SHU T T ERSTO CK /C& EN
COVE R STORY
HINT OF HOPE JOB OUTLOOK FOR 2011 will likely be similar to 2010’s, perhaps even slightly better
THE SLOWLY RECOVERING U.S.
it was in 2010,” Kevin Swift tells Ainsworth. economy is awakening demand for the Swift is chief economist and managing diproducts and services of U.S. businesses rector of the American Chemistry Council, that employ chemists. After years of slashan industry trade group. ing chemistry-related Others who talked with positions to cut costs, Ainsworth echo Swift’s deCONTENTS employers appear ready to mand forecast, which comes, hire again, according to a appropriately, with caveats. DEMAND 39 survey of recruiters, uniHiring is going to be slow Hiring returns, but versity placement officers, and more strategic than ever slowly, cautiously and companies by Senior before; chemists will not see LAB MANAGERS 43 Editor Susan Ainsworth. dramatic spikes in permaUnsung heroes of Ainsworth’s reporting on nent positions available. It is chemical laboratories the demand for chemists unlikely that everyone who in 2011 seems to hint that lost a job will get one back. MENTORING 46 the heartbreaking loss of Not surprisingly, prospects How to build effective jobs for chemists must for jobs in big pharma are relationships have finally reached rock slim. Instead, the bright bottom and that chemists spots for employment are can now begin to hope for a turnaround in small companies doing contract research their employment prospects. “I do think and businesses based on green chemistry. the employment situation for chemists in Given the tepid outlook, would-be 2011 will be the same or slightly better than chemists can’t be faulted if they change WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
37
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
gears and move away from chemistry. If their passion is really chemistry, however, let’s hope they don’t give up a chemistry education, because it is eminently translatable into various jobs, as several speakers at a recent career symposium in Madison, Wis., point out (see page 3). The other two stories in this year’s employment package complement Ainsworth’s review of the job landscape. Deputy Assistant Managing Editor Stu Borman shines a spotlight on the unsung heroes of chemical laboratories—lab managers, who represent a career option that perhaps is not obvious to many chemists. And Associate Editor Linda Wang reports on the importance of mentorship in achieving one’s career goals. Although Wang focuses on women scientists of color, her story could resonate with any chemist, because a good mentoring relationship helps everyone who is lucky enough to have one.—MAUREEN ROUHI
BR IAN J. WR IGHT/T EXAS A & M U N IVERSIT Y
COVE R STORY
will be relatively stable going forward,” Swift says. Chemistry-related industries have been “ramping up production, and I would expect that to continue as the second phase of the recovery takes hold and gathers strength,” he says. As a result, “I do think the employment situation for chemists in 2011 will be the same or slightly better than it was in 2010,” he says. Challenger offers a similar snapshot of the current U.S. employment market. “There’s no question that the economy has come out of the doldrums and that the significant job losses are over,” he tells C&EN. “While the pace of job creation continues to disappoint,” demand, revenues, and profits are up “and it does seem like there is an upturn going on,” he adds. Right now, “employers in the private sector have the cash to spend on new equipment and employees but are waiting for demand to increase enough to warrant the investment.” Although still cautious, companies are poised to begin to slowly rebuild their staffs after implementing layoffs or hiring freezes over the past few years, according to recruiters, university placement officers, and company sources contacted by C&EN. STRATEGIC FIT
During an on-campus interview, Houston Perry, a chemistry graduate student at Texas A&M University, answers questions posed by a recruiter from BASF.
CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC In the wake of the recession, employers are poised to slowly and SELECTIVELY HIRE CHEMISTS SUSAN J. AINSWORTH, C&EN DALLAS
“THERE IS NO DOUBT that the U.S. job
market has a long way to go before it fully recovers,” says John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “After all, we’ve just come out of the worst recession this country has experienced in decades, with overall unemployment climbing to 10.1% as the number of jobless Americans grew by more than 8.3 million, reaching a record high of 15.6 million,” Challenger says. “It doesn’t take an economist or a jobs expert to tell you that it is going to take longer to get all of these people back onto payrolls.” Chemists, who have been laid off by the thousands over the past three years, certainly have not been left unscathed. They have suffered through megamergers, outsourcing initiatives, and cost-cutting programs that were fueled in part by the recession, which officially ended in June 2009. The unemployment rate among respondents to the American Chemical Society’s 2009 salary and employment survey reached a peak of 3.9% in March of that year, according to Jeffrey R. Allum, research manager in ACS’s Department
of Member Research & Technology. “Although the 2009 unemployment rate among society members was lower than the overall U.S. jobless rate, it was the highest we have seen since we started collecting employment data in 1972.” The employment landscape for chemists remains “very challenging,” says Kevin Swift, chief economist and managing director of the American Chemistry Council, the U.S. chemical industry’s main trade organization. “There is still uncertainty about the outlook for the economy and concern for the policy decisions” of the Obama Administration, he says. “Companies have been wondering about the tax rate, trade initiatives, health care costs, and all sorts of factors that cut across not just the chemical industry but across the whole business sector nationally. As a result, companies have just not been hiring.” The worst may be over, however. “The free fall has ended, and I think things
“AS COMPANIES START to ramp up their workforce, they are carefully observing their bottom lines,” says Alan E. Edwards, a senior director for the Americas Product Group in the scientific arm of Kelly Services. “Businesses are being very strategic about adding back permanent jobs, working hard to time employment increases with sustained increases in demand.” To that end, companies are relying increasingly on “the growing pool of highly skilled contract or contingency workers,” he adds. Hiring in green-chemistry-based businesses has been a small, but valued, bright spot on the employment horizon. No dramatic increase in new jobs is yet apparent from the number of classified ads in the job section of C&EN, which is regularly tabulated by the blogger Chemjobber. A Ph.D. synthetic chemist, Chemjobber
“The free fall has ended, and I think things will be relatively stable going forward.” WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
38
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
spoke to C&EN on the condition that his name would not be revealed. Between September 2008 and September 2010, Chemjobber notes, the number of C&EN industrial classified ads bottomed out in August 2009, when only two ads appeared. “Since then, there doesn’t seem to have been anything quite so dire,” he says. “As for 2010, I really hesitate to call it anything close to a ‘recovery’ or a ‘rebound.’ The numbers have just kind of bumped along, which more or less reflects the overall economic picture.”
