This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: What to do with the acid whey from Greek yogurt? (article by Britt Erickson)
• For every 1 kg of Greek yogurt, 2-3 kg of acid whey is left. Damn.
• Professor Khaled Belkacemi of Laval University was killed in the Quebec City mosque shooting last week. (article by Linda Wang)
• Scientists' response to President Trump's immigration executive order (article by Andrea Widener, Linda Wang, and Lisa Jarvis with additional reporting from Alex Tullo and Melody Bomgardner)
• Quite the discussion (including some old friends from the blog) in the comments.
• Great first line in Bethany Halford's article about Jin-Quan Yu's latest C-H activation chemistry.
• ACS Career Navigator about telling your boss big news.
• More letters about cold fusion. (eyeroll) 

Bristol chemistry incident

Via the Chemistry Reddit, a rather unusual story (emphasis mine):

Several University of Bristol buildings have been evacuated, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that the emergency was sparked after a student produced TATP, an explosive used by terrorists, by mistake. 

The incident, which appears to have occurred in the Chemistry Building, has led to the evacuation of much of the University Way area. Five fire engines are believed to be on the scene, as well as several ambulances and an environmental response unit. A safety cordon has been extended down as far as Whiteladies Road. 

Multiple sources have told Epigram that the leak involves the tricatone triperoxide, a highly explosive chemical more commonly known as TATP. TATP is thought to have been the explosive used in the Paris attacks of 2015. Reports suggest that a third year PhD student accidentally made 90g of the chemical as a by-product...

It's my understanding that the 90 gram number is theoretical, that this was a pre-planned experiment, and that the powers that be were aware of it beforehand; it will be very interesting to see if there is a writeup of the incident that is broadly disseminated to confirm or deny this RUMINT.

On the air: today, 2 PM Eastern with Dr. L.C. Campeau

On the air at 2 PM Eastern with Dr. L.C. Campeau, process chemist.

The number to call in is (845) 277-9235. 

On the air: Saturday, February 4, 2 PM Eastern with L.C. Campeau

I'm looking forward to being on the air again tomorrow at 2 PM Eastern with guest Dr. L.C. Campeau, process chemist and chemTwittersphere denizen.

We'll take some calls and the second hour will be open lines.

Got a topic you'd like me to cover? Call the voicemail line at (302) 313-6257 or send me an e-mail: chemjobber@gmail.com 

The jobosome

With sincere apologies to Arjun Raj's flightosome. 

The Medicinal Chemist Jobs List: 75 positions

Doing my best to track down all open research-track medicinal chemistry positions. At the moment, the list has 75 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.

Check out the other bottom tabs on the list for various notations and side experiments.

Positions I'm not including: positions outside the United States (this will likely change), computational positions (this will likely change as well), process positions (coming soon....), academic positions (will likely be included about a year from now?), industrial postdocs (maybe someday soon.)

Coming soon: a process chemistry version - I promise!

John Carroll takes it to pharma CEOs

I really enjoyed this Endpoints post about all these pharma CEOs going to the White House and telling the President that they will be hiring people. He then lays out their actual records from the past few years: 

“We’re looking at ways to expand,” Joe Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, told Trump. “One of the things that can help us is a lower tax rate.” 

Novartis is well known as a global player that doesn’t leave a stone unturned when it comes to finding new efficiencies. That cost-cutting spirit drove an R&D overhaul last year, and new programs aimed at doing everything the Swiss company can do to hold the line on costs. That approach has had a big impact on employment. 

Novartis counts FTEs. At the end of 2016 they employed 118,393, 23,037 in the US and 55,205 in Europe. Five years earlier, the score was 123,686 total and 27,242 in the US. The cuts were clearly aimed at its US staff....

Read the whole thing - you'll either laugh or cry or perhaps you'll do both.

(In all seriousness, there is something a little strange about President Trump asking pharma folks to bring manufacturing jobs to the United States, i.e. API plants don't seem to me to be all that labor-intensive. (That said, those jobs tend to have a pretty decent median wage.) Who knows?) 

Daily Pump Trap: 2/2/17 edition

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

"Southwest Arizona": Gowan Company is looking for a pesticide formulations chemist; B.S. degree, 5-15 years experience in the field.

(Something tells me the travel for agriculture chemistry jobs might be fun, if you like diner food.)

Charleston, TN: Wacker is looking for a senior analytical chemist to "provide analytical processes for the competitive characterization of polysilicon, chlorosilanes and all other relevant media to produce hyperpure polysilicon." M.S./Ph.D. desired, 7+ years of industry experience, 5+ years of management experience. They're also looking for a "production manager of physical analytics", which is an interesting position.

Cambridge, MA: Takeda is looking for a M.S./Ph.D. crystallization engineer. "Extensive experience in crystallization process development and scale-up with an emphasis on polymorph, purity and particle size control." 

Ivory Filter Flask: 2/2/17 edition

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

New Orleans, LA: The University of New Orleans is searching for an assistant professor of analytical chemistry.

Buies Creek, NC: Campbell University is looking for an assistant professor of biochemistry.

