Trevor Laird

Founder of Scientific Update, formerly with ICI/Zeneca and SmithKline and French.

Trevor Laird gained his PhD from London University in Organic Photochemistry and completed 3 years post doctoral studies with Professor W.D. Ollis at Sheffield on sigmatropic rearrangements. He spent 5 years at ICI Corporate Laboratory at Runcorn, designing organic molecules for use in electronics and solar energy, whilst also acting as Safety Advisor. In 1977 he moved to ICI Organics in Manchester, examining new synthetic routes to agrochemicals, followed by development, optimisation and scale-up to pilot plant and transfer to production facilities. In 1979 he moved to SmithKline & French, Tonbridge (now part of GlaxoSmithKline) where he was eventually in charge of Process Development, being responsible for the design, development and scale-up of processes for the manufacture of SK & F's new drug candidates. In 1989 he left SK & F to set up Scientific Update, providing continuing education and training, conference organisation and consultancy, particularly in his prime interest field of process chemical research and development.

Trevor is the author of numerous articles and book chapters (eg. in Comprehensive Organic Chemistry and Comprehensive Medicinal Chemistry), and was the prime instigator of the journal Organic Process Research and Development launched in 1997 for which he is the Editor-in-Chief.

Through his company he has developed major international conferences in process chemistry, crystallisation and polymorphism, automation, chromatography and related fields. He has also developed a portfolio of training courses for chemists working in industry, covering chemical development and scale-up, crystallisation and polymorphism, good manufacturing practice, design of experiments, thermal hazards, patents in chemistry, medicinal chemistry, organic synthesis (methods and strategy), chemical engineering, kinetics and other topics. These courses are run both publicly and "in-house".

Trevor is an internationally recognised expert and acts as a consultant to numerous pharmaceutical and chemical companies across the world. He has been involved as an expert witness in trials in USA, UK, Holland, Denmark and Finland in cases involving process chemistry, crystallisation and polymorphism and related issues. In 2003, he was appointed visiting professor at Sussex University.

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