Geoff Hutchison
@geoffhutchison.net
Chemist, Scientist, Husband, Dad, Runner, Teacher. I develop Avogadro + OpenBabel to find new materials for energy applications @Pitt_Chemistry he/him
Pinned
Geoff Hutchison
@geoffhutchison.net
· Nov 15
Welcome to all the newcomers to #ChemSky 🧪
I don't post much, but you'll get a dose of #compchem and materials discovery, a bit of #machinelearning (with skepticism) and some sprinkling of #Pittsburgh (including @pitt.bsky.social and @pittchem.bsky.social)
Enjoy some recent @avogadro.cc renders
I don't post much, but you'll get a dose of #compchem and materials discovery, a bit of #machinelearning (with skepticism) and some sprinkling of #Pittsburgh (including @pitt.bsky.social and @pittchem.bsky.social)
Enjoy some recent @avogadro.cc renders
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
I'm all in on #Pittsburgh but this article lacks some context. Consider that affordability and housing availability were major topics in the recent mayoral primary in the spring. Note that the article mentions "greater Pittsburgh area" - not necessarily the city proper.
Though the housing market has tempered since the frenetic days of 2020, prices remain relentlessly high; the U.S. median topped $410,800 in the second quarter, a more than 50 percent climb in five years.
It’s $229,000 in the greater Pittsburgh area.
It’s $229,000 in the greater Pittsburgh area.
How this major city became one of America’s most affordable for homebuyers
While there are many yardsticks for calculating housing affordability, the western Pennsylvania city stands out as uniquely livable.
wapo.st
November 11, 2025 at 11:18 PM
I'm all in on #Pittsburgh but this article lacks some context. Consider that affordability and housing availability were major topics in the recent mayoral primary in the spring. Note that the article mentions "greater Pittsburgh area" - not necessarily the city proper.
If you do MD and haven't looked at WESTPA @pittchemistry.bsky.social - you should #compchem
Of course I'm biased because Lillian and her group are doing great science
Of course I'm biased because Lillian and her group are doing great science
Today's fantastic keynote "From Protein Structure to Function: Weighted Ensmebles Beyon Machine Learning" by Lillian Chong.
November 10, 2025 at 9:45 PM
If you do MD and haven't looked at WESTPA @pittchemistry.bsky.social - you should #compchem
Of course I'm biased because Lillian and her group are doing great science
Of course I'm biased because Lillian and her group are doing great science
Our MDAnalysis User Group Meeting 2025 is in full swing in sunny Arizona ! www.mdanalysis.org/pages/ugm2025/
November 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
For the past 75 years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has quietly powered innovations that shape our daily lives, from the classroom to the smartphone, from the weather report to the internet. Celebrate the NSF with Carlos Javier Martinez. act.ucsusa.org/3JuAItP
What Do Duolingo, The Magic School Bus, and James Bond Have in Common? The US National Science Foundation
Public investment in science yields public good.
act.ucsusa.org
November 10, 2025 at 8:22 PM
For the past 75 years, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has quietly powered innovations that shape our daily lives, from the classroom to the smartphone, from the weather report to the internet. Celebrate the NSF with Carlos Javier Martinez. act.ucsusa.org/3JuAItP
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
"The moment of discovery" does not always exist: the scientist's work is too tenuous, too divided, for the certainty of success to crackle out suddenly in the midst of his laborious toil like a stroke of lightening, dazzling him by its fire.
~Marie Curie #BOTD in 1867.
#physics #womeninStem
~Marie Curie #BOTD in 1867.
#physics #womeninStem
November 7, 2025 at 10:31 AM
"The moment of discovery" does not always exist: the scientist's work is too tenuous, too divided, for the certainty of success to crackle out suddenly in the midst of his laborious toil like a stroke of lightening, dazzling him by its fire.
~Marie Curie #BOTD in 1867.
#physics #womeninStem
~Marie Curie #BOTD in 1867.
