100 ml pear-shaped flasks

A list of small useful things:

- An interesting discussion of chemistry unemployment issues.
- I guestposted at Just Another Electron Pusher. The pictures were picked by Leigh, so they're (as usual) great.
- Awesomeness from the Gaussling: more on rare earths.
- Puns really aren't my thing, but they are Sharon's.
- Pretty active discussion on students crying on their TAs over at Paul's.

Could Big Pharma fill its openings with only elite groups' students?

A couple of recent comments (mostly in jest) got me thinking about the numbers of students and postdocs in so-called "elite" organic chemistry groups, i.e. groups with prominent professors in the field. Specifically, A1015107:51A said:

"Blessed are those who are the sons of KCN, DLB, PSB, WRR, BMT, PAW, DAE, ENJ, EJC, LEO, ABSIII, SVL, DWCM and other select fathers, for theirs is the Kingdom of Big Pharma."

Is that comment true, from a supply perspective?

Using those two comments' named groups as a guide, I tallied as many groups as I could. (I was not able to get to the KCN or the Grubbs group website.) There were 135 graduate students and 171 postdoctoral fellows in residence.*

How many people are immediately eligible for Ph.D. senior scientist positions in industry? Well, of course all the postdocs. Probably no more 20% of the graduate students (how many are 5th years? Hard to tell.) Okay, that's about 198 people. How many of those people are going to go to academia? Probably no more than 20%. That cuts the pool down to about 160 postdocs and new Ph.Ds who are out there, vying for entry-level positions in the pharmaceutical industry.

With that very crude number in mind and the relative paucity of openings in medicinal and process chemistry in Big Pharma, my conclusion is this: Big Pharma's chemistry openings could easily be filled with only the workers from the most elite groups in organic chemistry.

*Feel free to check my math -- I did it pretty rushed, and I'll revisit and double check tonight.

A crazy idea: mid-career scientists for federally-granted chemical safety officer positions

It's time for another crazy idea from CJ -- one that combines issues of chemistry unemployment with academic chemical safety.

Among of the many issues with academic chemical safety is that 1) there are typically not very many chemical safety/hygiene officers within departments, so the workload is pretty heavy (especially if you have a large department) and 2) many chemical safety officers (not all, mind you) are relatively inexperienced in terms of chemistry. (Again, a generalization.)

You could imagine a NIH/NSF-run program that:
- hired interested unemployed mid-career scientists (out of school/PD for 10+ years)
- trained them in chemical safety and hygiene issues
- granted them to universities with lots of student/postdoctoral researchers

What's the current ratio of chemical hygiene officers to researchers at R1 universities? 1 to 100? 1 to 200? 1 to 500? (Doubtful.) Raising that ratio to 1 to 50, say, would probably do a least a little good. In addition, their industrial experience would probably give their words a little more weight. Finally, the federal funding would alleviate the universities' concerns about money.

I'm guessing this program could easily absorb about 250 unemployed mid-career scientists. I'm not sure it would be a great job for a mid-career scientist, but it'd be a job.

Daily Pump Trap: 10/28/10 edition

Good morning! Between October 26 and October 27, there were 44 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 6 (14%) were academically connected and 1 (2%) was from Kelly Scientific.

Nice work, if you can get it: Cubist Pharmaceuticals is looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be director of medicinal chemistry. "The primary responsibilities for this scientist will include the direct management and supervision of a medicinal chemistry group of 6-8 chemists..." Wait -- Cubist can't have only 6 to 8 med chemists, can it? Probably not.

This seems important: Cryolife desires a M.S./Ph.D. analytical chemist to run its analytical chemistry lab. They are a "leader in the processing and distribution of implantable living human tissues for use in cardiac and vascular surgeries throughout the U.S. and Canada." Huh.

HT Purification: Abbott is looking for a new Ph.D. chemist to work in its purification group; experience with both analytical and organic chemistry is desired.