Gettysburg, PA: Gettysburg College is looking for a visiting assistant professor of organic chemistry.

Richmond, VA: Two visiting lecturer positions available at the University of Richmond.

Auburn, AL: This sure looks like an EH&S or an administrative position at Auburn, but I can't quite tell. D'ya really need a Ph.D. for it? 

On the air: Saturday, February 4, 2 PM Eastern with L.C. Campeau

I'm looking forward to being on the air again this coming Saturday (February 4) at 2 PM Eastern with guest Dr. L.C. Campeau, process chemist and chemTwittersphere denizen. 

We'll take some calls and the second hour will be open lines. 

Got a topic you'd like me to cover? Call the voicemail line at (302) 313-6257 or send me an e-mail: chemjobber@gmail.com 

Hard times in the past

I think I might turn something like this into a modern art exhibit in the future.

(from respected reader SRS)

Remarkable little medical mystery in the New York Times

Quite the fascinating story in the New York Times about lychee orchards and some sick children in India. 

Hypoglycin A

NEW DELHI — Three years ago, Dr. Rajesh Yadav, an investigator with the India Epidemic Intelligence Service, moved to the city of Muzaffarpur, the site of one of the country’s most mysterious outbreaks. And he waited. 

Every year in mid-May, as temperatures reached scorching heights, parents took children who had been healthy the night before to the hospital. The children awakened with a high-pitch cry in the early morning, many parents said. Then the youths began having seizures and slipping into comas. In about 40 percent of cases, they died. Every year in July, with the arrival of monsoon rains, the outbreak ended as suddenly as it began...

...A joint investigation by India’s National Center for Disease Control and the India office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, published in the British medical journal The Lancet Global Health on Tuesday, has identified a surprising culprit: the lychee fruit itself, when eaten on an empty stomach by malnourished children. 

In 2015, as a result of the investigation, health officials began urging parents in the area to be sure to feed young children an evening meal and to limit their consumption of lychees (sometimes spelled litchi). In two seasons, the number of reported cases per year dropped to less than 50 from hundreds....

...It was in the fall of 2013, during a conference call with colleagues in Atlanta, that someone mentioned “Jamaican vomiting sickness,” an outbreak in the West Indies that for many decades caused brain swelling, convulsions and altered mental states in children. 

The outbreak turned out to be tied to hypoglycin, a toxin found in the ackee fruit that inhibits the body’s ability to synthesize glucose, leading to acute hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose levels. “It had been going on for a decade, if not a century, before people really figured out what it was,” Dr. Srikantiah said. “Now, the grandmothers and the mothers teach their kids, ‘Don’t eat the unripe ackee fruit.’ ”

By late 2014, laboratory tests confirmed that lychees also contain high levels of hypoglycin, as well as a similar toxin known as methylenecyclopropyl glycine, or MCPG....

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about MCPG toxicity mechanisms: 

MCPA is a potent inhibitor of acyl CoA dehydrogenase, thus preventing the metabolism of fatty acids. The intolerance to prolonged fasting is due to inability to switch from glucose to fatty acid oxidation, impaired ketogenesis. There is increased urinary excretion of dicarboxylic acids, due to omega oxidation that occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Pretty great example how science and scientists can make the world better. Definitely worth the read. 

2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List: 549 positions

The 2017 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (curated mostly by Andrew Spaeth, with minor help from me) has 549 positions.

Have you had a Skype/phone interview or an on-site with a position on the Faculty Jobs List? Please add the date of the interview to the open thread. The open thread is here.

Do you see anything that needs correcting? Please leave a comment in the open thread, or e-mail me at chemjobber@gmail.com

As the 2017 Faculty Jobs Open Thread has gotten longer, the Blogger software that this blog is run on has added a new wrinkle: when you initially load the thread, it loads only the first ~220 comments and then has a "load more" button near the bottom of the page near the comment box. Only after pressing that button about 7 times does it load the latest comments.

Finally, a web forum! Because the open thread has gotten more unwieldy, I have opened up this web forum ("Chemistry Faculty Jobs List"). Feel free to join/post!

Visiting positions: Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA

From the inbox, two VAP positions:

Physical and Organic Chemistry Visiting PositionWhitman College, 2017-18 

The Department of Chemistry is inviting applications for two full-time visiting positions in Chemistry at the rank of assistant professor with expertise in (1) physical and general chemistry and (2) organic chemistry and general chemistry. Effective August 2017. Ph.D. required. 

The successful candidate for the physical/general chemistry position will offer courses in first-year-level General Chemistry lecture and lab, and junior-level Physical Chemistry lecture and lab. The successful candidate for the organic/general chemistry position will offer courses in first-year-level General Chemistry lecture and lab, and sophomore-level Organic Chemistry lecture and lab. The standard annual teaching load is five courses.

Full listing here. Apply here and here. Best wishes to those interested. 

BREAKING: ACS "expresses concern" on President Trump's immigration executive order

It's politics time, folks. Don't want to read it? I won't be offended.

