Originally published at http://www.yearofscience2009.org/ (November 2009) in a month long series of articles about chemistry during the 2009 Year of Science celebration. An original essay by Barbara Belmont. All rights reserved.
Part Two: Just What Does a Chemist DO?
When I tell people I am a chemist, the next thing they want to know is "what does a chemist do?". I believe what is meant by that question is "how do you use/apply chemistry to earn a living?". Perhaps a journey through my career life path will demonstrate the possibilities in which chemists use their training to earn a living.
My very first job was that of Clinical Chemistry Technologist, applying the technique of radioimmunoassay to test blood for various hormones and proteins. (Radioimmunoassay itself is a very clever hybrid of chemistry, physics, and biology, in which a radioactive element is bound to an antibody that is attracted to the hormone or protein of interest.) Doctors and hospitals would send our lab the blood samples that they had drawn the day before, and we would rush to get the results out before the work day was over. The director of the facility was a research medical doctor who had training in Nuclear Chemistry (chemistry involving radioactive elements). One of my colleagues was a microbiologist, and the other was a licensed medical technologist.
I grew weary of the rush and repetition in short order. In fact, I thought I was weary of lab work in general, as I was still feeling fried from college. So I applied for a job as Technical Writer at a pharmaceutical company. The job entailed writing summaries of scientific research and pertinent legislation for the research staff. "What will you do when you grow weary of this?", my interviewer asked after learning that I was looking for a change. "Maybe I'll work in your Research and Development Department as a chemist", I replied naively, having absolutely no idea what chemists in any R&D department - anywhere -- did. I found out soon enough, because they hired me to join the Cosmetic Chemistry R&D group as a Formulation Chemist.
As a Formulation Chemist, the goal of one of my projects was to improve the brush-on artificial fingernail formula that the company marketed. This involved trying out new components in the formula, and finding a way to objectively evaluate the resulting physical properties of the product. Where did the new components come from? The Synthetic Organic Chemists would create them by mixing and heating raw materials in special ways. Quite a bit of my formulation evaluation involved Materials Science, which used engineering principles to test strength, adhesion, and flexibility of the final product. If a newly developed product proved to be safe, as tested by our staff Toxicologist, and met the marketing department's goals, it would go to production. "Production" means that the product is manufactured and packaged. Before that could happen, the Chemical Engineers would figure out how to scale-up our little 100-gram lab batches to large 1000-pound batches, and how to manage large amounts of those chemicals without clogging up the pipes, having run-away reactions, or contaminating the product. After production, but before selling, the Quality Control Chemists would test the product to make sure it had the right physical and chemical properties.
The company president -- a Polymer Chemist who made a name for himself making dental restoratives out of epoxy and acrylic technology -- loved gadgets and kept the R&D department well-equipped with cutting edge analytical equipment and computers that helped characterize our chemicals and their properties. I found every excuse at every opportunity to learn to use these machines and used them to develop quality control and performance specifications for my research group's new products. The man in charge of these machines was a Physical Chemistby training, specializing in spectrochemical methods (interactions of molecules with the electromagnetic spectrum). His job was to discover what the competitors' products were made of, and I started looking forward to being diverted from my formulation projects to assist him in any way possible.
After the brush-on fingernail project was completed, I decided it was time to move on. I had grown weary of the lengthy formulation chemistry projects, and had an offer from a testing company to work in the Materials and Chemistry department. Finally, my primary job would involve applying my interest and skills in Analytical Chemistry, a branch of chemistry involved with identifying and assaying chemicals. After a year or so, one of my colleagues started her own testing laboratory, and a year later, I joined her company. That was in 1983, and I was there until I closed the business in 2021.
I liked to joke that we were Industrial Investigative Chemists for hire. That was just my way of saying that manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and litigators -- who need the services of a chemist -- contract with our company to perform chemical analysis, solve chemical quality problems, develop or improve products, and provide consulting services. This job was perfect for me: I got to solve puzzles, I got to use computers and scientific equipment, I got to help people, and I got to explain chemistry. The projects are just short enough that I didn't lose interest, and just varied enough that I didn't grow bored from repetition.
Update: In 2021, I closed the testing business but continued to teach analytical chemistry full time.