The sky is your laboratory: CO2Mer wants 2 Ph.D. organic chemists to work on its proprietary research; lots of expertise in synthetic chemistry and experience in "synthetic methodologies employing carbon dioxide (including supercritical carbon dioxide) " is desired.

ACS Virtual Career Fair: Nov. 2 and 3 -- don't forget.

JACS rejections just got tougher

Man, this new drive for getting manuscripts reviewed quicker is brutal!

(Parody of this rejection slip.)

Process Wednesday: Reaction optimization tips

From Neal Anderson's "Practical Process Research and Development", page 170:

"Running a reaction at or near room temperature offers many potential advantages for scale-up operations. First, operations on scale are extended if large masses of chemicals must be heated or cooled. Second, running under extreme levels of heating or cooling requires increases energy expenditures. Third, reactions run at an excessively high temperature may generate unacceptably high amounts of by-products, including colored impurities that may be difficult to remove from the product."

"The rule of thumb is that increasing a reaction by 10°C will double the reaction rate. In practice, the reaction rate may decrease or even quadruple."

You mean you can't just lift the reactor out of a silicone oil bath, spray it off with hexanes and drop it into an ice water bath? Darn.

Should Sam join a union?

Credit cinemapolitica.org / "Norma Rae"

Sam at Everyday Scientist is thinking about joining the postdoc's union. He wants to hold common cause with other downtrodden postdocs, listen to Woody Guthrie guilt-free*, etc. I'm really not interested in delving into the politics of unions in the US, so let's just talk about the practical issues.

It seems to me that actually becoming a member of the union (as opposed to simply donating the dues money) is a fairly serious issue: it says that when your brothers and sisters call for a job action (WRONG here, see below) because of a disagreement with management, you'll join them.

I'm not sure that's a complication that I'd want during a postdoc. But it's Sam's choice, and I'm sure he'll make a good one. (Lame ending. -ed. I know, but that's how I really feel.)

*I prefer Billy Bragg myself (ironically).

UPDATE: Jim Austin of Science Careers posts a much smarter, more relevant comment than my own:

I'm agnostic on the issue myself, but you should be aware that there's much more to unions that job actions. In fact, many contracts -- including the one just agreed to by the UC system and their postdocs, puts strikes off-limits.

If you want something to be concerned about, you should (IMO) be concerned about the implicit divide this suggests between management (the PI) and the workers (the postdocs). It would be far better if they could be completely on the same side. But as job prospects in academia deteriorate and the employer-employee relationship starts to seem more exploitive, that kind of relationship becomes harder to sustain.

And anyway, there's no reason why the PIs should not be on the side of the postdoc unions. Sure, there's some financial incentive, since postdocs get paid out of grants. But many PIs want what's best for their postdocs anyway, and many seem to support unionization. (This is anecdotal; I haven't seen any studies.) I guess the bottom line is whether being involved in union activities will hurt your career prospects. So far, I haven't seen any evidence that it does.

Daily Pump Trap: 10/26/10 edition

Good morning! Between October 21 and October 25, there were 84 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 37 (44%) were academic and 18 (21%) were from our friends at Kelly Scientific Resources.

Am I crazy? This sounds like a fun job: Ortec, Inc. in "upstate South Carolina" is looking for a B.S./M.S./Ph.D. chemist with 10+ years related experience in polymer batch manufacturing to be a "plant chemist." Metal pipes, not green leaves, I'm guessing.

Another one, different coast: Medical Chemical Corporation in Torrance, CA is looking for a production chemist. B.S in chemistry with strong analytical skills desired for QA/QC analysis.

Wrinkle-free: Allergan (Boston, MA) is looking for a Ph.D. chemist to be a research chemistry manager; strong analytical background and knowledge of polymer surface characterization desired.

Kelly: Nice job, folks. Lots of positions, all at least slightly relevant to chemistry. Want to be an organic photochemist? They might be able to help.