There are still a lot of people out of work.” In the wake of layoffs, large companies are rehiring in selective areas to reshape their organizations for future growth, Albert says. Recently, he has placed analytical chemists, medicinal chemists, computational chemists, and research project leaders within three big pharma firms, he says. At the same time, “smaller companies are hiring to build internal capabilities to help drive innovation.” So far in 2010, Klein Hersh has placed about 50 medicinal chemists with small discovery-based companies, says Marc Miller, the firm’s director of medicinal and process chemistry. “In particular, demand is up for chemists with five- or
says David C. Zimmermann, the company’s chief executive officer. Hiring at Kalexsyn in 2010 has roughly matched its hiring in 2009, he says. Going forward, the company “will continue to grow organically based on business opportunity.” Job opportunities in U.S. CROs, however, will be limited compared with those in overseas CROs, Zimmermann says. Increasingly, large pharmaceutical companies are replacing their in-house medicinal chemistry staff with synthetic chemists in offshore CROs, Zimmermann points out. For this reason, some U.S. CROs like AlSOME RECRUITERS who focus on hiring bany Molecular Research Inc. (AMRI) are for the chemical and pharmaceutical indusrepositioning themselves to meet customtries, however, tell C&EN that ers’ demand for services from they are already beginning to see low-cost centers, particularly in EDGING UP signs of an uptick in hiring. At Asia. In May, for example, AMRI Job openings at the ACS Career Fair rose in 2010 the Ropella Group, “there has announced that it would reduce been a noticeable increase in the the size of its U.S. workforce by TOTAL POTENTIAL INTERVIEWS number of job orders or search roughly 10%, or about 80 jobs, CANDIDATES EMPLOYERS OPENINGS SCHEDULED assignments that we are workand close its Rensselaer, N.Y., 2005 ing on,” says Patrick B. Ropella, research laboratory facilities, San Diego 1,296 88 189 1,291 Washington, D.C. 1,927 97 289 1,685 CEO of the executive search while adding about 180 non2006 firm, which includes the chemiU.S. employees and investing Atlanta 1,256 72 197 1,199 cal sector among its specialties. $30 million in international San Francisco 1,213 104 290 1,499 In particular, “smaller, more expansion. nimble firms are beginning to Big pharma’s growing prefer2007 ramp up their staffs,” Ropella ence for offshore scientists has Chicago 1,456 73 683 1,139 Boston 1,526 126 913 1,839 observes. Able to react to incredirectly affected many U.S. sci2008 mental changes in demand in the entists, including Ph.D. chema New Orleans 942 104 805 1,305 marketplace, “they want to grab ist Lana H. Rossiter, who was Philadelphia 1,276 85 515 1,210 on to every little piece of busiamong those laid off by AMRI ness they can get right now.” in May. Having joined the com2009 Small businesses may have adpany fresh out of a postdoc poSalt Lake City 609 32 176 387 ditional motivation to hire now sition 10 years ago, Rossiter has Washington, D.C. 984 43 326 493 2010 that President Barack Obama has seen the offshoring movement San Francisco 1,050 40 116 494 signed into law a bill that will propick up steam. Painfully aware Boston 1,074 68 484 770 vide them with tax breaks, better of the trend, she made a cona Chemjobs Career Center became the ACS Career Fair beginning with the New access to credit, and other incenscious decision to try to avoid Orleans national meeting. SOURCE: American Chemical Society, Department of tives under the Small Business working for a CRO or for any Career Management & Development Jobs Act of 2010, Ropella points pharma-related business as she out (C&EN, Oct. 4, page 26). searched for her next job. “The Josh Albert, managing director of life 10-plus years of experience who are willing whole pharma environment is just not very sciences executive search firm Klein to spend the majority of their day in the lab promising long term,” she reasons. “It is Hersh International, reports that both cranking out compounds,” he adds. just contracting so much.” his large and his small clients are stepKlein Hersh is also placing chemists in After two months of job searching, ping up the hiring of chemists and other contract research organizations that proRossiter received job offers from a CRO scientists. “Over the first three quarters vide pharmaceutical industry clients with outside of Cleveland and from Draths, a of the year, we have been averaging about drug discovery services including medicinal Lansing, Mich.-based chemical start-up fo29 job orders per week, and over the last chemistry work. “There are many CROs in cused on manufacturing biobased materifew weeks that number has been close to the U.S. that are doing very well or are in the als for use in consumer products. Although 50,” he says. process of watching their business pick up,” the CRO position offered better overall “The economy seems to be improving, Miller says. compensation, she accepted the job at the funding is coming back, companies For its part, Kalexsyn, a chemistry-drivDraths, which she began on Sept. 20. “I see are committing more dollars to research, en CRO in Kalamazoo, Mich., continues this new job as a chance to go and do someand they are hiring again,” Albert says. to recruit and hire experienced medicinal thing different in an area where I could However, “you have to keep in mind that chemists and “motivated Ph.D.s and postmake an even bigger impact than I could in the job market is still far from where it was. docs with a passion for organic synthesis,” pharma,” she says. At least some of her new WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
