Future Job Market Predictions

Biochemistry professor Shahir Rizk was asked by the job-search engine Zippia ("The Career Experts") to share his thoughts on the job market and career opportunities in the pandemic-recovery and upcoming post-pandemic years.  Naturally, the scientific base of knowledge and skills in one's major is important, but Rizk notes that "Another very important aspect is writing and oral communication. In virtually all sectors of science jobs, the ability to communicate information to different levels of audiences is crucial to success." So please consider your next writing assignment or presentation as a useful training tool for your career rather than just another assignment. Please check out the full post at Zippia here. The image above is compiled from a career profile search at the American Chemical Society (ACS) website. Click here to view more profiles of chemists.

Muna's Lab Looks for Lead Content in Tap Water

Congratulations to Reem Salous who just graduated with a B.S. Chemistry degree and is looking for a job in the chemical industry. She is one of our many graduates this year. Salous finally got her chance to research with Professor Muna this spring after many delays due to the pandemic. She got interested in research due to the CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience) aspect of Muna's chemical instrumentation course in fall 2019 in which students worked on a short research project to substitute for some of the traditional teaching experiments.

In that course students analyzed the lead content of soil samples, but Salous wondered about the lead content in drinking water. This gave birth to her spring research to correlate the amount of lead in water with home location and age. Salous tested water samples from students enrolled in freshman chemistry laboratory courses that Muna taught. Because of the late start to the research project this spring (again, because of the pandemic) the project is incomplete, but Salous laid the foundation and more for summer students to finish the project.  Congratulations to Salous and all of her graduating class for their four years of diligence.

2021 Graduates and Awards

Things still aren't back to normal, but at least this year our graduates were able to enjoy an in-person commencement ceremony. Congratulations to all of our chemistry and biochemistry graduates for their hard work and determination in pursuit of their degrees. Most of our graduates supported themselves by working part time and they all had to adapt to the academic, social, and health hardships of this past pandemic year. We also want to take this time to acknowledge the following winners of scholarships and awards. Have a great summer!

Freshman Chemistry Achievement Award

   Rachel Hall

   Samantha Jones
ACS Undergraduate Analytical Chemistry Award
   Naseem Alfadhl
Undergraduate Award in Organic Chemistry
   Brody Deming

   Megan Fanti

Student Excellence Award in Biochemistry
   Ashley Catanzarite
Joseph H. Ross Seminar Award
   Hunter Richman
George Nazaroff Scholarship
   Naseem Alfadhl
Gretchen Anderson Pathways Scholarship
   Abigael Ngoumape

   Joel Rael
Carolyn & Lawrence Garber Summer Research Scholarship
   Sabrah Alajmi

   Natalie Fox