ACS Virtual Career Fair: Don't know if you knew about it, but ACS Careers is having a Virtual Career Fair on November 2 and 3rd.

Has the competition for Big Pharma Ph.D. positions gotten stiffer?



Curve modified from wbsonline.com

 R1 tenure track assistant professor positions in  the chemical sciences are typically taken by the most productive workers, i.e. highly prolific post-doctoral fellows. (Whether this is a good idea or an accurate generalization is a subject for another post, but for this post, let's assume it's the case.)

It's my assumption that the competition for academic jobs has always been fierce; it is also my assumption that the fight for the highest-paying (i.e. Big Pharma) industrial positions has been slightly less fierce.

Here's my question: if an incoming assistant professor's past research productivity was set at point A on the above bell curve, where would you put the average incoming senior scientist in Big Pharma? Here's my guess: in the last 5 to 10 years (as it has become more difficult to land a pharma position), the average incoming senior scientist's C.V. has moved from point C to point B.

Readers, what do you think? Am I crazy?

Chemistry's sweetest Powerpoint slide

Parody of this slide.

Give your chemists freedom!

There is quite a difference between being a chemist and being a soldier; nevertheless, I believe that both the military and science works well when decisions are pushed down to the lowest operational level. From an article by Gen. Frederick Kroesen in the August issue of Army:

It was in Vietnam that the centralization of control reached its apex, with the White House dictating bombing targets and division and brigade commanders playing "squad leader" in the sky." We reached a condition in which the chain of command was in a state of dysfunction. I have always maintained that a chain of command must function from the bottom up as well as from the top down -- with every squad leader making squad leader decisions and reporting to his platoon leader, "Here's what I found, here's what I did, and here's why I did it." When squad leaders have someone telling them not only what to do but also how to do it, they stop being leaders, and so do platoon leaders and company commanders. Initiative is stymied, and decision making is replaced by waiting to be told. Combat action becomes tentative, and military action bogs down.

In Vietnam many low-level commanders were subject to a hornet's nest of helicopters carrying higher commanders calling for information, offering advice, making unwanted decisions and generally interfering with what squad leaders and platoon leaders and company commanders were trying to do. There is no more effective way to destroy the leadership potential of young officers and noncommissioned officers than to deny them opportunities to make decisions appropriate for their assignments. [Emphases added; hat tip Tom Ricks]

Whenever I hear about professors telling their students how many equivalents of reagent to add or Ph.D.s telling their associates which reaction conditions to use, I cringe. Letting chemists make their own decisions (and live with the bad ones!) are the best way for people to learn; it will grow good chemists and good decision-makers. Anything else, and you're just another pair of hands.

Did industrial chemistry have 'tenure'? Should it?

While the story of Charles Davis is certainly sad, it is also instructive; it points to the differences between academic science and industry. Both Douglas Prasher and Richard Heck have talked about the difficulty of securing funding for their positions, but their stories only point to the holes in a fairly secure academic science safety net. In a slightly different world, Doug Prasher would now be a full professor at a university, happily teaching classes and writing letters for postdocs. In a slightly different world, both men would have tenure and struggle, but still be able to secure funding for their work.

In the industrial world, there is no safety net. It seems, from stories of the old days of industrial chemists, that bench guys like Don Suddaby were employed well into their older years, quietly working away. Now it seems layoffs appear like off-kilter Biblical plagues that strike only middle-aged and older, leaving their younger colleagues wondering when the HR Angel of Death will darken their door.

I know, I know -- a company is not a charity, and the world is more cutthroat (as Prasher would put it) and more competitive than ever. And yes, royalties and consulting gigs are there for the blessed few. Unleashing a force like tenure into the industrial world would not lead to more innovation and better outcomes -- I think it would be a bad idea. But I think there should be something. I don't know what the answer is, but it might just be a more humane future for industrial chemists.