39
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
CHR IS G EO RG E
COVE R STORY
coworkers may feel the same way. Many of them had also been laid off from pharmarelated jobs, she says. For the many chemists who are still searching for work, Rossiter hopes that the brevity of her unemployment is a sign that the job market is improving. However, she expects that her willingness to relocate to another state may have been a boon. In addition, she feels she benefited from increasing demand for chemists in businesses that are based in green chemistry. THE NUMBER OF job opportunities in
green chemistry continues to grow, claims Robert Peoples, director of ACS’s Green Chemistry Institute. “Business leaders are waking up to the fact we cannot achieve a sustainable future by the linear extension of existing technologies,” he says. “Green or the University of Colorado, Boulder, OPX sustainable chemistry and green engineeris developing a microbe and production ing offer the point of departure to build a process to make acrylic acid, which is used future that does not destroy our planet.” in products such as paints, detergents, and New jobs will be created for chemists who superabsorbent polymers. The company are skilled in these new tools, he adds. hopes to complete a demonstration facility Opportunities have been increasing for in 2011 and a commercial plant in 2014. chemists and other scientists at companies The company is also planning to develop like Boulder, Colo.-based OPX Biotecha second product, diesel fuel bioprocessed nologies. The firm from carbon dioxide aims “to manufacture and hydrogen. To supROUGH GOING The renewable biobased port this development, unemployment rate for chemists chemicals and fuels OPX received a $6 miltracks lower than the overall U.S. that are lower cost, lion grant from the Dejobless average, but both spiked higher return, and partment of Energy in in 2009 more sustainable than April. The funding deexisting petroleumrives from the Obama Unemployment, % based products,” says Administration’s 10 ■ U.S. ■ Chemist (ACS) Charles R. Eggert, $787 billion stimulus 8 OPX’s president and package under the 6 CEO. “Like many comAmerican Recovery & panies in the field of Reinvestment Act of 4 renewable chemicals 2009 (ARRA). and fuels, we are in a Stimulus funding is 2 growth mode.” supporting develop0 The firm will have ment of other green1989 93 97 01 05 09 grown from 20 emchemistry-based SOURCES: “Analysis of the American ployees in 2008 to 50 businesses, creating Chemical Society’s Comprehensive Salary & by the end of this year new jobs in the proEmployment Surveys, 1985 to 2009”; Bureau of Labor Statistics; “Science & Engineering and to 75 by the end cess. Earlier this year, Indicators,” National Science Foundation, 2006 of 2011 or the middle a $161 million DOE of 2012, Eggert says. grant under ARRA Among its employees are biochemists, helped launch construction of a lithium-ion chemical engineers, and both process battery production facility being built by chemists and process chemical engineers. Dow Kokam in Midland, Mich. Aiming to Using technology that was spun out from produce batteries for hybrid and electric
vehicle markets, the plant will start up in early 2011 and will employ up to 800 people (C&EN, June 28, page 12). Prior to ARRA’s enactment, Dow received $20 million in DOE funding to develop its Powerhouse Solar Shingle, a green product that integrates a thin-film solar cell with an asphalt roof shingle. In September, Dow announced that it was creating 100 new manufacturing jobs in Midland to further support the production of the shingles, which it plans to sell in 2011. In total, Dow aims to bring more than 1,200 jobs to the region by 2014 to support production of the green roofing material. To develop products including solar roof shingles, new energy storage technologies, and other advanced materials and performance-based products and technologies, Dow’s R&D teams are constantly working “to attract and retain the best and brightest chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists,” says Alveda J. Williams, Dow’s R&D leader for strategic recruitment. “In 2009, we planned to hire a significant number of new R&D scientists and engineers, even when the economy suggested it was not wise to do so,” Williams says. “As a result, Dow’s R&D function is coming off FLEEING PHARMA
After being laid off from AMRI, Rossiter joined biotech start-up Draths, which is developing methods for replacing petroleum-based monomers with identical bioderived materials for production of many common polymers.
