Academic Chemists Research Articles

Network patterns of university-industry collaboration: A case study of the chemical sciences in Australia

University–industry (U–I) collaboration takes on many forms, from research services, teaching and training, to curiosity-led research. In the chemical industries, academic chemists generate new knowledge, address novel problems faced by industry, and train the future workforce in cutting-edge methods. In this study, we examine the dynamic structures of collaborative research contracts and grants between academic and industry partners over a 5-year period within a research-intensive Australian university. We reconstruct internal contract data provided by a university research office as records of its collaborations into a complex relational database that links researchers to research projects. We then structure this complex relational data as a two-mode network of researcher-project collaborations for utilisation with Social Network Analysis (SNA)—a relational methodology ideally suited to relational data. Specifically, we use a stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM), a statistical network model for longitudinal two-mode network data. Although the dataset is complicated, we manage to replicate it exactly using a very parsimonious and relatable network model. Results indicate that as academics gain experience, they become more involved in direct research contracts with industry, and in research projects more generally. Further, more senior academics are involved in projects involving both industry partners and other academic partners of any level. While more experienced academics are also less likely to repeat collaborations with the same colleagues, there is a more general tendency in these collaborations, regardless of academic seniority or industry engagement, for prior collaborations to predict future collaborations. We discuss implications for industry and academics.

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ACS NEWS Reactions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2022, 100 (7), p 3February 21, 2022Cite this:C&EN 100, 7, 3 Letters to the editor ACS awards My semiregular rant about the American Chemical Society and awards. I am an 8 years’ retired industrial chemist. I still do some consulting. I am an ACS member because of C&EN, SciFinder, and the occasional journal article. No other offerings from ACS are useful to me.For students, here is what ACS is telling you: If you choose a career in industry, good luck. We really do not value the contribution of industrial chemists. Why do I say this? Look at the list of ACS awards. Virtually all of them go to academics or pseudo-academics, if you count national labs or places like Scripps Research. For years I have been complaining about the favoritism and bias toward academic chemists in the ACS awards program. Nothing has changed because ACS is still an old people’s (used to be boys’) network of academics. Larry Lewis Scotia, New York Corrections Jan. 24, 2022, page 16: The feature story about the development of Paxlovid incorrectly identifies a critical amino acid contact in the protease’s binding site: it is glutamine, not glycine. The story also contains an error in the structure of the benzothiazol-2-yl ketone candidate. The structure incorrectly shows a tert-butyl group where there should be an isopropyl group. The correct structure is shown at right. Jan. 31, 2022, page 25: The Periodic Graphics infographic on antiviral molecules has an incorrect structure for saquinavir. The fused rings on the left should have a nitrogen, not a carbon. And a wedge, not a dash, should connect the central amide group. The correct structure is shown at right. Feb. 7, 2022, page 17: The feature story about companies struggling to hire biomanufacturing workers incorrectly describes a workforce training program at Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation. It is a state-registered apprenticeship program, not an internship. Feb. 14, 2022, page 13: The feature article on urban runoff includes only part of a quotation by Edward Kolodziej. He said, “To protect the environment, we need to know what’s there,” not “To protect the environment, we.”

Peer review experiences of academic chemists in Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States

ABSTRACT Academic chemists at Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States were surveyed on the time and effort they spend on peer reviews and how they rate themselves as reviewers. Thirty percent of the respondents reviewed 16 or more papers yearly. This seemingly high number is consistent with the number of papers some scientists publish, and the rough estimate of two to three reviews is obtained per manuscript submission. Approximately 30% of the respondents reported that they spent two hours or less per review; that 60% rate themselves as strong or very strong reviewers; that the youngest reviewers are more likely to be compulsive in their reviewing; and that respondents who spend more time on reviews complete fewer reviews per year. Sixty percent of the respondents categorized themselves as strong or very strong reviewers, suggesting that most scientists see reviewing papers as an essential component of their professional responsibilities. These ratings suggest an opportunity to improve peer review quality. Good citizenship within the scientific community suggests that each scientist should review ca. two to three times as many papers each year as they submit, and that reviewers need to see reviewing as “providing to others what authors hope reviewers will provide to them.”