#physics #womeninStem
This is really great news - "agreed to maintain the school’s current 59% reimbursement rate for ancillary research costs through 2029"
Scoop: The University of Pittsburgh will maintain its current federal funding for indirect research costs after cuts announced earlier this year threatened to push one of the region’s major research institutions off a financial cliff.
www.wesa.fm/health-scien...
www.wesa.fm/health-scien...
NIH under Trump wanted to cut indirect research costs to 15%. Pitt just signed an agreement at 59%
Pitt and the Department of Health and Human Services have agreed to maintain the school’s current 59% reimbursement rate for ancillary research costs through 2029.
www.wesa.fm
November 7, 2025 at 3:17 PM
This is really great news - "agreed to maintain the school’s current 59% reimbursement rate for ancillary research costs through 2029"
This is terrible news. If anything we need *more* independently funded postdoc fellowships. Frankly, I'm hoping we can create something like this at Pitt.
Maybe some donors want to step forward?
#academicsky
Maybe some donors want to step forward?
#academicsky
A devastating set of decisions on the part of UC leadership to withdraw support from our nationally recognized postdoc program that prioritizes research excellence combined with addressing our university public service mission. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program
Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.
www.insidehighered.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:22 AM
This is terrible news. If anything we need *more* independently funded postdoc fellowships. Frankly, I'm hoping we can create something like this at Pitt.
Maybe some donors want to step forward?
#academicsky
Maybe some donors want to step forward?
#academicsky
Chemistry has come a long way in 150 years from "a few tobacco pipes and tea cups to perform the most varied experiments" 🧪⚗️
- First isolation of Vitamin C by C.G. King
- First Hartree-Fock calculation on water
- Discovery of LDA for organic synthesis
And of course many more - now to the next 150!
- First isolation of Vitamin C by C.G. King
- First Hartree-Fock calculation on water
- Discovery of LDA for organic synthesis
And of course many more - now to the next 150!
Last Friday, the Department of Chemistry celebrated its 150th anniversary! People filled chevron to watch Ray Euler do live demos, David Waldeck talk about the history of the department, and to attend a poster session. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us.
October 31, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Chemistry has come a long way in 150 years from "a few tobacco pipes and tea cups to perform the most varied experiments" 🧪⚗️
- First isolation of Vitamin C by C.G. King
- First Hartree-Fock calculation on water
- Discovery of LDA for organic synthesis
And of course many more - now to the next 150!
- First isolation of Vitamin C by C.G. King
- First Hartree-Fock calculation on water
- Discovery of LDA for organic synthesis
And of course many more - now to the next 150!
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
Pitt faculty taking a stand against the higher education "compact"
www.wesa.fm/identity-com...
I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action.
Please share them here.
www.wesa.fm/identity-com...
I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action.
Please share them here.
University of Pittsburgh professors push back against Trump 'compact' for higher education
University of Pittsburgh professors have asked their school to reject a Trump "compact" that promises more access to federal resources to schools that sign on to his agenda
www.wesa.fm
October 31, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Pitt faculty taking a stand against the higher education "compact"
www.wesa.fm/identity-com...
I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action.
Please share them here.
www.wesa.fm/identity-com...
I know of a few other news stories about similar faculty action.
Please share them here.
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
We've been starting up some tutorial videos on Avogadro2 🎬🍿
www.youtube.com/@AvogadroPro...
What topics would you like us to cover? Let us know over at discuss.avogadro.cc
#compchem #chemsky
www.youtube.com/@AvogadroPro...
What topics would you like us to cover? Let us know over at discuss.avogadro.cc
#compchem #chemsky
Avogadro Project
Avogadro is a free open source molecular visualization and editor, designed for students and advanced researchers alike.
Used in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, chemistry education, bioin...
www.youtube.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:02 PM
We've been starting up some tutorial videos on Avogadro2 🎬🍿
www.youtube.com/@AvogadroPro...
What topics would you like us to cover? Let us know over at discuss.avogadro.cc
#compchem #chemsky
www.youtube.com/@AvogadroPro...
What topics would you like us to cover? Let us know over at discuss.avogadro.cc
#compchem #chemsky
While it's depressing, is it surprising?