“There is no doubt that the U.S. job market has a long way to go before it fully recovers.” WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
40
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
O PX BIOT ECHN O LO G IES
of a record-setting 2009–10 North American campus recruiting year, and almost all of its new hires have been successfully brought onboard,” she adds. Dow’s R&D hiring plans for 2010–11 “are just as robust,” she adds. “Our recruiters have already visited key campuses to screen for top talent. Additionally, we expect to hire a good number of experienced researchers.” Williams attributes some of the company’s recruiting success to “the fact that many of our competitors were not hiring at all or were hiring at a very low level,” she says. Indeed, few companies seem to be recruiting aggressively right now. W. R. Grace, for example, has been “more cautious overall” in its hiring in 2010, says Troy Vincent, the company’s vice president of global talent acquisition. “We know there is talent in the marketplace, but we don’t want to bring in a new hire unless we have a position in place that will allow us to take long-term advantage of that person’s talent,” he says. Utilizing “a robust workforce planning process,” Grace must tie its hiring to demand coming from its diverse range of customers in industries including construction, packaging, medicines, and refining, which “are all in various stages of economic recovery,” Vincent says. Air Products & Chemicals, too, has taken a conservative stance in hiring in 2010 but anticipates that it will have more job openings as business continues to rebound, according to Lynn Scheitrum, Air Products’ manager of talent management and central staffing. In 2010, the company hired about 40% more employees than it did in 2009, but 2009 was a year “that was characterized by a lot of reduction” in staffing, she says. New hires at Air Products included plant operators, technicians, plant supervisors, and chemical engineers with plant-process-efficiency expertise. They were brought in primarily to support “an uptick in our plant operations area as business has started to come back and production volumes have started to increase across the board,” Scheitrum says. Currently, the company has some entry-level sales positions open to chemists, she says, “but beyond that, opportunities for chemists and chemical engi-
GREEN OPPORTUNITIES
Biochemist Faith Watson is one of a growing number of scientists employed at Boulder, Colo.-based OPX Biotechnologies, which aims to manufacture renewable biobased chemicals and fuels.
portunity to talk with C&EN about their hiring plans for this story. However, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Co. tells C&EN that it does not have any openings for chemists or chemical engineers now and does not expect to have any in the near future. “Millennium hired more than 250 people in 2009 as a result of our acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceuticals of Japan” in 2008, says Pamela Saras, the company’s senior director of human resources. “We’ve fulfilled our pressing scientific staffing needs,” which were focused in the clinical development area. ALTHOUGH JOB prospects in
neers are still fairly limited at the moment.” Job opportunities remain restricted, too, within pharmaceutical companies even while their downsizing efforts are slowing down. From January through September of this year, pharma firms announced job cuts totaling 43,334, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas figures. That’s down 26% from the same period a year ago, when pharma job cuts totaled 58,583. Not surprisingly, five big pharma companies declined the op-
ON THE RISE Chemjobber’s count of C&EN ads for industrial positions in the past two years bottomed out in August 2009 Industrial classified advertising 50 40
■ No. of ads ■ No. of positions
30 20 10 0
S O N D J F MAM J J A S O N D J F MAM J J A S 08 2009 2010
NOTE: Total for all the C&EN issues in a specific month; each ad in each issue was counted. SOURCE: Chemjobbber blog
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
41
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
pharma companies are slim right now, employment opportunities are growing elsewhere as drug firms increasingly rely on outsiders to supplement their bone-lean workforces. “As a result of this shift, there is likely to be greater demand for consultants and contract workers,” Saras points out. “While these positions may be less desirable than those in a drug company, they can help people keep their skills fresh and expand their networks and can lead to fulltime opportunities in the future.” Klein Hersh’s Albert agrees. “Companies are hiring contractors in all discoverybased disciplines,” he says. By hiring under a contract, “companies gain the flexibility to fill a short-term need and avoid creating a permanent position that may not fit three years down the line.” Life-sciences-based firms are not the only ones relying more on contract workers, says Kelly Services’ Edwards. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total contingent workforce accounts for at least one-quarter of all workers and is growing at two to three times the rate of the traditional workforce. What’s more, contingent workers are expected to comprise nearly 50% of the U.S. workforce added after the recession. Most of the growth is coming from the use of highly skilled
COMPANIES WANT TO hire on a tempo-
rary basis regardless of whether they are bringing in scientists with experience or those who are fresh out of school. At Texas A&M University (TAMU), for instance, several of the companies recruiting science majors this year have been specifically planning to hire interns rather than permanent employees, observes Holly C. Gaede, senior lecturer in chemistry and chief undergraduate adviser in TAMU’s department of chemistry. In fact, “a couple of companies went as far as to stipulate that they would only hire students who had interned for them,” she says. Increasingly, employers seem to want to hire temporary employees so that they can “preview” them before they place them in permanent positions. At the same time, companies seem to think that “the market is rebounding and they want to hire interns as a way to be sure to keep good people in the pipeline.” Whether seeking interns or full-time
O PX BIOT ECHN O LO G IES
professional contractors in technologyrich industries, Edwards points out. Victor Lewchenko is one Ph.D. chemist who has found employment through a string of contract positions. In 2004, after being laid off as a 20-year employee at Tripos, where he was a scientific programmer and a sales support scientist, he searched for 10 months before landing a four-year contractor job in Pfizer’s chemistry informatics group in St. Louis. Then, in March 2009, he found a sevenmonth contractor position as a scientific business analyst with Monsanto’s crop technology group. Now, Lewchenko is applying his information technology knowledge to a new industry. In January, he began working as a business systems consultant at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage under an 18-month nonrenewable contract. Although he misses “working in a science environment with people focused on new discoveries,” he appreciates that he can use his training as a scientist to analyze and solve problems in another field, he says. Lewchenko is also glad to have found a job in the St. Louis area, where he, his wife, and his two schoolaged children have put down roots.