Myths of high-throughput experimentation and automation in chemistry

Myths of high-throughput experimentation and automation in chemistry

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OPINION Reactions ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2021, 99 (27), p 5July 26, 2021Cite this:C&EN 99, 27, 5▸ Letters to the editor.Alien life detectorAs a 50-plus year member of the American Chemical Society, I still enjoy reading C&EN every week. Occasionally, I see an article that captures my attention, and I get an urge to convert it into poetic form. Here is one based on the report on an alien life detector by Katharine Sanderson (C&EN, May 31, 2021, page 9).Molecules can form by chance or evolution.In their complexity, each method should differ.And that was the basis for a solution.That has all the earmarks of a sniffer.So ’twas Lee Cronin’s group at Glasgow U.Who established a new recognition technique.And, let us say, that between me and you.It is one that is truly unique.A complexity score algorithm they first devised.For any given molecular species.And a Molecular Assembly number that is based on size.Became the centerpiece of their new thesis.For big biological molecules have many bonds.Compared with those that are inorganic.And a large MA number, therefore, corresponds.To those that are bio-organic.Now, Tandem Mass Spec. is the method they use.And the experimental variable is its second stage.If there is a large number of peaks they will choose.To say it must come from a biological cage.They have tested the theory on samples galore.Both bio-organic and inorganic, too.And above an MA threshold was an evolutionary score.Which gave good correlation, it is true.Much more work, though, has yet to be done.To increase sensitivity at low concentration.For there are few molecules between here and the sun.Or in outer space since the act of creation.So, if the MA algorithm can be retooled.And applied to infrared spectroscopy data.Then extrasolar planetary molecules.Could be identified as Alien Life matter!Andrew Roxburgh McGhieWilmington, DelawareLisa JonesThank you for your recent story on professor Lisa Jones’s decision to withdraw her name from consideration for a faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after the disturbing action by the board in denying tenure to Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones (C&EN, June 14, 2021, page 7). It is inspiring to see professor Jones put her commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion into action, calling out this apparent example of racial bias. C&EN writer Melba Newsome did a great job in reporting the story, adding comments from chemistry faculty members at UNC who shared their concerns about the impact of the Hannah-Jones tenure case on their efforts to recruit faculty of color.Randy HealdFort Scott, KansasOSHA and chemical safetyThank you for the interestingarticle regarding the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and comments by David Michaels about the organization that he once headed (C&EN, June 28, 2021, page 26). The formation of OSHA in 1970 was an important turning point in worker health and safety. I enrolled in my chemistry major in 1952 at what is now the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Laboratory ventilation back then was a joke. We were exposed to asbestos, mercury, benzene, and a great assortment of chemicals that today are off limits in undergraduate labs. I am happy to still be alive!My first real exposure to lab safety was as an employee of DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware. Safety was stressed from day 1, including group safety meetings. When I eventually left to join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, I was given the job as chair of the chemistry department’s Safety Committee. That was quite a challenge for academic chemists with no industrial backgrounds. Luckily I survived to enjoy retirement!Allen A. DenioNewark, Delaware. CorrectionsJuly 5/12, 2021, page 20: The feature story on nitrous oxide incorrectly says that Ascend Performance Materials uses just selective catalytic reduction to destroy nitrogen oxides at its adipic acid plant near Pensacola, Florida. It uses both selective catalytic reduction and thermal reduction.July 5/12, 2021, page 26: The cover story about developing new American Sign Language signs for scientific terms has the wrong date of the photograph of Daniel Lundberg. It was taken in 2015, not 2019. The article also has an incorrect title for Paula Christopher. Christopher is a program manager at the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect at the American Chemical Society, not a program manager of diversity planning and strategy.

A Woman’s Life Alongside Chemistry:The Memoirs of Theresa Kopp Baumann

As her second and third names suggest, Theresa Kopp Baumann (1856–1944) was the daughter and subsequently the wife of eminent German academic chemists. Her substantial unpublished autobiography, written ca. 1910 and presented here in English translation in an edited and considerably abridged form, provides unique insight from a privileged female perspective into the socio-cultural aspects of German academic science in its period of greatest international reputation and influence. In the two cases-in-point that are vividly recounted there – her life as daughter and then as wife – it also gives shape and colour to the many ways in which gendered domestic roles invisibly condition and assist scientific activity.

Internationalizing a Broader View of Scholarship: An Exploratory Study of Faculty Publication Productivity in Boyer’s Four Domains of Scholarship in English-speaking Universities

Boyer’s four domains of scholarship provided the basis for a comparative investigation of the scholarly output of faculty members in 14 countries and at 100 English-speaking universities on the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2013–2014) top-400 institutions. Full-time university faculty members who held tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track academic appointments across three high-consensus and three low-consensus academic fields were the population of interest. The findings revealed that faculty members in US Research I and doctoral-granting universities and their international faculty counterparts in English-speaking universities publish relatively similar levels of scholarship directed toward application and discovery and have similar levels of inactivity in their publication of teaching-oriented scholarship. Tests for academic discipline-specific differences revealed little variation except for the finding that academic chemists tend to produce more publications in the application domain. Cross-national variation was also found in the publication of application-oriented scholarship. Suggestions for further research are proposed.

