I went to the ACS meeting in New Orleans at the beginning of April - what fun!
But I was there partly with my Careers Committee hat on and so I attended the session on Careers in Chemical Information chaired by Lisa Balbes and co-sponsored by a number of acryonyms: CHAL, PROF, COMP, CEPA, and WCC.
They had a diverse lineup of people and careers:
F. Bartow Culp, Mellon Library of Chemistry, Purdue University
In the Internet age, isn’t the concept of a librarian outmoded? If easy and almost unlimited information access is available to anyone at the click of a mouse button, why should a chemist consider academic librarianship as a career? Well, there are many reasons, including excellent job prospects, a high degree of career satisfaction, plus the chance to be a central player in the current redefinition of how science is being done. In this age of high-entropy information, the unique combination of abilities that we chemist/librarians bring to our jobs gives us not only the power to organize and access chemical information, but it can also enhance the value of that information and improve the entire communication process itself. We will present examples of how chemist/librarians are integral participants in the advancement of both of their professions.
Brian M Bridgewater, Search and Analysis Services Group
For a Ph.D. chemist, crossing over to a career in Chemical Information Search and Analysis may seem like a strange choice to some after spending nine years in academic and industrial lab-based R&D roles. However, looking back with the usual clarity of hindsight, signposts were there pointing the way all along.
Lynne P. Greenblatt, Chemical and Screening Sciences, Wyeth Research
Over the past two decades, the amount of data generated in research has been increasing steadily and exponentially. The task of transforming this data into meaningful knowledge that can help the researcher to attain scientific and business goals faster and more efficiently has fallen to the relatively new discipline of informatics. Cheminformatics is the branch of informatics that deals with chemical structures and related information. Cheminformatics groups have developed many techniques and tools for analyzing chemical structures as they relate to chemical space, chemical properties, biological activity, ADME properties and so on. This talk will focus on the role of the Cheminformatics group in the drug discovery process at a major pharmaceutical research organization. The presenter will also discuss the career path she took to her current position, and touch on other careers in chemical information within the organization.
Janice E. Mears, Communications, Chemical Abstracts Service
This paper will focus on the experiences of one individual’s transition from working in a clinical laboratory into sales, marketing and communications, first at a fortune 100 company and then at Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). It will describe the skills and responsibilities of these non-traditional careers and outline how best to prepare for the transition. A discussion of CAS and its role as a global leader in scientific information will be intertwined with comments on other non-traditional careers at CAS.
Ivan Amato, Chemical & Engineering News
Besides encompassing the rules, theories, know-how and equipment by which our more technically-oriented neighbors transform the raw stuff of the world into the constructed landscapes in which we spend most of our time, chemistry is a language. And despite the truism is everywhere in all of our lives, chemistry is a language known almost exclusively by the sort of people who attend ACS meetings. A very small subpopulation of the journalism community has mastered enough of this language to serve as interpreters, translators, and prepared observers, who can relay to various publics those events, developments, concerns, outrages, discoveries, technologies, and other consequential happenings that emerge from the chemical enterprise. I am privileged to be among this group, but when I received my bachelor’s degree in chemistry about 20 years ago, I did not realize that I was opening a way to a career with the luxurious requirement that you must never stop learning.
Justin J. Hasford, Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrrett and Dunner LLP
This presentation will provide an overview of career opportunities in patent law, including an examination of the fields of patent prosecution, litigation, and licensing. Recommended and required programs of study will be discussed, and employment opportunities will be described, including options for attorneys, patent agents, and technical specialists. Most importantly, this presentation will explore and emphasize the ability to utilize your technical background in a maximally beneficial manner in the arena of legal services.
The Division of Chemical Information sponsors or co-sponsors as session like this at nearly all ACS meetings. It is worth checking out at the next meeting if you are considering a career change!
Previous sessions can be reviewed here: Archived Technical Sessions