#compchem #chemjobs

Thanks to @bethanyhalford.bsky.social for outlining the challenges right now with PhD programs across the board - and to everyone else who commented. And yes, we will be taking applications to our master's program @pittchemistry.bsky.social - we hope it can help #chemsky

Sigh. Sadly, not surprising.

And then Alex files for an IPO... "if you’re still confused, all you really need to know is that everything is totally working and everyone is making a lot of money, and you should just stop asking questions, luddite."

I have some personal experience with over-valued IPOs. Back in Dec. 1999, VA Linux offered "friends and family" shares to a variety of #opensource maintainers. As a grad student, I was asked if I wanted to buy 50, 100, or 150 shares for $30 / share. I said "what the heck" and put in 50 = $1500 1/x

Hey Anthropic? Calling your new model "Fable" might give the wrong (right?) impression given current impressions about LLM models .. you know .. not always telling the truth? Just my 0.02 tokens

Allegheny County is celebrating Pride Month, the Three Rivers Arts Festival, and the Andy Warhol Bridge’s 100th birthday this month by illuminating our beautiful Sister Bridges in rainbow colors. 🌈😍

The new optimizer works great with ML-based potentials too. Got ideas? As a community #opensource #openscience project, we welcome suggestions (and bug reports) #chemsky

We're still working... @geoffhutchison.net reports on new speedups coming in v2.1 scheduled for June 02 (6/02 in the states 😉) - 20-25x faster orbital and density calculations - 6-8x faster geometry optimizations using an adaptive FIRE+L-BFGS method discuss.avogadro.cc/t/may-2026-d... #compchem

Had a great time at last night's @brucespringsteen.net packed concert in #Pittsburgh - including Ghost of Tom Joad and others with @tommorelloofficial.bsky.social Heard a lot of local cheers for Youngstown Came home feeling better than I have in weeks - "Hope and Dreams"

There is no way to do anything interesting in any sustained way in any field without immersion in that field. That's just a fundamental fact of being human, and there's no getting around it.

There’s a huge difference between undergrad research and letting students follow AI chemistry experiments. Believe me - I’ve seen chem students use current AI models. #chemsky

I heard this evening about the passing of Mark Ratner #chemsky Mark was many things - a scientist, an educator, a mentor - a mensch - in all the meanings He always said that the best thing about science were the people that do it.

Another great article on coffee chemistry from Prof. Chris Hendon chhendon.bsky.social Last week as we finished classes, I was telling them about design-of-experiments using a coffee example... #chemsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Choosing local when buying books is more than just where you shop: You’re protecting creativity. You’re defending the freedom to read. You’re uplifting diverse voices. You’re investing in neighbors. Today, and every day, we celebrate and support indie bookstores. Happy Independent Bookstore Day!

She warned the world before it was ready to listen. Rachel Carson exposed the dangers of pesticides and helped launch the modern environmental movement. Scientist. Author. A mind behind the science that saved lives. Her work still shapes how we protect life. #EarthDay #SheShed

This #EarthDay, we’re grateful to NASA and the Artemis II crew for giving us a whole new perspective on our work tackling the world’s most pressing issues.

Wish me luck - for my undergrad "Math for Chemistry" class (for @pittchemistry.bsky.social majors) .. I'm going to give a lecture tomorrow about ML and LLMs. I think I fit the basics in… Discussion question: "Why can a model like ChatGPT give fluent but wrong chemistry answers? #chemsky

When Biden took office, he suggested that international students receiving a PhD in the US should get a green card if they want one. Several students in my program were really excited - they wanted to stay. It never materialized. Not every job wants to sponsor an H1B, particularly now.

The David M. Hercules Fellowship Award recognizes an outstanding graduate student or postdoctoral researcher, with particular emphasis on scientific creativity, independence, leadership, and the ability to collaborate across disciplines. Our 2026 awardee is Shubhankar Kundu! Congrats Shubhankar!

Chemist Brett Pollard and colleagues found roughly 20 papers citing water safety standards attributed to the WHO and EPA that, according to the researchers, those agencies never produced.

One week of Avogadro 2.0 highlights - and we're just getting started… Download: avogadro.cc/install/ Join the community: discuss.avogadro.cc Thanks to everyone who helped make this release happen. Open science is a team effort! Got ideas on where to go next? 🧪 ⚗️ #opensource #openscience #compchem

Got ideas? Or know a Python package that could use a GUI? Let me know…

Sometimes you just want to see a molecule move. Run a quick MD simulation without leaving Avogadro — no scripts, no setup. The new auto-optimize tool includes a dynamics mode. Watch it move in real time. Great for teaching. Great for intuition. Just fun to watch. #openscience #compchem #opensource

Volumetric rendering has been on my wish list for years, and we’ve got a 20-25x speed up coming this summer for orbitals and electron density.