Carbon Nanotubes under Scrutiny: Their Toxicity and Utility in Mesothelioma Research

Research on the toxicity of engineered carbon nanotubes (CNT) was initiated by Belgian academic chemists and toxicologists more than 15 years ago. It is now undisputed that some of these attractive nanomaterials induce serious illness such as fibrosis and cancer. The physico-chemical determinants of CNT-induced adverse effects are now elucidated and include shape, nanoscale diameter, and structural defects. Generated in vitro and in vivo data on their inflammogenic and fibrogenic activities were combined and translated in AOP (adverse outcome pathways) available for risk assessment and regulatory policies. The asbestos-like carcinogenic effect of CNT, notably their capacity to induce malignant mesothelioma (MM), remain, however, a cause of concern for public health and strongly curb the craze for CNT in industries. MM still represents a real challenge for clinicians and a highly refractory cancer to existing therapeutic strategies. By comparing mesotheliomagenic CNT (needle-like CNT-N) to non mesotheliomagenic CNT (tangled-like CNT-T), our group generated a relevant animal model that highlights immune pathways specifically associated to the carcinogenic process. Evidence indicates that only CNT-N possess the intrinsic capacity to induce a preferential, rapid, and sustained accumulation of host immunosuppressive cells that subvert immune surveillance and suppress anti-mesothelioma immunity. This new concept offers novel horizons for the clinical management of mesothelioma and represents an additional tool for predicting the mesotheliomagenic activity of newly elaborated CNT or nanoparticles.

Women chemists still face discrimination in academia

Female chemists continue to face a chilly climate in academia, despite decades of work toward change, according to a survey published in the Journal of Chemical Education (2018, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00221). Women now make up 41% of Ph.D. recipients in chemistry, up from 35% in 2007. But they have not made much progress in becoming faculty members; women represent less than 20% of tenured and tenure-track faculty at the top 50 chemistry schools. To get insight into this problem, the authors surveyed over 400 women who participated in workshops by the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists (COACh). The authors compared the results of a 2007–08 survey with a second survey from 2015–16. “We found no indication that women academic chemists viewed the field as more welcoming and equitable in recent years compared to a decade earlier,” the paper says. In fact, the surveys showed that barriers to recruiting, hiring,

Information Seeking Behaviors, Attitudes, and Choices of Academic Chemists

ABSTRACTChemists in academic institutions utilize a variety of resources and strategies to remain current and to track scholarly information, patents, and news. To explore how chemists in academic institutions remain current, librarians at four Canadian university institutions surveyed 231 and interviewed 14 chemistry faculty, staff, and graduate students on their information seeking behaviors and attitudes. According to survey results, a minority of chemists (13.9 percent) acknowledged that they were successfully keeping up to date, while 50.6 percent indicated that they were somewhat successful. However, a significant number of chemists (35.5 percent) indicated that they were unsuccessful and could do better in remaining current with information. Investigators analyzing focus group data identified three emergent themes related to remaining current: (1) there is “too much information – and not enough time.” No single information seeking strategy works; (2) “patents are important – but messy.” Chemists find themselves largely suspicious about the value and credibility of patents; and (3) chemists “could do better” in keeping up to date with new and emerging technologies. Chemists continue to be open to new tools and resources yet readily acknowledge that they are too often not sure which information seeking behaviors, resources, or strategies work best. This study helps to shed light on opportunities to identify and meet chemists’ evolving information needs.

