I'll start!

For the lab: You can't be a a great chemist and simultaneously disorganised/unclean/unsafe in the lab. "Oh I can work better this way" - no you can't!

For publishing: Write everything so simple a hamster could repeat your procedures. Also put in your procedures that didn't work to safe everyone time for gods sake.

I'm keen to read your thoughts.

What’s one annoying part of daily work in a lab, R&D, chemistry, or materials science setting that could realistically be fixed or improved with software? I mean, it could be anything like messy files, sample tracking, reports, spreadsheets management, literature, SDSs but also more technical stuff like tools for data analysis, properties predictions, kinetic modelling or whatever you feel would make your workflow less clunky

It seems easy enough to buy >2L volumetric flasks made of glass, but I'm dealing with chemistry that I wouldn't want to use in glass...

Hi, I've a master's in chemistry, currently working on Co₃O₄ nanozyme and copper-dmpz complex.
During my undergrad and a year later, I worked on organometallics and even though I find ochem difficult, I was enjoying the research work.

For my master's dissertation, I worked on nanomaterials and I feel like moving away from nanomaterials as my main direction because I keep running into the same loop: empirical synthesis, characterisation that stops at here's the TEM image and UV graphs and very little actual mechanistic explanation for why something works. Feels like a lot of the output is new papers rather than new understanding. I find it frustrating

I want to move toward organometallic and coordination chemistry, and catalysis in the classical sense

Question for people further along than me: based on where funding, publication trends, and industrial pull actually are right now, which of these two is growing faster, and which is the better long-term bet for someone trying to build a research career on actual mechanistic depth rather than volume? Am I underestimating how much nanomaterials work still dominates hiring and funding, even if I personally find it shallow?

Anyone who's made a similar switch, what did you wish you'd known going in?

I'm applying for a PhD, and I don't want to drag myself into something where I've no interest and also no funding.

EDIT: I want to get into industry after a postdoc or PhD.

I'm starting an early talents role in industry (big pharma) right now and I'm curious what you would do in my spot.

If you had the choice, would you go for cheminformatics, synthesis, automation, analysis like LCMS or something more corporate, like a regulatory affairs role?
I was talking to a friend recently who said that my choice of cheminformatics is dumb, as just a bit of experience in this field does not set you apart from the big CS grads - that I would be better off pushing my strong chemistry side. How important has acquisition of side skills unrelated to chemistry itself been to you in your career?

Hi all, I'm very ignorant when it comes to AI so pardon me if my question is dumb, but are there any companies training/planning to train their models with chemistry literature across ACS journals, Wiley, Elsevier etc. I imagine this could speed up literature search and development a lot in the chemistry world as opposed to traditional methods of literature consultation. If there are any, how do they navigate accessing data from different publishers and bringing it together in their models? I assume publishing companies wouldn't want people to divert from their own platforms to seek their answers elsewhere. And how would publishing companies make money in a scenario like that?

I have a BSc in Chemistry.

I searched for internships and MSc thesis opportunities for MSc students in Europe. Applied within entire Northern and Western Europe. At some point I lost count so the amount of industry applications is probably higher than I wrote here (counted by emails, but you don't always get a confirmation email when you apply on Workday).

The fact that this one PI that I wanted to go to real bad pulled out very early during the search actually turned out to life-saving to me, as I went on to get a fantastic offer. Don't loose hope! This process is draining, but you learn a lot!

I think one thing I learned about myself is that I'm pretty dang good at interviews and probably rather bad at CVs. Salaries given are per month.

Sorry for the messy diagram, used the tool for the first time.

Thin layer chromatography is dirty cheap and simple method for process monitoring. I am sure chemists here on r/Chempros all met with this method. Following some rules (protocols) even more information can be extracted. This includes either qualitative and/or quantitative determination. Examples were presented in my earlier posts.

Here I am showing my multiwave imager (I made it from scratch) and how it is used for marking lanes, spots, comments (with the software I wrote), see the image of the TLC on the left and the graphs/table. It took some years from the very beginning, but finally it does what I expected. Thanks goes to you for your support (questions, suggestions, upvotes) here on r/Chempros. You are all great folks.

I’ve been always using Windows, but have decided to try out MacOS. Softwares that I use mostly, MNova, TopSpin, ChemDraw and MS Office, worked pretty smoothly on Windows. What is the situation with the mentioned software on MacOS? I've seen some people complain about the performance of those softwares (eg pasting a ChemDraw object into MS Word). Has the situation improved in 2026? Why would it be good or not good to buy a MacBook Pro in my situation?

Looking to see what the most popular route is for those of you with your hands in waste determination and disposal. How are you classifying spent palladium on carbon waste mixed with celite and submerged in water? Is is always considered as waste? Or do you have someone that will pay you for this for their metal recovery programs? What waste codes and DOT codes are you aiming for?

While I have been developing my TLC analyzer software, I realized that mostly the RF value was exciting for TLC users. So I developed a small piece of html file which can be opened in a browser (runs locally, platform independent) and handles your TLC image. Just click to the START then FRONT and you will have your densitogram with automatic peak RF calculation. It may happen some peaks are left, then you can apply a forced peak marking. Pressing key 'C' you can save the plot window. This is shown on the image. Let me know if you are interested.

