Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Bates College invites applications for a full-time, tenure track position in computational chemistry or computational biochemistry, to begin July 2026. We seek an outstanding scholar with strong commitments to excellent undergraduate teaching and mentorship in a liberal arts context. The successful candidate will demonstrate excellence in the use of computational approaches to address chemical or biochemical problems, broadly defined. We are especially interested in candidates who can potentially collaborate with or contribute classes to existing programs at Bates, such as Digital and Computational Studies.

The successful applicant will join a department of nine tenure-track faculty in chemistry and biochemistry, which is situated in Bonney Science Center. Bates hosts a high-performance computing cluster, the Leavitt HPC Cluster, to support the curricular and scholarly needs of all Bates faculty, students, and staff. Bates also partners with the nearby Roux Institute (affiliated with Northeastern University). This partnership allows Bates students to take select computer science courses within the Roux's Align Program. The proximity of the Roux Institute (Portland) and Northeastern (Boston), along with the breadth in expertise of their faculty and staff, also provides potential research collaborations and sabbatical opportunities for Bates faculty.

The position carries a standard five-course annual teaching load (laboratory sections count as 0.5 courses). The duties of the position include the three main areas of faculty work: teaching, professional achievement, and governance and engagement. The standards of excellence for faculty at Bates are articulated in Article II of the faculty handbook, and include a commitment to inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy, peer-reviewed professional work, and contributions to the broader Bates community. The successful applicant will offer courses and labs for general chemistry, electives in their specialty area, and will teach in the broader Bates general education curriculum, provide academic advising, and mentor student theses. Successful candidates will be expected to develop a signature and independent research program. We also expect the candidate to take part in our system of shared governance.

Review of applications will begin on Sept. 15, 2025. Applications should include a cover letter and a curriculum vitae. Applicants should submit a teaching statement that describes how they plan to meet Bates’ standards of excellence in terms of inclusive and evidence-based pedagogy and how their background, including but not limited to appropriate graduate coursework, has prepared them to teach general chemistry and courses in their specialty area. In addition, a research plan that speaks to the current and future promise of a candidate’s professional work at a small liberal arts college is required. The research statement should describe your current scholarship and future plans in a way that is accessible to a hiring committee of faculty having varied interdisciplinary specialties, and that includes discussion of how the candidate will incorporate undergraduates in your research agenda.

Given the wide range of backgrounds of Bates students, we seek candidates who are committed to each student’s success. As part of the submitted statements, we ask that candidates share plans for helping all students succeed, and share evidence of relevant preparation or experience. This can be either in a separate, additional document or integrated into the teaching and research statements. We encourage applications from individuals from historically marginalized groups and from those who may have followed non-traditional pathways to higher education due to societal, economic, or academic circumstances. The search committee will request letters of recommendation from three referees for short-listed candidates. Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check and verification of degree.

Bates College is a residential liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine—a diverse and growing community roughly 45 minutes from the state’s largest city (Portland), 2 ½ hours north of Boston, and 4 ½ hours south of Montreal. Faculty scholarship and creative work at Bates are robustly supported by start-up packages, internal grants, and a well-staffed external grants office. Community-engaged learning and study abroad are both broadly encouraged and supported; pedagogical development and innovation is further buttressed by the Center for Inclusive Teaching and Learning

Educational access and racial justice are central to Bates’ history and mission and ourfaculty-led initiatives reflect this commitment.

A Ph.D. is required by July 1, 2026. Applicants should have completed applicable graduate-level coursework and/or developed equivalent expertise to teach appropriate courses across the curriculum detailed below. Post-doctoral or other additional relevant research experience is required.