employees, companies “are takthree companies have visited GROWTH MODE Matt Lipscomb, ing a bellwether approach to campus already this fall that a senior hiring as the economic climate were not able to do so last year,” scientist at OPX improves,” adds Paula Moses, she adds. “I would certainly not Biotechnologies, director of employment services examines a culture say that I am hearing prerecesat the TAMU Career Center. “We of a microorganism sion levels of optimism from the have actually seen our recruiting strain. employers, but there are defigo up in the last year, and we are nitely signs of that.” seeing even more of a significant The number of job opportuincrease this fall,” she says. “Companies nities available to students at California that have not recruited here for two or three Institute of Technology is also growing, years are now coming back to us,” she adds. according to Brian M. Stoltz, executive ofCompanies including BASF, Celanese, ficer for chemistry and the faculty liaison Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, for on-campus recruiting there. However, Huntsman Corp., and Oxea attended TAcompanies are not recruiting in the ways MU’s 12th Annual Sciences Career Fair this that they have traditionally, he says. To cut fall primarily to find students with chemiscosts, pharma companies are among those try or biology degrees, according to Marilyn that have begun to solicit student candidates Yeager, senior career coordinator for life via e-mail rather than through on-campus sciences at TAMU’s Career Center. In addiinterviews, he notes. When openings arise, tion, the career fair hosted a greater number even outside of the traditional fall recruiting of federal and state agencies than ever season, “we get e-mails from key company before, as well as institutions such as M.D. recruiters, asking us if we have any qualified Anderson Cancer Center, she says, adding candidates,” he says. This year, “there are far that these groups “are recruiting on campus more of these e-mail solicitations coming in more actively now than in the past.” than there were last year, which I think is an Patricia Simpson, director of the School encouraging sign.” of Chemical Sciences’ Career Counseling & Nevertheless, Stoltz points out that hirPlacement Services Office at the University ing “is still down a lot compared with five of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, offers a simiyears ago when every big company had at larly upbeat report. “All in all last year, we least some openings every year.” As a result, were actually up in the total number of em“students are scared. They are afraid that ployer campus visits and in the total number there will not be enough jobs out there.” of individual interviews conducted through Although Stoltz says that most Caltech the School of Chemical Sciences,” she says. students have an edge in finding jobs, he “And thus far, we seem to be on track for worries that younger chemists around the similar numbers to last year. In addition, U.S. may “go out and change their field of study. I hope that a temporary setback in the economy won’t turn young people away from a future in chemistry. There will be ups and downs,” he says, “and people will always have to adapt to change, but chemists will always be needed to support more than a few industries. And that’s a fundamental fact.” ■
“The job market is still far from where it was. There are still a lot of people out of work.” WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
42
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
RUSS SELZER
COVE R STORY
officer—in charge of rules and regulations relating to chemicals and waste—and they may participate in teaching and research as well. At smaller academic institutions, some lab managers have no college degree, most have bachelor’s degrees, about one-third have master’s degrees, and only a few have Ph.D.s. The range of responsibilities is similar for small and large institutions, Bowman says. Lab managers also work in industry and government.
FILLING A NEED
Senior chemistry major Catharine Seeley (left) and Molinelli fill a 400-MHz NMR instrument with liquid nitrogen.
