zurich

From the inbox: 

The Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry (LAC) (www.lac.ethz.ch) of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (www.chab.ethz.ch) at ETH Zurich invites applications for the above-mentioned position. The research activities at the LAC encompass synthesis of inorganic compounds on the molecular and nanometre scale and characterisation of complex reaction systems with atomic and molecular level precision. 

The new assistant professor is expected to develop an outstanding research programme in the broad area of molecular inorganic chemistry. Research activities at the interface to other disciplines such as physics, materials, or biological sciences will be considered as an important asset. Collaboration with theoretical and experimental groups at ETH Zurich is encouraged, and teaching in the areas of Inorganic Chemistry and Organometallic Chemistry is expected at both the undergraduate and graduate level. 

Assistant professorships have been established to promote the careers of younger scientists. ETH Zurich implements a tenure track system equivalent to other top international universities.

Application deadline is January 4. Details here. Best wishes to those interested.  

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 32 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 32 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.

Another alcohol/flame incident in New York City

I didn't get wind of this until someone posted it in the comments. There's plenty of coverage of it in the media, including from the New York Daily News, NBC New York and the New York Times. Here's the damning passage from the Daily News:

Marcus, a 9th grade student, heard that the students in the class were learning about the different properties of fire. “The crazy thing is, I had chemistry for fourth period,” she said. “I was supposed to be in that class too. We already did that experiment the week before and nothing happened.” 

Marcus explained the experiment involved making a flame change color. “It was kind of dangerous when he did it but he was very careful,” she said. “I'm guessing it was the same way with this.” 

Marcus said the teacher told her class it was a mistake with the alcohol he was using in the experiment. “I think that while he was pouring the alcohol in, the fire caught onto the bottle by accident," she said.

Yet another incident where there was a combination of:

• fire
• alcohol being added to the flames
• from a bulk alcohol container with
• students being too close

that has caused injuries and teachers getting fired and lawsuits being filed in this country time and time again.

Another reminder that the American Chemical Society's Committee on Chemical Safety specifically asks teachers to "Stop Using the Rainbow Demonstration."*

*The indication that it was a Rainbow-related is this comment in the New York Times story: "One of the injured students, Elizebeth Diaz, 15, said the chemistry teacher was conducting an experiment to demonstrate how an atom goes from ground state to excited state."

Reproducibility crisis?

Also in this week's C&EN, a guest editorial from Richard Harris: 

...Last year, Nature surveyed 1,576 scientists from all disciplines. Overall, 52% perceived a “significant reproducibility crisis,” and another 38% said there was a “slight crisis.” Another 7% said they didn’t know, and only 3% said there was no crisis. 

In the case of biomedicine, I find multiple layers of causes, all of which exist to one extent or another in other fields. First is that scientists put too much faith in the ingredients they use. Some 500,000 antibodies are commercially available for experiments, but the quality of those reagents is all over the map, and labs often don’t run enough controls to identify problems. Immortal cell lines are another example, with cross-contamination a major problem. Scientists are paying less attention to more garden-variety reagents, but those are also problematic. That warning would obviously extend beyond the world of biomedicine. 

Another huge area of trouble in biomedicine and psychology involves experimental design and statistical analysis. Chemists may have more predictable systems and more reproducible experimental designs, but to the extent they are trapped in the dubious analytical system built around the P value, chemists should be greatly concerned as well. This system is so often misused in science, the American Statistical Association felt compelled to publish a paper in 2016 decrying the shoddy understanding of P values. 

And when John Ioannidis wrote the heavily cited essay “Why Most Published Research Findings Are False,” he did not confine his analysis to the life sciences. “For most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true,” he notes....

Overall, I have rejected the "reproducibility crisis" frame for this issue (and Harris does as well) , because the word "crisis" is not really very well defined for me. (Also, I'm not trapped by P values routinely, but maybe I am and I just don't know!)

My takeaway is pretty bog-standard scientific judgment: you shouldn't believe new results in any field (especially biomedicine) without there being sufficient reproduction from other groups. Also, it would be great if science (chemists!) came up with better, faster, cheaper means of analyzing biomedical reagents (antibodies and such) and verifying identity and purity. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover story: useful material from sewage? (article by Alex Scott)
• An article about RNA drugs (article by Ryan Cross)
• Brexit impending for UK drug and chemical firms (article by Alex Scott)
• Interesting C-H activation work from the Davies group (article by Stu Borman)
• Great interview with Theo Gray on his new book "Reactions" (article by Bethany Halford)
• It's a really fun book, by the way. Very enjoyable. 
• Some definite shots fired in the letters to the editor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As always, I am incredibly thankful for my family, my friends, my community (physical and online) and my job.