Photos and quotes from 2017

OVERHEARD Photos and quotes from 2017 ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2017, 95 (49), pp 30–37December 18, 2017Cite this:C&EN 95, 49, 30-37Chemists were among the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets during the March for Science on April 22 in Washington, D.C. (shown), and hundreds of other cities across the U.S. and world. Organizers promoted the march as a nonpartisan event in support of science, but some scientists chose not to participate because they saw it as too political. (Credit: Cheryl Hogue/C&EN)Figure1of3(Credit: Shutterstock)Figure1of3National Chemistry Week, ACS’s largest chemistry outreach program, celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. ACS past president George Pimentel started the program in 1987 as National Chemistry Day to educate the public about the role of chemistry in everyday life. Today, ACS continues to spread the seeds of chemistry around the world through new outreach programs such as its international Chemistry Festivals. Next year, ACS will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Project SEED program, which provides research opportunities for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. C&EN will honor the milestone with a series of monthly profiles featuring program alumni. (Credit: ACS)Figure2of32017 was marked by the worldwide March for Science, the 30th anniversary of National Chemistry Week, and increasing use of artificial intelligence in materials science. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald J. Trump endeavored to tighten travel and immigration policies, and sexual harassment became increasingly acknowledged across the country.Policy Chemists were among the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets during the March for Science on April 22 in Washington, D.C. (shown), and hundreds of other cities across the U.S. and world. Organizers promoted the march as a nonpartisan event in support of science, but some scientists chose not to participate because they saw it as too political.ACS news National Chemistry Week, ACS’s largest chemistry outreach program, celebrated its 30th anniversary this year. ACS past-president George Pimentel started the program in 1987 as National Chemistry Day to educate the public about the role of chemistry in everyday life. Today, ACS continues to spread the seeds of chemistry around the world through new outreach programs such as its international Chemistry Festivals. Next year, ACS will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Project SEED program, which provides research opportunities for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. C&EN will honor the milestone with a series of monthly profiles featuring program alumni.Computational chemistry Major chemical companies including Dow Chemical, BASF and Evonik, are partnering with computer firms such as IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise on digitalization projects in materials science research. Programs launched this year aim to put artificial intelligenceand machine-learning algorithms to work on large stores of research data using supercomputers.Diversity “I don’t know what I would be doing now if it weren’t for DACA. Being in the U.S. with DACA has really been a life-changing event for me. It’s allowed me to do research and pursue a degree in STEM.”—Rudy, an undocumented student, University of California, Davis Immigration was front and center in the U.S. in 2017, starting with President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order barring travel to the country by residents of seven Muslim-majority countries. The move upended the lives of many foreign chemists. Later in the year, the immigration focus turned to the 2012 Obama Administration immigration policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which gave undocumented students an opportunity to step out of the shadows and apply for temporary work permits. In September, Trump ended the program. More than 1 million unauthorized young adults were eligible for DACA in 2016. What will happen to them remains to be seen. Women in science “I’m thinking, ‘What do I do? Do I shove him? Do I do anything? He’s got my proposal.’ ” —An academic chemist on her experience being sexually harassed at a conference The persistent problem of sexual harassment in chemistry and in the broader community was on public display in 2017. C&EN and the ACS Women Chemists Committee will cohost a daylong symposium on sexual harassment in science at the March 2018 ACS meeting in New Orleans to discuss how to prevent harassment in the workplace and at meetings.

The “Indifferent Hypothesis” Redux

In 1892, the young but already eminent physical chemist Pierre Duhem published a 64-page monograph on chemical theory. The essay comprised his first extended statement on atomic-molecular ideas in chemistry, and contained a frontal attack on the chemical atomic theory of his day. Little attention to date has been devoted to Duhem’s attitude toward the kind of chemical-atomist/structuralist “wet” chemistry that characterized most of the work of most European academic chemists during the second half of the nineteenth century. An analysis of the 1892 essay thus provides opportunity for a fresh perspective on an understanding of Duhem’s philosophy of science. We show, inter alia, that he closely followed the work and ideas of the principal champion of atomist-structural chemistry in France, Adolphe Wurtz, while also strongly condemning the work of the leader of the anti-atomist camp in France, Marcellin Berthelot; both circumstances carry powerful ironies considering Duhem’s standpoint. We seek an understanding of these ironies and dilemmas not just in scientific and philosophical but also in biographical considerations—particularly the role of religion in Duhem’s thought. This essay is part of a special issue entitled THE BONDS OF HISTORY edited by Anita Guerrini.

Deep dive into 2015 chemistry spending

Research funding is constantly on the minds of academic chemists and chemical engineers. Data from the National Science Foundation give those scientists a chance to take a closer look at their universities, including how much their departments get and their funding sources. A look at 2015 (the most recent data available from NSF) shows that spending on chemistry is slightly up from previous years but hasn’t returned to its 2011 peak. While total funding for chemistry remains fairly consistent overall, which schools spend the most vary widely from year to year. This year, C&EN included rankings from a decade ago as well, which gives a broader sense of how funding changes over time. ◾

Organic Electrochemistry at Abbvie: Expanding the API Synthetic Toolbox

AbbVie R&D has expanded its synthetic capabilities to include organic electrochemistry in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) and metabolite synthesis. Elimination of hazardous reagents and waste is an important benefit in addition to the technology’s versatility and selectivity. Recent advancements made by AbbVie and collaborative academic chemists are discussed herein.