MAKING LABS WORK MAGICALLY WELL Lab and stockroom managers have ESSENTIAL JOBS with diverse responsibilities STU BORMAN, C&EN WASHINGTON
RICH MOLINELLI, who has a Ph.D. in
analytical chemistry, ran a research lab at a major chemical company, founded a business in regulatory and chemical safety consulting, and was a scientific employment recruiter. But he now manages chemistry department labs and storerooms at Western Connecticut State University (WCSU), Danbury, and says, “I’ve never had a job in science that I’ve enjoyed as much as this one, nor have any of my previous positions given me the satisfaction this one does.” Managing a lab may not be the first job undergraduate and graduate chemistry students think of when planning their future careers. But lab management is a potentially rewarding profession that’s essential to the proper operation of thousands of scientific facilities worldwide. As such, it’s an alternative career that perhaps warrants more careful consideration. “Our profession is not that well-known,” says Carol Bowman, science lab facilities director at Ohio State University, in Marion. “Kids just show up at labs, supplies are magically there, and after they leave the lab, it’s magically cleaned up. We’re like houseelves at Hogwarts.” But without lab manag-
ers, those facilities would not be nearly as safe and easy to use as they are now. In addition to her university job, Bowman is also president of the National Association of Scientific Materials Managers (NAOSMM), a professional organization of lab and stockroom managers. “Lab manager is a catchall title,” she explains. “The core responsibilities of chemistry lab and stockroom managers are negotiating materials contracts and ordering, receiving, storing, inventorying, and distributing chemical supplies.” However, in academia, “your responsibilities depend on how big your university is, how many people it employs, how many students run through the labs—and what your employer can get you to do without having to pay somebody else,” she says, laughing. “The bigger the school, the bigger the job,” Bowman says. At large institutions such as major research universities, lab managers typically have Ph.D.s in chemistry—“or perhaps a master’s degree and lots of experience.” They may also be the university’s environmental health and safety (EHS) director or chemical hygiene
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
43
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
A MAJOR PART of lab management is purchasing supplies and equipment, and doing that job well requires skill. In working with vendors, “after first searching for the lowest prices, you have to be smart enough to negotiate by asking the right questions, such as about discounts for academia and possible waivers on shipping charges,” Molinelli says. “I do everything in my power to save money for the WCSU chemistry department. I reduce expenditures here tremendously by negotiating.” In addition, “I deal with invoices and payments, keep records, and help maintain the department’s budget,” he says. “When we get an allocation to buy anything over $1,000, I get quotes from vendors and often invite them in to present seminars and demonstrate the equipment,” Molinelli says. “After professors decide which brand of equipment they want to purchase, I generate the purchase order. I then coordinate delivery, installation, and training, and I schedule and oversee required instrument maintenance.” At Chevron Phillips Chemical, in Baytown, Texas, analyst and chemical hygiene officer Raymond D. Tyler orders chemicals and supplies, manages the stockroom, runs analyses, and performs chemical safety duties. In his analytical work he uses gas chromatography, atomic absorption spectroscopy, and other techniques to check the quality of ethylene, propylene, and polyethylene produced at the facility. “The appeal of the job is its diversity,” Tyler says. Chemical safety is a paramount concern of all chemical lab and stockroom managers. For Tyler, being a chemical hygiene officer involves managing overall laboratory safety—such as maintaining eye washes and fume hoods and evaluat-
INDISPENSABLE ROLE
Bowman pours a dye solution in the Ohio State chemistry lab.
controlled today than it was in earlier years, Lynch notes. “When I first started at Vanderbilt, the inventory was kept on index cards in metal files,” she says. “When we sold a bottle of acetone, we went in and deducted it from the total on the card, and if we ordered something, we would indicate that manually, too. “Now we’re totally computerized, with a bar-code system, and our inventory system creates chemical orders for us automatical-
ly on a daily basis,” she says. “We bar code and track approximately 7,000 chemicals annually. I acquired the information for our bar-coding and tracking system while attending a NAOSMM conference, and we purchased the system at a later date.” EVERY CHEMICAL purchased at WCSU
is also recorded in an online inventory system. “I enter comprehensive data on all chemicals into a database and apply a sticker with a bar code and four-digit number on every bottle, can, drum, cylinder, or other container,” Molinelli says. “We can then locate any given chemical at any given time.” To ensure accuracy, empty containers are removed from the database and all containers are scanned and reinventoried once a year. For Catherine Anzick, lab manager at the National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), managing supplies of chemical reagents and common stock items such as pipettes and cell-culture flasks is one of her core responsibilities. “Taking inventory is so important,” she says—so the facility doesn’t run out of 1,536-well plates for high-throughput-screening assays, for example. “There are certain items that have to be in stock at all times” or the lab’s highly efficient operations could come to a screeching halt, she says. In addition, Anzick helps manage chemical safety at NCGC. She’s on the NIH safety committee, attends monthly safety meetings, and is responsible for managing chemical wastes at the lab, a role for which she received specialized training at NIH. Molinelli and Bowman are also responsible for chemical hygiene at their facilities. “I maintain hazardous waste containers and accumulation areas in the chemistry department, train student workers and adjunct faculty in our safety and waste proWAYNE ROWE