I am also incredibly thankful for you, my readers and commenters. Thank you for your reading, your advice, your e-mails and your brilliant, insightful comments. I am truly blessed.

My family and I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving with plenty of food, family and laughter and if you're not in the United States, a happy Thursday and Friday! 

The 2016 ACS Form 990

 This was 2016's form 990. (Here's 2015's form 990 and here's 2014's form 990.)

For comparison's sake, Madeleine Jacobs was paid $888,199 in reportable compensation in 2015. This was the first full year that current ACS CEO Thomas Connelly has had his compensation reported. He was paid $893,157 in 2016. Nice work if you can get it.

Looks like reportable compensation for the highest-paid ACS officers trended down between 2015 and 2016.

2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 441 positions

The 2018 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated by Andrew Spaeth and myself) has 441 positions.

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

On November 18, 2016, the 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List had 482 positions.

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

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

The Academic Staff Jobs List: 32 positions

The Academic Staff Jobs list has 32 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.

Playing the Long Game, by QHV

I'm pleased to host an essay by a long-time reader and friend of the blog about their job search: 

After an arduous, demoralizing, post-Great Recession period of unemployment, underemployment, and job hunting, I wanted to share some happy, hopeful news: I recently landed a new job that I am excited about. It’s more than just a new job, really...this is a return to R&D and a major boost in career trajectory, quality of life, and overall work satisfaction, not to mention pay, all bundled into the culmination of a very difficult decade.  

The way this happened was unexpected and surprising to me. I have, until now, assumed that if you didn’t follow a particular prescribed path (find a job posting, apply for the job, get a phone interview, get a site interview, receive an offer) to getting hired, then you were either gaming the system or cheating. That must have been incredibly naïve of me. I veered from that sequence during my home stretch, achieving my desired outcome, but getting what I ultimately wanted didn’t feel like manipulation or cheating at all; it was hard work and it made sense to me. You are welcome to tell me if you disagree. It won’t subdue my elation.   

I am a former synthetic chemist. In the mid-2000s, I was truly thrilled to be doing medicinal chemistry. I enjoyed bench work, the companionship of fellow chemists, and the fact that I was doing what I wanted to do and had been educated to do…but in 2008 my position (like many folks’) vanished, and I ended up briefly unemployed before taking a string of less-than-interesting positions. These jobs were only tangentially related to my love of chemistry and they paid much less. I hesitate to use the term drudgery, but…let’s put it this way: perpetually looking forward to the end of the day and the end of the work week can be a pretty miserable way to live a life.   

View From Your Hood: November morning edition

Credit: John Milligan

From reader John Milligan: "The sun rises behind the Cathedral of Learning on a November morning at the University of Pittsburgh."

(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.)

More good job search advice from other experienced chemists

I recently had the honor of interviewing Derek Lowe about his recent job search; it's been published at Chemical and Engineering News. In the comments below my column, a very nice comment from another experienced chemist, Paul E. Eckler: 

After 10 years or so out of school, you find yourself competing with recent graduates if you stick with the basic skills you learned in school. Recent graduates work cheaply. Competition can be tough. 

Usually it’s the experience shown on your resume that gets you an interview. The recent graduate may be very sharp, but he/she needs some time to become productive in many job situations. Hiring experienced people means I want someone who can make immediate contributions and not require much training. 

In hiring people I usually have others looking over my shoulder. My requirements are often very specific in terms of experience needed. It also helps to have worked for leaders in the industry (often competitors or customers). Previous employers matter and can be a plus as long as non-competes don’t get in the way. 

After 10 years you probably have specialized in certain areas. If yours are fields in demand, job searching will be easier. Specialized experience can be valuable, but it may take time to find the right employer. 

After 10 years you also tend to be in upper salary brackets. That makes you more vulnerable in cost cutting layoffs. Unless of course you are a key player in a major project. 

Networking is often listed as a key for the mid career professional looking for work. People you have worked with over the years know your accomplishments and reputation. They can be sources of opportunities. They may well know who is hiring and what they are looking for. Do let your friends know you are looking. 

Don’t forget to consider temp agencies. Manpower and Kelley Scientific, to name two, have listings for temp professionals including chemists. Their salaries are negotiable. Some companies prefer to hire temps. Temping is a opportunity to show what you can do. 

Guard against negative thoughts while you are looking. Depression can be a problem. Find some people you can relax with and talk it out. Finding that next job can take time, but most of us find something. Keep your chin up.

I always hold the temp agencies at bit at arm's length, but your mileage may vary. Also, I really commend the concerns around depression and having a group of friends that you can talk about your job loss with. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 139 positions

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs list has 139 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 November 9 and November 15.