Evolving from Academic to Academic Entrepreneur: Overcoming Barriers to Scientific Progress and Finance

The overall goal of my career as an academic chemist has always been the design and creation of advanced therapeutics and diagnostics that address unmet medical need in the management of chronic diseases. Realising this goal has been an immensely difficult process involving multidisciplinary problem-driven research at the chemistry-biology-medicine interfaces. With success in the laboratory, I started seriously to question the value of remaining an academic whose career is spent in the pursuit of knowledge and understanding alone without making any significant effort to translate knowledge and understanding gained into products of genuine utility for public benefit. Therefore, I elected by choice to become an academic entrepreneur, seeking opportunities wherever possible for the translation of the best of my personal and collaborative academic research work into potentially valuable and useful products. This choice has brought with it many unexpected difficulties and challenges. Nevertheless, progress bas been made and sufficient learnt to suggest that this would be an appropriate moment to take stock and provide some personal reflections on what it takes to design and create advanced therapeutics and diagnostics in the laboratory then seek to develop, innovate and translate the best towards market.

IFM to tackle innate immunity

IFM Therapeutics, a biotech firm developing small molecules that modulate the innate immune system, has debuted with $27 million in funding from Atlas Venture, Abingworth, and Novartis. The innate immune system represents the first line of defense against an infection. IFM hopes to treat cancer by enhancing that defense and tackle inflammatory diseases by dampening it. The cash will be used to advance IFM’s early-stage drug portfolio and start clinical studies of its lead compound, a cancer treatment. IFM was founded by Gary Glick, an academic chemist turned entrepreneur who previously started Lycera.

One-Pot Synthesis of Some2-Amino-4H-benzo[g]chromenes

The increasing concern for the environment has led modern academic and industrial chemists to develop chemical processes with maximize yields and minimize cost while using non-toxic reagents and so...

The History of Hydrocarbon Analyses: Whence Has Forensic Geochemical Hydrocarbon Fingerprinting Come

The current techniques used in forensic geochemical hydrocarbon fingerprinting have their genesis along with the evolution of gas chromatography as it applies to hydrocarbon research. In the United States, a small group of government and academic chemists and marine scientists pioneered the use of gas chromatography in the identification of both natural and petroleum-derived hydrocarbons. Natural products were a primary focus until the research direction was altered somewhat by marine oil spills, accidents releasing crude oil and refined petroleum products to the world’s coastal marine environment, giving rise to concerns regarding biogeochemical impacts. Application of oil spill research continued from that point so that the geochemical research begun in the late 1960s and early 1970s now forms a major component of investigations of petroleum releases both in the aquatic and terrestrial environments. As the capabilities for the identification of individual hydrocarbons in a variety of petroleum products improved with basic advances in chromatographic technology, new applied sciences in forensic geochemical hydrocarbon fingerprinting have emerged. While in the beginning the identification of bulk petroleum products received primary emphasis, current techniques are now capable of distinguishing among a variety of potential sources including those derived from natural processes, undetected individual releases, chronic releases and obvious catastrophic releases. However, a review of the techniques employed in the late 1960s and early 1970s will show that the basic approaches pioneered at that time are still in use today, albeit with a higher level, with concomitant advances in chromatographic technology as the questions grow in complexity.

Development of Ar-BINMOL-Derived Atropisomeric Ligands with Matched Axial and sp(3) Central Chirality for Catalytic Asymmetric Transformations.

Recently, academic chemists have renewed their interest in the development of 1,1'-binaphthalene-2,2'-diol (BINOL)-derived chiral ligands. Six years ago, a working hypothesis, that the chirality matching of hybrid chirality on a ligand could probably lead to high levels of stereoselective induction, prompted us to use the axial chirality of BINOL derivatives to generate new stereogenic centers within the same molecule with high stereoselectivity, obtaining as a result sterically favorable ligands for applications in asymmetric catalysis. This Personal Account describes our laboratory's efforts toward the development of a novel class of BINOL-derived atropisomers bearing both axial and sp(3) central chirality, the so-called Ar-BINMOLs, for asymmetric synthesis. Furthermore, on the basis of the successful application of Ar-BINMOLs and their derivatives in asymmetric catalysis, the search for highly efficient and enantioselective processes also compelled us to give special attention to the BINOL-derived multifunctional ligands with multiple stereogenic centers for use in catalytic asymmetric reactions.

The Effects of Research & Development Funding on Scientific Productivity: Academic Chemistry, 1990-2009.

This article examines the relationship between Research & Development (R&D) funding and the production of knowledge by academic chemists. Using articles published, either raw counts or adjusted for quality, we find a strong, positive causal effect of funding on knowledge production. This effect is similar across subsets of universities, suggesting a relatively efficient allocation of R&D funds. Finally, we document a rapid acceleration in the rate at which chemical knowledge was produced in the late 1990s and early 2000s relative to the financial and human resources devoted to its production.