Friday Fun - Maitotoxin Watch

For those keeping tabs on K.C. Nicolaou's potential career capstone, the group has published another fragment (QRSTUVWXYZA') of the ladder polyether maitotoxin. By my count (and thanks to their handy graphic, below), they've now formed 30 of the 32 requisite rings, meaning we'll likely see a completed total synthesis in the next few years.*

Top: Maitotoxin
Bottom: Previously disclosed fragments
Source: Nicolaou et.al. | JACS 2014 ASAP

When Nicolaou's group announced the move to Rice, one of my first thoughts was "who gets to personally chaperone the maitotoxin fragments to their new home?" I'm picturing combination-locked black suitcases handcuffed to postdocs' wrists, but perhaps the samples just went in the back of a U-Haul truck with all the other lab equipment.

Happy Friday,

See Arr Oh

--
*Assuming they can work out the ring fusion and selective sulfate chemistry - not trivial tasks by any means!

Abstract Coloring Champion

I can find no words to adequately describe this picture. It's just so....fitting.

That's rainbow-colored Taxol in the background, for those unaware 
Image courtesy Rice University, Union-Tribune, San Diego

Nicolaou to Rice - Official!

KCN, all smiles, after confirming
what we all knew anywa

(Click here for the Rice Press Release, issued Thursday, Sept. 20)

Some interesting tidbits about the move:

- The $6 Million** Dollar Man: No, not Col. Steve Austin...KCN! The figure is accurate, as first reported in the comments of Derek's blog.

- "Formidable Alliance against cancer." K.C. is apparently the crown jewel for an as-yet-unannounced super-team* of scientists. Probably doesn't hurt that M.D. Anderson, a leading Houston hospital, is down the street. The CPRIT file that listed Nicolaou includes funds for 8 other "Established" professors; if Rice gets 'em all, they'll be a force for biomedical research.

- Family Connection: As stated elsewhere (and mentioned through personal communications earlier in the week) the fact that his daughter Colette, a Psychology lecturer, works at Rice certainly factored into the decision.

- Timeline: Looks like the move won't happen immediately. Having announced the move, K.C. now waits for his new lab space to be custom built in the Rice BioScience Research Collaborative. Perhaps he'll have time in the intervening year to write "Classics IV - A New Hope"

*(Update, 9/20 - This presser has to have some of the best superlatives ever used to describe a chemist. In sixteen paragraphs, it calls him "great leader," "legendary," "cancer drug pioneer," "formidable," "prodigious intellect," "distinguished," "super-star researcher," "transformative," and "devot[ed] to the craft of teaching." Wow. Whomever wrote this release, I want them to do my obit someday!)
**(Update, 9/22 - The author of this article points out that K.C.'s total compensation will be closer to 9 million dollars, after Rice raises a $3 million matching fund. Ye Gods.)

Chemistry Bumper Cars

By now, most folks on the chemblogosphere have heard the rumbles about K.C. Nicolaou's possible departure from Scripps. His landing spot looks to be Rice University, in Houston, aided by a generous multi-million dollar "golden parachute." Followup comments posted on Chemjobber and In the Pipeline saw speculation run rampant regarding other Scripps synthetic chemists, including M.G. Finn, Jin-Quan Yu, Phil Baran, and Dale Boger.

Wow. Does everyone have the moving bug?

I seem to recall Kyle over at The Chem Blog drawing us a convenient map a few years back, during another busy moving season (2005, I believe?). The past two years have proven quite busy as well, with no less than an entire ChemBark post entitled "Nocera to Harvard!" (vide infra).

Without further ado, I present my highly-researched, but definitely not-to-scale, map of synthetic faculty moves, 2011-2012.

Legend (Updated 9/20):
1.  Keith (purple) Woerpel, Irvine to NYU
2.  John (Berkeley blue) Hartwig, UIUC to Berkeley
3.  Vy (green) Dong, Toronto to Irvine
4.  Dan (crimson) Nocera, MIT to Harvard
5.  O(maroon) Yaghi, UCLA to Berkeley
6.  M.(Goldenrod) Finn, Scripps to Georgia Tech
7.  K.(Cyprus orange) Nicolaou, Scripps to Rice (confirmed!)
8.  Greg Fu(schia), MIT to Caltech
9.  (Rust)em Ismagilov, Chicago to Caltech
10. Paul (cyan) Chirik, Cornell to Princeton

I've been searching for a chemistry faculty movement metaphor. At the end of the NFL season, reporters write about the "coaching carousel," where coaches switch jobs circuitously, trapped on an employment merry-go-round. Well, that's not quite right here. Chemists usually move away for good, and there's clearly a directionality to the moves: towards more money, higher prestige, or warmer climes. Perhaps a Ferris wheel? Nah: it implies "up" or "down," a good view of the situation...and far too smooth a ride. Negative on the Gravitron, though grads and postdocs might feel like they're smashed by the pressing gravity* of an upcoming move.

I've got it: Bumper cars! Everyone starts out hesitantly, driving around in circles, hesitant to make first contact. After a few minutes, though, it's a free-for-all, everyone bouncing off each other, crashing, laughing, sparks flying off the ceiling. In the end, no one ends up where they started, and everyone has headaches. (Bear with me, it's a work in progress, doesn't yet have the oomph of a "Manifest Destiny" or "fiscal cliff.")

Faculty jostle for top spots like, well, you get it...

Credit: UK Telegraph

Are faculty moves unavoidable? It's true that the grass is always greener. But, if you're already a professor at a Top 20 institution, you likely receive the lion's share of grant monies, decent media coverage, and your pick from top-shelf graduate students. So why go? Some moves are nostalgia-driven - the Prof. wants to return home to a welcoming parade, having "done good." Some moves try to fix the two-body problem. Some happen because of missed tenure, or a feeling that it's "just time." Maybe in today's uncertain economy, it's just best to assume you won't be in any job longer than ten years...with a handful of exceptions.

Readers: Know of any more high-profile U-Hauls being loaded this academic season? If the "Chemistry Bumper Cars" trend persists, this might yet become an annual post.

P.S. Heard about a move I missed? Email me at seearroh_AT_gmail, and I'll add it here!

*I completely understand, having been involved with two moves in grad and postdoc.