1. Practices good laboratory hygiene and housekeeping, including inventory management and documentation.
2. Works safely and proactively helps the R&D team maintain a safe working environment.
3. Collaborates extensively with the laboratory supervisor for distillation/reaction start-up and operation.
4. Supports R&D other Chemists in the laboratory by conducting accurate analytical testing of feedstocks, intermediates, and finished products. Engages with QA/QC personnel if specific or non-routine analyses are needed.
5. Performs routine maintenance on laboratory equipment such as: GCs, titrators, vacuum pumps, liquid pumps, combustion analyzers, flash point, boiling point range, and thermal testing apparatus. Basic mechanical skills, competence with hand tools, and troubleshooting experience are highly desired.
6. Assembles, cleans, tests, and operates distillation columns to perform laboratory scale (approx. 0.5 to 4 kg) separations.
7. Assembles, cleans, tests, and laboratory scale reactors (approx. 0.5 to 2 kg) reactors.
8. Conducts corrosion experiments under given conditions to protect the mechanical integrity of the plant equipment.
9. Organizes, tabulates, and performs simple analyses of data from laboratory experiments.
10. Creates drafts of laboratory reports including all technical and analytical information.
11. Identifies opportunities for process improvements.