ing the safety of newly ordered chemicals. At Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, “Our chemicals are kept in safety cabinets, bulk solvents are isolated in separate rooms, and safety carriers”—spill- and breakage-resistant rubber buckets—“are required to transport 4-L solvent bottles,” chemistry storeroom manager Paulette Lynch says. “It’s a safer atmosphere now compared to 30 years ago,” when lab safety standards were less rigorous, she says. In addition, chemical inventory is generally much more automated and carefully
cedures, and serve as a liaison with the university’s EHS department, which removes wastes for disposal,” Molinelli says. The main campus of Ohio State, in Columbus, “has a huge EHS department,” Bowman says, but the Marion campus where she works is 50 miles away, “so the responsibility for day-to-day hazardous waste management falls to me. Somebody comes from Columbus to pick up our hazardous waste, but I do have to segregate my chemicals and know the storage rules.” Some lab and stockroom managers find their way into the profession early in their careers, but lab management wasn’t initially on Bowman’s radar screen. “I have a bachelor’s degree in science education, with minors in biology, chemistry, physics, and geology,” she says. While working as a high school chemistry and physics teacher, a lab manager position at Ohio State opened up, and she took it because it had a flexible schedule, which she needed at the time to meet family needs. “I agreed to stay three years, and I’ve now been here 12,” she says. “I love it now that I’m here, but it’s not a career I thought of doing initially.” Lynch doesn’t have a chemistry degree but has been chemistry storeroom manager at Vanderbilt for 38 years. “Through the years, I acquired the knowledge I needed and became very familiar with chemistry apparatus, chemicals, and equipment,” she says. “My previous position was placing orders and reconciling ledgers for the physics department, and those duties carried over into my position in the chemistry storeroom.” ANZICK DOESN’T HAVE a bachelor’s de-
gree. She got her lab management position at NCGC after having been a trainer at Victoria’s Secret and a manager at a Sprint call center, among other jobs. She is grateful for the lab management opportunity that was offered her, has learned on the job, and has worked hard to succeed in a profession for which she originally had no specific training. At press time, she was just about to be promoted to an administrative position at NCGC, in which she will no longer manage the laboratory directly but will retain her responsibilities for equipment inventory,
“Kids just show up at labs, supplies are magically there, and after they leave the lab, it’s magically cleaned up. We’re like house-elves at Hogwarts.” WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
44
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
HEAT HER WAT K IN S/VA N DER BILT U
COVE R STORY
a chemical hygiene officer—a specialist in “procuring chemicals, managing them, and disposing of them in a safe manner,” he says. He earned that additional role by taking a course on chemical hygiene offered by the Laboratory Safety Institute, in Natick, Mass., and then passing a qualifying test given by the National Registry of Certified Chemists, in Arlington, Va. SAFETY FIRST
Lynch uses a safety carrier to move a bottle of acid from Vanderbilt University’s chemistry storeroom.
IDEAL PREPARATION for a career in lab or
travel authorizations, scheduling meetings, and procuring supplies. Her strategy for success: “When you’re really organized, it just works,” she says. Tyler, who has a B.S. degree in biology, got a job in a metallurgical lab when he got out of college, and that experience helped him get his current job in 1976. The position evolved over time, and in 2001 he became
stockroom management, Molinelli advises, is “a chemistry degree, a willingness to get involved in managing money and budgets, and a background in EHS.” Experience in helping run a lab while you’re a student can be extremely helpful in landing a permanent lab or stockroom management position. Bowman says she knows “a young person who had been a stockroom manager for a couple of years while getting her bachelor’s degree in
chemistry. After getting her degree, she decided, ‘This is what I want to do for a career,’ and she is now a lab manager.” Bowman points out that “salaries depend on your degree, the size of your university, number of years of service, and other factors.” Most lab and stockroom managers who are members of NAOSMM earn $40,000 to $80,000 per year, she says. Salaries of more than $100,000 per year are not uncommon for Ph.D.-level personnel, for lab managers at larger institutions, and for those who are also EHS specialists. The rewards of lab and stockroom management are often more than just monetary, however, because many of these jobs are diversified, intellectually stimulating, and people-oriented. “I love being of assistance—helping students order research chemicals, giving them advice about their research, providing safety training, and assisting them with their résumés,” Molinelli says. “I appreciate being able to help the faculty in whatever ways they might need me. And this semester, I’m teaching two freshman general chemistry labs. I’ve got the perfect job here.” ■
Virtual Special Issue on Nanotoxicology The articles, which were selected by Associate Editor Wolfgang Parak and Editor-in-Chief Paul Weiss, demonstrate the breadth of research coverage and the latest developments in this area.
Access Articles Free until End of December
Visit http://pubs.acs.org/page/ancac3/vi/1 WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
45
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
PAU L N GUY EN
COVE R STORY
BUILDING TRUST
Thomas mentors two students at Xavier University.