Daily Pump Trap: 10/21/10 edition

Good morning! Between October 19 and 20, there were 19 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of them, 7 (37%) were academically connected.

Uh, wow: Momentive Performance Materials has nine positions (nine!) in three locations: Waterford and Tarrytown, NY and Friendly, WV. They're looking for Ph.D. materials scientists, B.S.-level chemists and a Ph.D. organometallic chemist, among others. Looks like lots of process and materials work (what's a poor biochemist to do? j/k.)

Stone and Tile: DuPont seeks a B.S. chemist with formulation experience to work in their Stone and Tile division as an associate investigator. "The individual will be expected to function as part of a multifunctional team, interact at the customer interface to understand market needs (Voice of the Customer) as well as develop and execute technical programs in the research lab to discover/develop new technology/products for the Stone and Tile Business." Don't you love those business terms? The Voice of the Customer speaks -- will you listen?

Broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder and Indeed.com show (respectively) 270, 646 and 1,471 positions. (Doubtless, there are duplications.) Good luck out there.

Lab smells

The 5 steps of a lab smell detector:
1. What is that smell? Hey, do you smell that?
2. What the (**&(*& is that $#$#$!! smell?
3. Did something crawl in your hood and die?
4. You $#$#$#!!! moron! Did you try bleach?
5. Dude, you stink. Go away.

The 5 stages of a lab smell generator:
1. What smell? I don't smell anything.
2. Okay, it's not that bad.
3. Seriously, how much of a wimp are you? I've smelled things much worse.
4. Yes, I've heard about the #$$%! smell. Yes, I closed the doors to my hood.
5. What smell? I don't smell nothin'.

Chemist and Navy vet out of work, living in motel for 16 months

From a longtime reader, an August article on an unemployed chemist in North Carolina:

Charles Davis is a chemist, a Navy veteran, a white-collar guy who loves science. And he can't find a job. He lives in a motel room, and he keeps in his refrigerator and his cupboards the basics he can afford: bologna, white bread, green beans, grape jelly, peanut butter and soup. This has been Davis' home for 16 months.

He makes 15 calls a day, following up on the 626 resumes he has sent out to companies in 10 states. He catches a bus downtown every week to huddle in front of a library computer to look for a job. [snip]

There was a time when life was good. He played point guard for Savannah State University and spent nine years in the Navy and 17 years as a chemist, doing everything from environmental science to product development. In March 2009, he had a temporary job with a local research lab, and he had expected it to blossom into a full-time gig. It didn't happen. The sour economy hit that research lab, too. [snip]

Davis has his days where he wonders where he'll turn. Members of Davis' family are struggling, and most of them live in Buffalo, N.Y. Meanwhile, the Veterans Administration can't help because he's not battling alcohol, drugs or depression. Still, he knows he can't give up. So, he makes his calls, catches a bus downtown, prays for strength and says to himself constantly: "To quit, you might as well die."

I don't have anything wise or pithy to add. Mr. Davis is a good representative of the human capital that is being lost because of high unemployment in our industry. I wish him nothing but the best in his search; my thoughts and prayers are with him and folks like him.

Interview: Dr. Daniel Levy talks about becoming a biopharma consultant, part 2

Daniel Levy is the blogger behind Organic Chemistry - Education and Industry. When he's not blogging, he runs his own consulting firm, DEL Biopharma. I asked Dr. Levy a number of questions about striking out on his own and being a consultant. What follows is an e-mail Q&A, which has been checked by Dr. Levy for accuracy. This interview was divided into two parts; yesterday was part 1. Today is part 2 of 2.

CJ: What do you feel is the minimum number of years of experience required to be a successful consultant? Is this a path only available to those with more than say, 15 years of experience in pharma?

Dr. Levy: The first consulting opportunity I found was after my first company closed. I had only 5 years of industrial experience and I was asked to design potential drug structures marrying features of both known matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors and thiazolidinediones useful as PPAR gamma antagonists. This work was incorporated into a patent on which I am a named inventor.