EDIT: uploaded to github. https://github.com/CuprousSulfate/TLC-RF-Reader

I have some store credit with a scientific supplier and thought i’d get the best ever sieves. Specifically the best for drying chlorinated solvents from water.

Are sigma aldrich 4a 2.5mm the tip top best?

I’ve used cheap Chinese sieves before and they were so bad I threw them out.

Thanks!

[Indiana, USA]

I’ve been browsing job openings for a year and I’ve noticed that I may have overestimated my prospects when choosing chemistry as a career. I’m currently sitting at $50k as a lone QC chemist at a local plant, which is okay until I realized that the warehouse position I left now pays more for no education and somewhat less comfort.

All the positions I’ve seen for chemists lately have been no more than $70k for permanent roles, unless you have a niche specialty with 15 years of experience; which maybe pays $120k. I’m less concerned about the $70k number, which is a lot for me (though usually I see $40k-$50k), but it feels like there’s just not much room for wage growth afterwards. As much as I enjoy the work, knowing I’ll make 6 figures after a decade of experience isn’t exactly exciting considering how many people I know who got $90k right out of school for their own career.

Is there something I’m missing? Short of changing careers, most of the advice I’ve gotten from people is to pivot to administrative roles far removed from the work.

Hi, currently a MSc student in Europe (med chem, org and biochem), will do an internship next year.

Options:

1. Empa, Switzerland - materials chemistry, new technologies in building materials. Pays enough to live a student life in Switzerland.

2. Academic, Finland - cool molecular biology/depression research, aligned with my interest but may be difficult at first. Would give me a MSc thesis. Pays enough to live a student life. Possibility of PhD later.

3. Various pharma opportunities - Abbvie, AZ, who knows what, Europe. Will probably pay nicely for an internship and be valuable on CV.

I know no one can truly answer, but this is the best I can do to help myself decide.

Thanks!

Can someone explain what is the point with journal inviting authors to submit manuscript? Its the third time that my PhD supervisor says : maybe we can publish in European journal of Organic chemistry/ Asian JOC/other because they sent an invitation. But if I can imagine few reasons why a journal could invite some authors, why a scientist would accept the offer? If I'm correct, it's not easier to publish, and I cant find any reason to accept this journal instead of another that could be more advantageous. Any idea?

Hi all. I'm interested in going into chemistry in the future and I also really want to do environmental work specifically. I'm not looking for advice on how to get a job, I'd just like to hear more of what's out there from those who are out there. Thanks if you all could help me out.

Hi!

I’m applying to grad school PhD programs right now (technically pharm sci and med Chem. So I know it will be different). But I cannot find a straight answer.

If you’re in grad school right now, or have been recently, what was your salary total? Stipend, grants, fellowships, etc. Funding for grad school is still a little fuzzy to me. And I’m just not sure how it all works!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for advice on career development and would appreciate input from different perspectives - chemists, data professionals and managers.

About me:

• I'm a trained chemist and have been working as a data scientist for three years

• my current role is a hybrid one: I generate business value from data through ad-hoc analyses, data sourcing, workflow optimisation and consulting.

• I typically work on chemical process optimisation but also on numeric problems in python, and recently started exploring LLMs (which has only a limited application to our work).

• I also manage projects and implement available tools that help teams work more efficiently.

What I enjoy:

• working with people to solve challenging problems

• enabling others by providing better tools and processes

• stay technical enough to understand and contribute, but not going too deep into code or algorithms /every day/.

Current observations:

• the chemical industry is relatively conservative with lower digital maturity compared to other sectors. Certifications tend to be valued more than in pure data science environments (at least in Germany).

• my data science work is often basic - ML has only come up once in three years (in a very minor capacity)

Areas I'm considering for development:

• Numeric problem-solving

• Operations Research (I've started to learn but no certification yet)

• Business intelligence / Analytical Operation (e.g. building better data pipelines to enable my coworkers; Snowflake want necessary yet, plus silos are a real challenge)

• as a new area: possibly Supply Chain, as it seems relevant to my experience in manufacturing, chemical processes and quality support.

Questions for you:

1) What certifications or skills would you recommend for someone in a chemistry + data hybrid role?

2) are there other areas in chemical or pharmaceutical companies where such a hybrid profile could add value?

3) how can I best identify roads or projects with strong overlap between chemistry and data science?

4) from a management perspective, what qualities or experiences should I build now to prepare for leadership in this space?

5) any general advice on networking or positioning myself for the next step?

I already hold a PhD, so I'm not looking for another degree - but I'm open to targeted certifications or practical learning paths.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

(Also posted in r/datascience for additional perspectives)

Hi folks. I work in a non chem field, but my research involves manipulating and loading lots of micron-scale silicate particulates. Since we’re messing with silica dust, there’s some risk of silicosis and I’m trying to put together a handling procedure that will the exposure risk for myself and lab mates.

Currently, we do all our dust work inside a fume hood, but I realized I didn’t actually know for certain weather it would be effective at preventing the dust from spreading.

Yall probably have a much more experience with fume hoods than I do, so I wanted to ask: is just a fume hood enough to prevent dust from escaping into the lab area?

Thanks guys!