What Do You Call Yourselves?

In the "hot-potato" game of Pharma jobs, it's not uncommon to work with a whole new cast of people every 5 years or so. I recall one such summer, where I watched the director and two lead chemists change around in just 3 months!

"Hi, I'm a GSKer."
"Really? I'm Ex-BMS!"

As you mix and match with refugees from layoffs, mergers, or plant closures, you encounter chemists from many different backgrounds. Perhaps they came from a rigid corporate hierarchy, or perhaps they were "pseudo-academics." Maybe they had legions of secretaries and associates, or maybe they were "armies of one" at a small start-up. But one thing everyone has?


A cute euphemism for where they used to work.


The Old "Ex-" (Most common): Ex-Pfizer, Ex-Merck, Ex-Lilly, Ex-BMS.


"-Ers": DuPonters, Merckers, GSKers, Genentechers*


"-Ites": Amgenites, Pfizerites


Engineers: Dow.


Geography Quiz: Sometimes, chemists will tell you they're from Nutley, Wilmington, or La Jolla, and expect you to intuit their former employers.


"Initials Only" Club: J&J, BASF, B-I, AZ.


Readers, I must be missing several. Have you heard any good ones?


Update, 3/8, 2:35AM - Chemjobber suggests "Pfizer alumni," and a Twitter respondent says the preferred internal term is "colleague."

An anonymous commenter suggests "BioGoners" for Ex-Biogen employees.


*(Yes, I checked all of these out on Google, and all have >150 hits, except "Genentechers" (76), which I usually hear via FiercePharma)

Chemical Rosetta Stone

Clever ad, or linguistic marvel?

The other night, while eating at a fine American gourmet restaurant, I happened upon some "found chemistry" on a soda cup (see right).


At first, I downplayed it to sketchbook advertising gone mainstream. After thinking about it some more, though, I realized it was really a clever little doodle. Consider the Rosetta Stone, a stone version of "Hieroglyphics for Dummies" that allowed Egyptologists to begin deciphering the ancient script via Greek, which they knew. 


This graphic bridges four linguistic worlds: English, Spanish, chemistry, and symbolism (see how it's drawn in the shape of a water droplet?). Naturally, I couldn't get the concept out of my head, and decided to try my hand at a few of my own.


*DISCLAIMER - I am a scientist, not an artist. WYSIWYG.