Good news:
The State University of New York, Albany recently opened a $100 million nanotech facility. It’s unclear whether the building means more jobs—or just a better home for existing researchers.

The Chronicle of Higher Education published a list
of great colleges to work for. However, it’s unclear whether many are hiring, or if many grants are available in a down economy.

Bad news:
BASF will cut as many as 3,700 jobs by 2013 as a result of its merger with Swiss chemical giant Ciba, which BASF acquired in April for over $5 billion. At the end of last year, the two companies had a combined 109,500 employees.

Unclear news:
The American Institute of Physics reports
that the academia-industry mix for the discipline has essentially reversed. Until the mid-1990s about half of all physicists went into academia, with another third heading into industry. Now, industry accounts for about half of physics jobs, with academia about a third. This perhaps represents a weakening in US government physics funding. The industrial gains are perhaps worrying, since the economy weakened after the time covered by the report.

Thomson Reuters published its list of the top 10 EU research institutes in chemistry. This list is based on number of publications and citations, which doesn’t necessarily indicate great work environment or funding opportunities.

Mixed news:
Hewlett-Packard has been cutting jobs, but increasing its investment in research.