Nick Uhlig

14240

2025-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

I wrote a small Excel tool, inspired by the now-defunct ChemCell which allows lookup of a couple chemical identifiers (SMILES, CAS) as well as allowing the user to pull pricing, vendor, lead time information from the MolPort API.

You need an API key for MolPort to allow the costing/sourcing functions to work, but if you don’t need that you can still use the PubChem PUG REST lookup functions.

Find it here: https://github.com/nickuhlig/chemcog

14134

2025-08-07T00:00:00+00:00

I wrote a blog entry for Housing Medford recently about infrastructure impacts and how they are accounted for by things like development fees/impact fees/linkage fees.

The way these cost structures look varies from municipality to municipality. For instance, for any new single family home in Toronto, a developer can expect to pay >$100k in fees.

In other jurisdictions like my current home of Medford, Massachusetts, however, these fees are only levied for certain types of development and are typically much lower.

Check it out here.

13830

2024-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

sometimes i forget.
the furniture is all the same,
and the arguments and the jokes,
and the conversations too. all too easy.

but then a wrong thing trips
the mind, that upward hypnic jerk
–a label
–a misused word
–the gossamer contours of an unfamiliar moonlit bedroom.

and in its place, memory:
like an oft-cradled bell jar
a butterfly slowly decaying within
fond scores of fingerprints crazing the glass.

the pain of returning,
like an inquisitive tongue to a wound in the mouth,
until i forget again.

13783

2024-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

i am that dime-at-arm’s-length moonblink,
that tapetum flash of a rabbit bounding into cattails
at the sound of your laboured breath.

i am the halt in the rhythmic dealer’s shuffle
of the cricket in the evening’s final sigh.

i am that tiny fall like an elevator’s jolt
as you wake: no map, no name, and no mouth.

i am a quickened step, a sharply drawn breath,
a tug on the filament of your much-entangled heart.

pay me the salary of your tears,
and i may take my leave,
but heed me, for i know my craft and custom.

though your terrain may warp and stretch,
the signalfire is lighted still,
incandescing in that eyeless dark to guide me home.

13722

2024-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

drown my heart off the long-frozen shore
of the freshwater legend that swallows all pride.
a thousand years hence you will still see it clearly
in water so big that it has its own tides.

bury my heart in the pine-needled hush
in that sun-dappled shade where the wendigo sleeps.
in soft silent halls it may sprout once again,
and render its fruit, wet with blood, good to eat.

hang up my heart on the whisky-jack’s perch
while white robed sentinels hold congress above
the winds of their speech will freeze it like suet–
to be thawed by the sun’s unconditional love.

13697

2024-05-08T00:00:00+00:00

rainbow runway lights
like night-time phosphorescence
vanish far below

–or

fruiting bodies thrust
above white mycelium:
towers in the fog

–or

each cloud has a taste
they drift past in their thousands,
frozen honeyed milk

–or

the clouds are mountains
above the sweetwater sea
my eyes close softly

–and

each journey brings pain.
each flight is a little death,
drowning in sunsets

13672

2024-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

i spot it as i turn the corner,
face now close-hauled to the wind
which hisses through the brittle grass
–that thirsty, golden ocean–
chilling the sweat on my forehead.

unmissable it seems to hover
in that cold and brilliant gasp of blue
until it banks, the soars.
its rigid wings not flapping once,
it rides the swells of air that crash upon the slope.

it does not stray too far:
its master, seated on the ridge
(a folding nylon chair, begrudging nod to leisure)
mutely draws it back each time,
the creance never seen.

my breathing slows.

i watch this undead thing in its diomedean flight,
and feel quite sure that it will go on gliding, hungerless,
surveying all these tousled prairie waves
until the end of days.

13671

2024-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

a scent that crowds out thought and sound
as i walk into that nervous sanctum–
the Logan airport lavatory–
my suitcase wheels galloping across the tiles
like the hooves of some absurdly tiny horse

in volumes large enough, i guess
this dubious perfume might be as cheap
as secrets shouted in the sweat-hot din
of rooms, or halls, or yards
filled to the brim
with talk, or tunes, or both
but always beer and smoke and tang of teenage breath
upon whose gusts rides that gentle venom
that same smell, that naked sugar kiss
of peach schnapps.

her words are gone now.
all that survives is a humid memory
who leans her slender weight upon the windows of my mind.
i splash my face with water
before my journey home.

13646

2024-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

most things i can recall of him
are like brief flashes that one sees,
reflected at the bottom of a well.

and if i were to take the time
to draw upon that fickle source,
the treasure i would find might be:

the coin of well remembered fact;
or else the chilling, toothe-ache draught
that slakes the thirst, yet cannot feed the heart.

13535

2023-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

I have made significant efforts in my life and career to remain in Canada. I was born here. I was raised here. I was educated here. I’ve made lifelong friends here. I was married here. I became a father here. I have children here. My partner has a career here. My parents and in-laws will require care here eventually. While I have lived in many places within Canada (Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta) I’ve essentially always lived within my home country.

However, career options for chemists in Canada are very different from those in the United States. I will not delve into why or make too many judgments on this (this could fill a book) but suffice it to say that:

Jobs within the field tend to be scarcer;
the majority of the available work tends to be for contract organizations as opposed to sponsor companies, and there truly are very few sponsor companies;
the pay is often lower for similar work at a similar experience level; and
the cost of living is at least as high, often higher than some places in the USA.

I was extremely fortunate in beginning my career to find positions that allowed me to hone my craft while remaining in Canada, first in an on-site role doing process development and manufacturing (for a company that represents an extreme rarity in Canada), followed by a remote role that placed more emphasis on strategy, planning, project oversight, vendor management, and high-level CMC work. I didn’t realize at the time, but this latter role was very nearly unique in the industry—-the combination of process chemistry, remote work, and allowing ex-US employees creates a Venn diagram with nearly zero overlap.

This role ended a couple of months ago and I am now waist-deep in what I can confidently rank as the most frustrating job search of my career. I have been turned away from multiple remote-friendly roles because of my location, and the cited difficulties of paying someone ex-US. I naively thought that most remote-friendly companies would have the same knowledge, understanding, and willingness as my previous employer on how to handle this, but I have been proven very wrong over the past two and a half months. I find myself in a position where I am being told by recruiters and hiring managers—-quite contrary to my own intimate knowledge of the topic—-that employing ex-US people for remote roles is not possible. It is very possible, but nobody seems interested in that. Add in to this that the post-pandemic shift back on-site work has winnowed out many of the previously remote-tolerant positions and the options become quite limited indeed. In retrospect this is not surprising.

After months of searching, I actually managed to find a position that was chemistry-adjacent, that would have allowed me to remain in my current location while working remotely and traveling a fair bit. I strongly and consistently reminded the hiring manager that my location in Canada would require forethought and planning from a payroll perspective, but would not pose an issue. Not only did they not begin figuring this out until I verbally accepted this job only to have the offer retracted due to “geographic concerns” before I could sign anything. This was a unique experience, I have to say!

Luckily I have still received support and understanding from other prospective employers who, while not open to remote work, understand my situation and are able to make some accommodations.

I’ve accepted a position in the Greater Boston area and I am now preparing for the eventuality of leaving Canada, and I’ve made my peace with that, but it has been a hard conclusion to come to.