Not your usual C&EN article opening

Also in C&EN, a fascinating and education article with a rather clandestinely-oriented beginning by Alex Scott: 

The international gem trade can be a shady business. In a quiet corner of a busy London pub, a trader, who asked to remain anonymous, tells C&EN about passing off synthetic gems, made in a manufacturing plant, as natural. 

“This is worth more than $500,000,” the trader says, flashing a hand upward to reveal a gold ring clasping an emerald the size of a sugar cube. “Well it would be, depending on whether you consider it real or fake.” 

The trader admits to buying synthetic gems—which can be 30–40% cheaper to produce than natural gems—and then selling them to jewelers as natural. The trader is unwilling to discuss specific deals, as this could bring some heat from previous customers. 

Scientists have been able to make synthetic diamonds and other precious gems for decades, but in the past couple of years, technologies such as the one used to make the London trader’s emerald are enabling the production of jewelry-quality synthetic gems that are identical to natural gems at the molecular level...

It will be interesting to see how the gemstone mining business will be disrupted by the synthetic gemstone folks. I admit I won't shed too many tears for DeBeers. 

This week's C&EN

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

• Cover: Lisa Jarvis on the new drugs of 2016. 
• I agree with the CW that the number of new drugs will bounce up, and will be somewhat higher in 2017 than 2016. 
• Because of negotiations with European regulatory officials, the Dow/DuPont merger is being delayed until late this year (article by Marc S. Reisch)
• In other DuPont news, early returns on the DuPont PFOA lawsuits are mixed.
• Interesting deoxyfluorination of phenols from the Sanford group/Dow. (article by Stephen K. Ritter.) 
• A rundown of the problems with the Samsung Note 7 (article by Alex Tullo.) 
• One of the independent laboratories was Exponent, an organization that occasionally hires chemists, I understand. 
• Everyone needs an article about whisky/whiskey. (by Bethany Halford) 

View from Your Conference Room: deer in the distance edition

Credit: Alex Goldberg, Edmonton, Alberta

(got a View from Your Hood submission? Send it in with a caption, and how you'd like to be credited at chemjobber@gmail.com; will run every other Friday.)

ACS' thoughts about employment and how to increase member retention

Via the 2017 ACS Strategic Plan, here is their assessment of the "challenges and opportunities" related to ACS member careers and member retention regarding employment. They are bulleted in the original list, but for discussion purposes, I have decided to number them:

1. Despite increasing awareness of the importance of having an active safety culture in the workplace, some practitioners see safety as interfering with success.
2. Employers of chemists are increasingly diverse, smaller, and more service-oriented (for example, contract testing labs or analytical services versus research or innovation-focused companies). 
3. The wider mix of jobs held by chemistry-related scientists and the growing multidisciplinary nature of science is causing fewer scientists to identify themselves as chemists.
4. A mismatch exists between the current training of new graduates and the jobs available.
5. Chemistry-related companies increasingly require external R&D partnerships to innovate.
6. A general decline in association membership is occurring. Membership decisions are increasingly based more on personal return than support for the profession or greater good.
7. Members want more targeted, mobile, and video resources and messages.
8. Online technologies are being integrated with onsite meetings and courses.
9. Constraints on volunteers (including greater job demands, less time given by employers for volunteer activities, and expectations of 24/7 connectivity) warrant new tools and support to facilitate volunteers’ work and grow their ranks.
10. Customers increasingly expect services to be customized to their needs.
11. The millennial generation will shape future management styles, culture, and expectations.
12. Globalization and the changing demographics and needs of the chemistry enterprise are redefining diversity and offering associations opportunities to assist in that transformation.
13. ACS alliances to advance mutual goals -- including with ACS technical divisions, local sections, international chapters, and peer societies -- are increasing in importance.
14. The value proposition for membership has been disrupted by social, economic, and technological changes. This demands more targeted services, creative recruitment/retention strategies, and evaluation of alternative membership models.
15. Global industrial acquisitions, consolidations, and closures are expected to remain prevalent. Companies are focusing more on developing their core strengths and are looking to acquisitions to deliver growth and greater shareholder value.

I think a statement about mid-career chemists is missing, although #15 is an oblique reference. #2 sure sounds like a field with growing numbers and growing wages, yeah? Readers, what do you think about this list? 

Daily Pump Trap: 1/27/17 edition

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

Mason, MI: Dart Packaging is looking for a B.S. chemist to be a product R&D manager. Looks to be food packaging related, 6 years experience desired.

Richmond, VA: Altria is looking for a B.S./M.S./Ph.D. chemist to be a flavor R&D scientist; looks to be both tobacco and non-tobacco related.

Brevard, NC: You know the drill.

A broader look: Monster, Careerbuilder, Indeed and USAjobs.gov show (respectively) "1000+", 403, 9,045 and 11 positions for the search term "chemist."

LinkedIn shows 1,372 positions for the search term "chemist" and 14,832  for the search term "chemistry." Job titles from LinkedIn - first with quotes, and the second without: Analytical chemist: 179/223. Research chemist: 31/41. Synthetic chemist: 9/359. Medicinal chemist: 16/0. Organic chemist: 17/59. Process chemist: 9/37. Process development chemist: 5/5. Formulation chemist: 44/51.