WANTED: ROLE MODELS Mentors can help WOMEN SCIENTISTS OF COLOR achieve success in their careers LINDA WANG, C&EN WASHINGTON
SIGNS INDICATE that the job market for
chemical professionals is slowly awakening, and optimism about the future is slowly returning to the chemistry community (see page 38). But women of color in the chemical sciences might not share in this sense of relief. That’s because this demographic continues to be underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce—especially at the senior levels. What may give these women some hope, however, is the growing recognition in the scientific community that women of color face unique obstacles in the workplace and that mentorship can play a crucial role in helping these women break through barriers and advance in their careers. “I’ve been successful at so many things that I would not have been successful at if I had not had a mentor giving me an opportunity or providing me with a skill set or a resource that I needed to be suc-
cessful,” says Gloria Thomas, assistant professor of chemistry at Xavier University of Louisiana, who is Asian and African American. “The more women of color we can bring into the workplace in highly successful roles, the better for women of color in general,” says Samina Azad, manager of the analytical laboratory at SouthWest NanoTechnologies, who grew up in Bangladesh. “Many times, you don’t know what is expected of you,” says Novella N. Bridges, senior research chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who is African American. “Being mentored allows us to know what the expectations are.” One of the earliest observations of the
challenges facing women of color in STEM fields came in the 1976 American Association for the Advancement of Science report “The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science,” which found that women scientists of color struggled much more in advancing their education and careers than did white women or men of any race or ethnicity. In October 2009, a mini-symposium on Women of Color in STEM, organized by Cambridge, Mass.-based STEM research organization TERC, sought to determine progress since the 1976 report. Unfortunately, little action had been taken to correct the situation, said Maria (Mia) Ong, one of the symposium’s organizers (C&EN, Nov. 16, 2009, page 37). Symposium attendees offered recommendations to improve the situation. One suggestion was a call for more funding to support the mentoring of minority and female graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty. The importance of mentorship for women scientists of color was reiterated during the daylong Women Chemists of Color Summit held at the fall American Chemi-
“Being mentored allows us to know what the expectations are.” WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
46
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
M AR K RO BERTS P HOTO G RA P HY
sights, and you want their perspectives.” Thomas encourages people who are new to mentoring to take advantage of the many mentoring programs that are available. These programs “are absolutely essential because many students do not know that they need a mentor, or they may be uncomfortable with the process,” she says. “If they can take that first step and learn the value of it and get help in finding at least one mentor, then maybe they will be encouraged to seek out mentors on THE FIRST AND foremost step to developtheir own.” ing an effective mentoring relationship is Of course, not all mentoring relato know yourself, Bridges says. “Don’t go tionships turn out to be a good match. to your mentor to tell you what it is that “If I felt like the person was overbearyou want,” she says. “It’s your life and your ing, or I didn’t see us having a good career, and you’ve got to make the final connection, I would find some way decision. The mentor is just there to help to get out of that mentoring relationyou navigate a smooth trip because they’ve ship,” Bridges says. “If you think this might been down that path before.” not be the right situation, put a time limit Women scientists of color may be inon it.” clined to seek other women of color as Networking and finding mentors often go hand in hand. “You can use your mentors to help you network, and you can use your network to help you find mentors,” Thomas says. Scientific conferences are a fertile source of mentors. When you identify a potential mentor, “sit back and observe them,” Bridges says. “Pay attention to their mannerisms, how they handle situations, and how they carry themselves professionally. All those things go into how you select who it is you want for a professional mentor.” Azad encourages women to volunteer in a professional mentors. But “in most cases, capacity. “You have to find MAKING CONNECTIONS Azad (left) shares as a woman of color, your somebody who has someexperiences with professional mentor will not thing in common with you, other women during be the same race as you” beand the best way is to be on a Women Chemists cause you may be among only a committee or be part of an Committee networking a handful of women of color in event at the spring organization and you work ACS national meeting your workplace, says Bridges, side by side with people,” says in San Francisco. who has had mentors of variAzad, who has found many ous genders and ethnicities. mentors through her work on But that’s okay because “it the ACS Women Chemists isn’t about who the mentors are, but about Committee. “That will give you a chance what they can help you with.” to know other people and at the same time It’s important to have a network of persee who can be your mentor and whom you sonal mentors, peer mentors, and profescan mentor.” sional mentors, Bridges says. “You need Once Bridges identifies a potential different types of people to mentor you mentor, she will formally ask them to acthroughout your career. You want their incept that role. “You have to speak up and LINDA WANG/C&EN
cal Society national meeting in Boston. Women of color shared their experiences and advice on overcoming challenges and credited the many mentors who helped them advance in their careers. Like networking, finding good mentors takes patience and hard work. To help women navigate the process, C&EN sought advice from several women of color whose careers have benefited from mentoring. These women are now giving back to the community as mentors themselves.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
47
NOV E M BE R 1 , 20 10
LEARNING TOGETHER say what it is you Bridges (left) and need from them Courtney because you’ve got mentee Henry in the Physical to be honest with Science Laboratory them and honest at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. with their time,” she says. Sometimes, however, the mentoring relationship just happens. “I have never had a conversation where I’ve said, ‘Will you be my mentor?’ ” Thomas says. But, Bridges says, “You have to make sure the person also is in the right mindset.” A mentor “needs to be open to mentoring you.” And an effective mentoring relationship involves give and take, she says. “If you’re a really good mentee, you will help your mentor.” Thomas agrees. “As I talk with my students, I learn so much about what’s going on in the culture now,” she says. “There’s a lot of growth that happens for me as well out of that relationship.” Mentoring relationships evolve, and eventually the relationship ends. “Here’s the neat thing about mentors,” Bridges says. “You take pieces of what your mentors give you to make the perception of yourself better. If you’re starting to glean and get that perspective, that’s when the mentor goes away, because they realize they can’t help you anymore.” At some point, mentees will often become mentors to others. But that doesn’t mean they no longer need mentors themselves. “I am absolutely both a mentor and a mentee,” Thomas says. “I draw on my mentors to be a better mentor to the people that I’m mentoring.” ■
