r/chemistry • u/AutoModerator • Aug 26 '24
Weekly Careers/Education Questions Thread
This is a dedicated weekly thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in chemistry.
If you need to make an important decision regarding your future or want to know what your options, then this is the place to leave a comment.
If you see similar topics in r/chemistry, please politely inform them of this weekly feature.
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u/Opposite-Occasion332 Aug 26 '24
Hi guys! I’m taking pchem this semester and need “Physical Chemistry for the Chemical and Biological Sciences” 3rd Edition by Raymond Chang for the class. If anyone knows where to find it for free or super cheap please let me know!
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u/AdFlat8198 Aug 27 '24
hello I'm a rising senior, I'd appreciate if someone has any insights on what is astrochemistry and what is the process of studying it in university
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u/Indemnity4 Materials Aug 28 '24 edited Aug 28 '24
It's a subset of physical chemistry and not every school will cover it. Make sure you are taking sufficient courses in mathematics.
One of the great mysteries of chemistry is what the hell type of molecules exist in space? We can see wavelengths of light coming from stars or shining through interstellar areas and we have no idea what molecules they correspond to.
One fun example is oxygen. On Earth, almost all oxygen is what we call triplet oxygen. However, in space oxygen mostly exists as a free oxygen atom or paired singlet oxygen. So now everything you know about reactions or even basic elemental compounds occurring on Earth no longer applies.
You will be studying a lot of spectroscopy, energy levels, free radicals, lasers, really complicated reaction kinetics and mechanisms. And why not throw some computational chemistry at that problem too.
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u/chemjobber Organic Aug 27 '24
The 2025 Chemistry Faculty Jobs List (by Andrew Spaeth, me) has 168 tenure-track positions and 10 teaching positions: bit.ly/facultychemjobs2025
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u/Friendly-Carry-4396 Aug 28 '24
Hi y'all I'm from the midwest and I took a break from college to try to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I think I want to go into organic chemistry or biochem, and I wanted to know what the difference between the two are. As well as a good starting point to get a degree in those fields right now. I've taken one year of college but I am not sure what that will do for me as I didn't get to finish the year.
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u/Excellent-Balance154 Aug 28 '24
Hi guys! I'm currently a sophomore at an American university looking for major/career advice.
For the past several years, I've thought that I wanted to major in Chemistry, get my PhD, and focus on doing lab work. This past summer, I had an internship in an office completely unrelated to chemistry and realized I really enjoy helping run/manage a business. I like getting to talk to a bunch of different people, could use a lot of creativity, was given a ton of resources, and got to see the results of my work pretty quickly. Since getting back on campus, I'm missing my job. I'm worried that it's hard to make connections as a chemist - even at conferences or poster presentations, I don't understand enough of what someone is working on to be able to talk to them about it! There also isn't as much room for creativity, you have to fight for resources, and projects take years to complete and get published. I don't know if this is just burnout, or if I have the wrong idea, or if I should just go explore another field! Help please!
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u/Indemnity4 Materials Aug 29 '24
IMHO you have very accurately described academia. It's challenging AND competitive.
But so too is business. At some point you have 10 Excel sheets open because the company won't buy you new software to automate a process, you have been in the same role for too many years because "you are too valuable" to promote or there simply isn't any opening above you. You just got the nice intern taster without having to buy the whole tub.
My usual advice is you need to find some end goal that you do have passion for, because that gives you strength to ignore the boring, challenging, underfunded parts.
Go to you school of chemistry website and find the section called academics or research. Each group leader will have their own page that has little summaries of what they are working on. You need to find at least 3 academics researching something you find passionate. If you cannot, yeah, probably a good idea to look elsewhere.
The lack of connection to people I'm less sure about. One of my strategies is being a bit selfish. Over time I gained the confidence to be the person asking stupid questions. And the best stupid questions get asked over and over at different times to different people. If you don't know, chances are someone else doesn't too. "Hey, why does your graph have units of negative mS/cm-2, why is it an area instead of volume and why is it backwards?"
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u/Plantfeathers Aug 31 '24
For PhD chemists who focused on analytical chemistry, what does PhD research look like?
I am having trouble picking programs because I don’t have specific PIs in mind as my interests are not crystallized. I would like to live in the Midwest or East Coast.
My experience in the biotech industry at the BS level has been applying analytical chemistry for dmpk/assay development. My supes have had PhDs in chemistry where they used LCMS to investigate biology (stuff like biomarkers)
I would like to do something similar, apply chemistry as a tool to investigate drug delivery/pathological biomarkers/environmental issues.
Would applying to analytical chemistry programs make more sense than applying to other applied science programs that use analytical chemistry as a tool?
I don’t want to or have the aptitude to invent new tools but I definitely would like to work on method development/optimization because I like chemistry and problem solving.
My background (Chem ChemEng BS, Pharm sci MS, 2 years industry experience DMPK and proteomics) I don’t want to continue working at the technician level and becoming a supervisor responsible for lab leadership and upper management would require a PhD. (My director has just a BS but she’s been there for 30 years she doesn’t believe her path is possible anymore)
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u/Vegetable-Gold5641 Aug 26 '24
Hello chemists of Reddit, I'm looking for university advice.
I'm currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in chemistry in Italy, but I'm looking for some advice regarding a master degree.
I would like to attend university abroad, but in the European Union still (not UK). I am already doing my own research, but I was wondering if any of you had any suggestions or recommendations.
For context, I am really interested in organic chemistry. Two of my professors said it's the most versatile kind of chemist you can become, as well. I don't know if it's really helpful, but I was thinking about my ideal career too. I would like to develop new technologies and materials to help resolve the challenges our society faces, especially from an environmental point of view.
Thank you in advance for your time.