Consulting opportunities can come at any time in one’s career. However, reasonable consulting fees, like full time salaries, should be realistic when matched to actual experience. There are many companies that will prefer to work with more experienced individuals. However, I think that, in today’s economy, we can all consider ourselves consultants. We work in an at-will employment environment with no implied obligations between employer and employee. Jobs in small companies generally last no more than 5 years and it is not uncommon to find people who have worked at 6 or more companies over the course of their careers. The only functional difference between being an employee and being a consultant is that consulting contracts are usually much shorter than typical full-time employment terms.

Daily Pump Trap: 10/19/10 edition

Good morning! Between October 14 and October 18, there were 52 new positions posted on the ACS Careers website. Of these, 40 (77%) are academically connected and 1 (2%) is from Kelly Scientific Resources.

That'd be pretty cool: The Chemical Safety Board is looking for accident investigators specifically for the BP Deepwater Horizon incident. If one of you makes it, you have got to tell me about it. "Telecommuting is allowed"?!?!

Even cooler (sort of): SpectraTech is looking for a Ph.D. analytical chemist that has experience in nuclear forensic analysis. Let's hope that this is one of those quiet government lab jobs, as opposed to shooting it out with terrorists while Nicole Kidman and George Clooney are yelling at you.

Job of the future of the week: Luna Innovations is looking for a Ph.D. chemist/electrochemist with experience in fuel cell technology and materials science. If I had a nickel for every one of these positions...

Urban heat island: Lawrence Berkeley is looking for a Ph.D. analytical chemist; "[t]he position has a specific emphasis on the study of interfacial chemistry of indoor and outdoor pollutants on environmental surfaces and their impacts on indoor exposures, the urban heat island effect and urban air quality." Yeah, that.

Pipette bulbs

Small, useful links:

- Milkshake is looking for a new position. Dude(tte), hire him.
- What the heck is this weird looking glassware?
- Check out Leigh Boerner's article on top chemistry companies to work for. (Link not working right now - Fixed!)

Interview: Dr. Daniel Levy talks about becoming a biopharma consultant, part 1

Daniel Levy is the blogger behind Organic Chemistry - Education and Industry. When he's not blogging, he runs his own consulting firm, DEL Biopharma. I asked Dr. Levy a number of questions about striking out on his own and being a consultant. What follows is an e-mail Q&A, which has been checked by Dr. Levy for accuracy. This interview was divided into two parts; today is part 1.

Chemjobber: Your story about what you did after you left Scios is (I think) pretty inspiring to experienced unemployed chemists -- can you talk a little about what lead to your decision to consult? How long did you search for a new position before considering consulting?

Dr. Levy: The majority of Scios employees were laid off by August 2006. I was part of that group and, prior to our actual termination date, I was aggressively searching for new employment. Because Scios/J&J was required to give at least 60 days notice prior to a site closure, this search began in the beginning of July. At the time, I had 15 years of experience in biotech and the only opportunities advertised were for research associates or PhD scientists with up to 5 years of experience. My search was further complicated because this period was at the height of the biotech industry contraction and, in addition to the Scios community, many throughout the region were similarly affected. Since the job market was so bleak, I realized that in order to keep myself active in my chosen field, I had to find alternative ways to generate income. The answer was consulting.

A few chemistry beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in yield, for they shall have to repeat their reactions.

Blessed are those who mourn old lab romances, for they will have late-night drunk hookups.

Blessed are the meek, for they are the silent Chinese postdocs who don't sleep, but have thick notebooks.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for free food and drink, for theirs are the pre-seminar refreshments.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will not ask or be asked in group meeting.

Blessed are those with pure compounds, for they will praise God for their clean baselines.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be the confidants of all in the lab.

Blessed are those who work alone in the lab, for they can play their music as loudly as they wish.

With apologies to Matthew.