These are experts when people in power are ignoring expertise? With an active attack on academia in general and research funding of all kinds slashed in the US? With people declaring that facts don't matter any more?
I'm mostly surprised it's 75%
These are experts when people in power are ignoring expertise? With an active attack on academia in general and research funding of all kinds slashed in the US? With people declaring that facts don't matter any more?
I'm mostly surprised it's 75%
A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who’s been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." (This PBS story on the scientific brain drain is heartbreaking & ominous for medicine, imo.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO...
Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
www.youtube.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM
While it's depressing, is it surprising?
These are experts when people in power are ignoring expertise? With an active attack on academia in general and research funding of all kinds slashed in the US? With people declaring that facts don't matter any more?
I'm mostly surprised it's 75%
These are experts when people in power are ignoring expertise? With an active attack on academia in general and research funding of all kinds slashed in the US? With people declaring that facts don't matter any more?
I'm mostly surprised it's 75%
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
Congratulations to Alysia Mandato (Ph.D 2025) for receiving the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes outstanding volunteer service to the local ACS section.
October 29, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Congratulations to Alysia Mandato (Ph.D 2025) for receiving the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society Distinguished Service Award. The award recognizes outstanding volunteer service to the local ACS section.
#chemsky #compchem
Nice work by Brenda de Souza Ferrari, Ronaldo Giro & Mathias B. Steiner - generating SMILES for polymers through an automated set of calculations to determine the polymerization sites
jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Nice work by Brenda de Souza Ferrari, Ronaldo Giro & Mathias B. Steiner - generating SMILES for polymers through an automated set of calculations to determine the polymerization sites
jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
HTA - An open-source software for assigning head and tail positions to monomer SMILES in polymerization reactions - Journal of Cheminformatics
Abstract Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are transforming the computational discovery and design of polymers. The key enablers for polymer informatics are machine-readable molecular string rep...
jcheminf.biomedcentral.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:07 PM
#chemsky #compchem
Nice work by Brenda de Souza Ferrari, Ronaldo Giro & Mathias B. Steiner - generating SMILES for polymers through an automated set of calculations to determine the polymerization sites
jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Nice work by Brenda de Souza Ferrari, Ronaldo Giro & Mathias B. Steiner - generating SMILES for polymers through an automated set of calculations to determine the polymerization sites
jcheminf.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
"The enthusiasm for putting the humanities on a starvation diet and 'pausing' graduate admission represents a steady move away from research … toward pedagogy, where fee-paying students are seen as more useful than any research…"
#academicsky
www.chronicle.com/article/rese...
#academicsky
www.chronicle.com/article/rese...
Research Is the U. of Chicago’s Lifeblood. Its Board Is Killing It.
A great university could be reduced to a shell of its former self.
www.chronicle.com
October 29, 2025 at 1:55 PM
"The enthusiasm for putting the humanities on a starvation diet and 'pausing' graduate admission represents a steady move away from research … toward pedagogy, where fee-paying students are seen as more useful than any research…"
#academicsky
www.chronicle.com/article/rese...
#academicsky
www.chronicle.com/article/rese...
It's 10-23 day! So we decided to make a new release:
- AutoOptimize Tool 🎉
- New charts and spectra
- Easier geometry constraints, including for ORCA input
- Plenty of bug fixes and tweaks
discuss.avogadro.cc/t/avogadro-1...
- AutoOptimize Tool 🎉
- New charts and spectra
- Easier geometry constraints, including for ORCA input
- Plenty of bug fixes and tweaks
discuss.avogadro.cc/t/avogadro-1...
October 23, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
Happy Mole Day, everyone! 10 to the 23 is a biiiiig number. Here are some incredible drawings from @chemscrapes.bsky.social illustrating the bigness of moles and the smallness of atoms and molecules.
October 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Happy Mole Day, everyone! 10 to the 23 is a biiiiig number. Here are some incredible drawings from @chemscrapes.bsky.social illustrating the bigness of moles and the smallness of atoms and molecules.
