Video of the Moment: Cooling Tea

Believe it or not, these are Newtonian fluids...

Update: thanks to SWS for the link.  Original link here on Buzzfeed.

Jobs Report (Jan '12)

A search using the keyword "rheolog*" that was conducted on January 16th found 20 jobs on Monster.com and 17 jobs on Careerbuilder.

Relevant Ads

I've never been that impressed with online advertising.  It's rare that something appears in a banner ad that I want to click on.  I have noticed recently that Brookfield is following me around.  Here's a screenshot of a recent trip to Slate.

Link of the Moment: STF Fabric

One of the more impressive applications of shear-thickening fluids is as a additive to body armor.  A collaboration between the University of Delaware and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has improved the protective properties of Kevlar.  The home page is here, and pictures and video are here.

Ask Doc Rheo: Degrees of Food Rheology

Dear Doc Rheo:

What do you think of a degree in food rheology?
A student

Dear Student:

I’m the wrong guy to answer your question.

All my degrees are in Chemical Engineering, and my graduate work was in polymer rheology. While my current position involves food rheology, my employer wanted a chemistry or engineering major with experience in rheology.

When I was in school, I was often told that a Chemical Engineering degree was extremely flexible, as it could provide employment in many different industries. These comments were correct, as my former classmates and I work in a wide variety of fields. If you take a look at job report posts from this year and last year, you’ll see that generic rheological jobs ask for Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Polymer Science/Engineering, or Material Science backgrounds most often.

However, I have been contacted recently by headhunters who are trying to fill some food rheology jobs. I think that these folks have found me by entering “food” and “rheology” into the LinkedIn search function.

To get an answer to your question, you would be better off contacting food rheology professors. I have no experience with the requirements for a food science degree, so I’m not sure what generic benefits the degree confers.

Sincerely,
Doc Rheo

Link of the Moment: Deadly Fluids II

The Soft Matter Blog highlights a paper from MIT that discussed the rheological behavior of the fluid from carnivorous plants.  The paper is available for free download until November 18, 2011.  Registration is required at RSC to download the paper.

Jobs Report (Nov '11)

A keyword search [1] conducted on November 7, 2011 found 28 jobs on Monster and 21 jobs on Careerbulder.

Degrees required for the jobs are listed below.  Some jobs had multiple fields listed.

Monster

• Chemistry -- 16 positions
• Polymer Science/Engineering -- 13 positions
• Chemical Engineering -- 12 positions
• Materials Science -- 7 positions
• Food Science -- 5 positions
• Generic Engineering -- 3 positions
• Electrical Engineering -- 3 positions
• Physics -- 2 positions
• Biology -- 2 positions
• Supply Chain Management -- 1 position
• Ceramic Science -- 1 position
• Mechanical Engineering -- 1 position
• No field specified -- 2 positions

Careerbuilder

• Chemical Engineering -- 12 positions
• Chemistry -- 10 positions
• Polymer Science/Engineering -- 9 positions
• Generic Engineering -- 2 positions
• Mechanical Engineering -- 2 positions
• Physics -- 1 position
• Biochemistry -- 1 position
• Food Science -- 1 position
• No field specified -- 1 position

[1] The keyword was "rheolog*"

Muphry Was an Optometrist

Back in August, when I complained about presentation errors, I made a mistake of my own in the post.  It turns out I was following Muphry's Law, which states that "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written."  Muphry is a deliberate misspelling of Murphy.

In Lieu of a Publication

In my current position, I don't get too many chances to publish externally.  So, I was pleased to see the latest commercial for PAM, which is based in part on some work I did last year.  You can see the talking muffin commercial here.

Disclosures: I work for ConAgra Foods, and the link takes you to a site where a commercial will attempt to persuade you to buy PAM cooking spray.

Jobs Report (October '11)

A keyword search [1] conducted on October 2nd, 2011 found 27 jobs on Monster and 25 jobs on Careerbulder.

[1] The keyword was "rheolog*"