OPEN POSITION: INSTRUCTOR OF ORGANIC INSTRUMENT LABORATORY
We seek a dynamic individual to instruct students and maintain the instrument center associated with our organic chemistry courses. A degree in organic chemistry and familiarity with the instruments used in organic analysis are required. Salary and lecture responsibilities will depend upon qualifications and experience.

Reply to: Chair, Organic Instructor, Position #25983, The Pennsylvania State University, 104 Chemistry Building, University, PA 16802. Include a CV, and have transcripts and three letters of reference sent to this address. Evaluation of applications will begin immediately for a targeted January 2008 start. Penn State is committed to affirmative action, equal opportunity and the diversity of its workforce. (also published in C&E News)

Information about the instructional laboratory courses at Penn State, the Instrument Room, and more details concerning the position are provided below.

The Penn State Chemistry Instructional Laboratory Program

The instructional laboratory chemistry program at Penn State consists of the following required courses:

CHEM 111, 113 – Experimental Chemistry I, II (Keiser)

CHEM 213(B/H) – Laboratory in Organic Chemistry (Masters, Bortiatynski)

CHEM 431W – Organic and Inorganic Preparations (Masters)

CHEM 457 – Experimental Physical Chemistry (Milosavljevic)

CHEM 425 – Chromatography and Electrochemistry (Sykes)

CHEM 423 – Chemical Spectroscopy (Sykes)

In addition, there are currently two laboratory courses associated with the Forensic Chemistry program (CHEM 227, CHEM 427) as well as several lecture/lab courses for non-majors (CHEM 101, CHEM 203). Descriptions of these courses can be found at http://www.chem.psu.edu/courses.

These laboratory courses are run by five dedicated instructors, Joe Keiser, Katie Masters, Jackie Bortiatynski, Bratoljub Milosavljevic, and Dan Sykes who work together as a team to manage resources and to provide integration of the laboratory curriculum. We seek to hire one new member of this team whose job it would be to help coordinate and maintain operation of an instrumental analysis laboratory associated with many of the above courses.

The Instrument Room: The primary function of the Instrument Room is to support the undergraduate organic laboratory courses which have an annual enrollment of approximately 1,000 students. The instrumentation is used for the qualitative analysis of small organic molecules synthesized or isolated in the laboratory. These instruments are also used periodically for general chemistry project work or by the analytical laboratory courses. Advanced, biological, and honors organic labs and chemical spectroscopy and physical chemistry labs utilize the 400 MHz NMR spectrometer that is housed in close proximity to the Instrument Room. Use of instrumentation is scheduled through the Director of Instrumentation and priority is given to courses taught within the Department of Chemistry. The teaching philosophy of all the laboratory directors is to provide students at all levels with hands-on instrumental experiences whenever possible. The students use the undergraduate instrumentation facilities throughout the laboratory curriculum. Below is a listing of the instrumentation and analytical methods currently utilized by the organic laboratory courses. Some photographs of the Instrument Room are provided at the end of this document.

Gas Chromatography (GC): Two Hewlett-Packard 5980 gas chromatographs with flame ionization detectors (FID) and temperature programmable ovens.

Gas Chromatographic-Mass Spectrometric (GC-MS) Analysis: A Finnegan Focus DSQ single quadrupole mass spectrometer.

Infrared (IR) Analysis: A Nicolet 380 IR spectrometer with mid-range IR detector and DRIFT accessory used for solids IR measurements and a Mattson Instruments Galaxy Series 3000 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer with mid-range IR detection used for liquid analyses.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Analysis: Two Anazasi 60 MHz instruments one dedicated to ¹H spectroscopy and one with both ¹³C and ¹H capabilities. One Bruker AVANCE 400 multinuclear NMR spectrometer with a single axis gradient, BACS60 autosampler, solids autosampler, solids controller, 5 mm broad band gradient probe, 5 mm broad band gradient inverse probe, 4 mm solids CPMAS probe, variable temperature unit, 3- offline workstations for data processing.

Polarimetry Analysis: A Rudolph Autopol II Polorimeter with accuracy to 0.01⁰ and equipped with a 1.5 mL sample cell.

Refractive Index (RI) Analysis: A Reichert ABBE Mark II Digital Refractometer used for liquid samples.

Computer Room:

Adjacent to the Instrument Room is a computer room which contains 7 PCs and 3 Macs that are used primarily for the processing of analytical data and searching the chemical literature. A poster plotter is also housed in this room and is used to generate posters for undergraduate poster symposia, scientific meetings, and outreach presentations.

Position Description:

The primary responsibility of the person filling this position will be to oversee all aspects of the operation of the organic instrument laboratory, including routine maintenance, coordination of repair/service work, purchase of new instrumentation, training teaching assistants and instruction of students in the use of the instruments and the interpretation of the data they provide. The applicant will also oversee the maintenance and assist in day-to-day operations of the undergraduate computer room including the supervision of poster printing. Additional responsibilities will depend on the qualifications and interests of the applicant and will likely include lecturing in organic chemistry courses.

Photos of the Instrument Room

Finnegan Focus DSQ single quadrupole mass spectrometer.

Hewlett-Packard 5980 gas chromatographs with an flame ionization detectors (FID)

Liquid Chromatographs

Anazasi 60 MHz instrument dedicated to ¹H spectroscopy

Bruker AVANCE 400 multinuclear NMR spectrometer

Nicolet 380 IR spectrometer with mid-range IR detector and DRIFT accessory