I mean, the worst part is that there are actual deterministic #openscience tools to do name => SMILES (or other chemical format) + depict in 2D. Combine OPSIN with RDKit.. maybe check PubChem or ChEMBL or other open database if people use an informal term.
Can generative AI be trusted to draw chemical structures? Not yet, according to two chemists who want to see the community take a tough stance against its use.
The chemistry community should ban drawing chemical structures with generative AI, chemists warn
AIs like Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT still make serious errors rendering structural formulae
www.chemistryworld.com
October 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM
I mean, the worst part is that there are actual deterministic #openscience tools to do name => SMILES (or other chemical format) + depict in 2D. Combine OPSIN with RDKit.. maybe check PubChem or ChEMBL or other open database if people use an informal term.
More MOF awards 🎉
Professor Nathaniel Rosi has received the Pittsburgh Award from the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society, which recognizes distinguished service to the field of chemistry. Read about him and his work here: zurl.co/PDITj
Professor Rosi received Pittsburgh Award from Pittsburgh ACS! | Department of Chemistry
Professor Nathaniel Rosi has received the Pittsburgh Award from the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society, which recognizes distinguished service to the field of chemistry. Rosi is being recognized for his contributions to the design and development of chiral nanomaterials as well as new classes of biomolecule-based multicomponent and multidomain metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) having applications ranging from carbon capture to contaminant separation.
zurl.co
October 14, 2025 at 7:24 PM
More MOF awards 🎉
Reposted by Geoff Hutchison
Do you use Windows? We're now on the Windows app store:
We will now offer signed MSIX packages with releases, in addition to the traditional installer.
apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n21v...
Let us know how it works at discuss.avogadro.cc
We will now offer signed MSIX packages with releases, in addition to the traditional installer.
apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n21v...
Let us know how it works at discuss.avogadro.cc
Avogadro2 - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store
Avogadro is a molecular editor and visualization tool, designed for students and researchers alike. Used in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, chemistry education, bioinformatics, materials ...
apps.microsoft.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Do you use Windows? We're now on the Windows app store:
We will now offer signed MSIX packages with releases, in addition to the traditional installer.
apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n21v...
Let us know how it works at discuss.avogadro.cc
We will now offer signed MSIX packages with releases, in addition to the traditional installer.
apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n21v...
Let us know how it works at discuss.avogadro.cc
Monica Olvera de la Cruz brings chemical simulations into the real world
This computational chemist unites theoretical and experimental science using physics, biology, and chemistry. #HispanicHeritageMonth
cen.acs.org/materials/po...
This computational chemist unites theoretical and experimental science using physics, biology, and chemistry. #HispanicHeritageMonth
cen.acs.org/materials/po...
Monica Olvera de la Cruz brings chemical simulations into the real world
This researcher unites theoretical and experimental science using physics, biology, and chemistry
cen.acs.org
October 12, 2025 at 12:53 PM
I'm definitely using this one in my class this spring.
The distance between Saturn and the moon correlates with Bachelor's degrees awarded in Physical sciences (r=0.987)
October 11, 2025 at 1:42 PM
I'm definitely using this one in my class this spring.
I know this has been one of the most widely requested features. Should be in the release on 10/23
#chemsky #compchemsky #opensource
#chemsky #compchemsky #opensource
If you've been wondering about the status of the AutoOptimize interactive optimization in Avogadro2 - coming later this month 👀
October 6, 2025 at 2:02 PM
I know this has been one of the most widely requested features. Should be in the release on 10/23
#chemsky #compchemsky #opensource
#chemsky #compchemsky #opensource
"Pittsburgh’s universities and hospitals are the big employers that economically and socially are actually really analogous to what the mills were 80 years ago"
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Trump Is Targeting an Economic Revival Story
Pittsburgh shows how universities and hospitals can fuel renewal — and why Trump’s manufacturing push and cuts to higher education could undermine it.
www.bloomberg.com
October 3, 2025 at 7:49 PM
"Pittsburgh’s universities and hospitals are the big employers that economically and socially are actually really analogous to what the mills were 80 years ago"
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...