Inorganic and organometallic chemists — Avogadro 2.0 is for you... A new template tool lets you build octahedral, tetrahedral, and other complexes in seconds. Click to add functional groups. Avogadro also detects symmetry and displays symmetry elements #compchem #openscience #opensource

If you've got something really big - 100,000 atoms, a million atoms? I'd really like to try it out.

No fooling, Avogadro 2.0.0 is finally here! Rebuilt from the ground up: fast modern rendering, improved stability, designed for the next generation of molecular, biomolecule, and materials research & education. 🧪 ⚗️ avogadro.cc/install/ discuss.avogadro.cc #opensource #openscience #compchem

On this day, let us continue to uphold everyone's fundamental right to just be themselves. "You’ve made this day a very special day. Just by you being yourself." -Fred Rogers

Something big is coming on 1 April – and no, it's not a joke. 🧪 ⚗️ #opensource #openscience #compchem

Did you experience travel issues at the ATL airport returning from the ACS meeting? Willing to share for a c&en story? My DMs are open #chemsky #ACSSpring2026

Do I want a tool that sometimes does random things to handle "low value tasks"? Nope. How are students going to consider me if their work is considered a "low value task" 🤔 Can I imagine possible useful tools? (Handwriting recognition and transcription, for example) - but this isn't one of them.

Menten joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 1923 and remained there until her retirement in 1950. She became an assistant professor and then an associate professor in the School of Medicine and was the head of pathology at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. #pittsburgh #chemsky

Congrats Peter! #chemsky

We are hiring a postdoc in computational biophysics and machine learning studies of intrinsically disordered proteins We aim to study the function of IDPs by combining CG MD, ML and bioinformatics in collaboration with @tanjamittag.bsky.social & @rhp-lab.bsky.social tinyurl.com/REWIRE-PD

📢 Applications for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) are open now through March 31, 2026. Spend 12+ weeks coding with experienced mentors and earn a stipend. Read more at goo.gle/gsoc-2026-ap... #GSoC #OpenSource #GoogleSummerofCode #StudentPrograms

There are already great translations into Hungarian, Indonesian, Romanian, Tamil, Ukrainian ... We could use more help with Chinese, German, Hindi, Japanese & Portuguese #chemsky

There are already great translations into Hungarian, Indonesian, Romanian, Tamil, Ukrainian ... We could use more help with Chinese, German, Hindi, Japanese & Portuguese #chemsky

How does a piece of π sound? Inside #CarnegieMellon University Vlahakis Recording Studio, Evan O'Dorney plays a peaceful, thoughtful melody on a Steinway B piano. Embellished notes stick out, a code containing the first 97 digits a fundamental constant in mathematics—pi www.cmu.edu/mcs/news-eve...

Worked on some plugin examples for the upcoming @avogadro.cc 2.0 release. I think we're at 12 as of tonight... woudn't be surprised if we get to at least double that by the end of the month. Any requests? - electrostatics - energies / potentials - file formats - commands / builders #compchem

Are you an early-career chemist making an impact in your field? Submit your spotlight here: https://forms.gle/hLY45favG5M1mAVJ6 Deadline: Rolling basis Questions? Reach out to [email protected] #Leadership #Career #STEM #Chemistry #Diversity #Recognition #Awards #STEM #YoungerChemists

Not sure how you *rank* friendly small businesses, but White Whale is fantastic.

Distinguished Professor David H. Waldeck has sadly passed away. We send our condolences to his family along with the Faculty, Students and staff that knew and worked with him. He will be truly missed! Read more about Prof. Waldeck's life and work using this link: zurl.co/LHyuX

Nurses in Pittsburgh and nationwide are spotlighting staffing shortages, pay and workplace safety in difficult labor negotiations.

I share the sad news that Prof. David H. Waldeck passed away after a battle with cancer. Dave was an extraordinarily creative scientist, a devoted educator, and to all of us a friend, mentor, and leader. He will be deeply missed #chemsky #chemchat

Just what I always wanted… we can get an AI grader to respond to student AI homework?! #chemchat 😡 www.professorfeynman.com

It's Pitt's annual Day of Giving #PDoG26! By giving to the department, you advance higher education and help shape the future of chemistry at Pitt, including support for undergrad research, grad student excellence, outstanding teaching and service. Please give today: zurl.co/6WNC7