9th Winter Process Chemistry Conference

Marc was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland.

He completed his Masters in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in 2011. In 2015, he completed his Carnegie Trust-sponsored PhD in Chemistry at Strathclyde. From 2015-16, Marc was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Edinburgh. During that time, he was inducted into the SciFinder Future Leaders in Chemistry programme.

In 2016, Marc won the prestigious Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship and rejoined the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde from 2017-20. This position was supported by GlaxoSmithKline, and he was thus the first Strathclyde-GSK Early Career Academic. In 2018, Marc was selected to participate in the Scottish Crucible leadership program, the Merck Innovation Cup, and was part of the Converge Challenge Entrepreneurship Competition Top 30. In 2020, Marc became a CPACT-supported Research Fellow and then Lecturer for Innovation in Education at the University of Bristol.

Most recently, Marc was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, joining the Department of Pure & Applied Chemistry at Strathclyde in 2021.

He holds a visiting lectureship at the University of Bristol, and a visiting Enterprise Fellowship in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde. In 2021, Marc completed Seth Godin’s altMBA.

Outside academia, Marc is the founder of the safety culture and accident readiness company Pre-Site Safety. He is the author of the book You Are (Not) a Fraud: A Scientist’s Guide to the Imposter Phenomenon.

His interests include physical organic chemistry, computer vision, cheminformatics, virtual reality, process safety, and the psychology of the imposter phenomenon.

SCHOLARLY LINKS

CV of Failures

ORCiD

Google Scholar

Chemistry Tree

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

2023 – JSP Fellow (Bürgenstock Conference)

2023 – Fellow of the Royal Academy of the Arts (FRSA)

2023 – Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

2022 – IChemE Hanson Medal

2021 – altMBA cohort 47

2020 – UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship

2019 – ACS Chemical Health & Safety highlights and advisory editor

2019 – Chemical Industries Association Writing Competition Winner

2019 – Strathclyde Innovator of the Year (nominated)

2019 – Strathclyde Entrepreneurial Network Rising Stars Programme

2018 – Merck Innovation Cup (invited participant; 1/70 from 2,500 applicants)

2018 – Converge Challenge Entrepreneurship Competition Top 30

2018 – Scottish Crucible leadership and development programme (1 of 33 selected in Scotland)

2017 – Prof. Patrick D. Ritchie Prize for Best PhD Thesis in 2014/15 (U. of Strath.)

2016 – Best Poster Prize – EaStCHEM Conference for Early Career Researchers

2016 – Best Speaker Prize – RSC Early Career Symposium

2016 – SciFinder Future Leaders program participant (1/25 worldwide)

2015 – Gavin Forsyth Award for Most Meritorious PhD Student at 2nd Year stage (U. of Strath.)

2015 – JLCR Wiley Young Scientist Award (for PhD contribution to isotope chemistry)

2015 – Early Career Research Bursary (UK Catalysis Conference)

2014 – Runner Up for the Syngenta UK Postgraduate Scholarship in Organic Chemistry

2014 – 1st Place Speaker Prize – WestCHEM Postgraduate Symposium on Organic Chemistry

2014 – Hamilton-Barrett Prize for Most Meritorious PhD Student at 1st Year stage (U. of Strath.)

2013 – 1st Place Poster Prize – WestCHEM Postgraduate Symposium on Organic Chemistry

2012 – Commercialisation of Ir catalysts w/Strem Chemicals, Ltd. (U. of Strath.)

2011 – Carnegie Trust PhD Scholarship (1/14 in Scotland across all disciplines)

2010 – GSK Prize for Meritorious Final Year UG Student in Organic Chemistry

2011 – 1st Place Speaker Prize – SCI Scottish Undergraduate Research Symposium

2011 – Salters’ Institute UK Graduate Prize Shortlist

2010 – GSK Bursary awardee

2010 – Class Representative for Final Year Pure & Applied Chemistry students

2009 – Recommended for hire after Procter & Gamble One Year Internship

2009 – Thomas Gray Undergraduate Prize for Excellence in Applied Chemistry

2009 – Nuffield UK Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship

2008 – Carnegie Trust Scottish Undergraduate Summer Research Scholarship

• Born in Alexandria / Egypt in March 1967
• Father Egyptian and mother Greek
• Speaks 6 languages: Arabic, Greek, English, French, German and Italian
• Studied chemistry at for a Bachelor degree in Chemistry at the University of Alexandria / Egypt
• Had a Master degree in Chemistry in a joint project between the University of Alexandria / Egypt and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst / USA
  This was in the field of peptide chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Louis A. Carpino
• Had a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the University of Geneva / Switzerland
  This was in the field of catalytic asymmetric synthesis of chiral macrocycles under the supervision of Prof. Wolfgang Oppolzer
• Had a Postdoctoral position at the ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich / Switzerland
  This was in the field of asymmetric synthesis using organozinc chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Erick M. Carreiera
• Joined CARBOGEN AMCIS in March 2001 as Project Chemist
• Since 2015 Senior Manager PR&D at CARBOGEN AMCIS heading the R&D Department on the site of Aarau / Switzerland

Dr W.R.F. Goundry, MChem, CChem, FRSC, FHEA

Dr Goundry is a leading scientist in the synthesis and manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Following his D.Phil in organic synthesis at Oxford University and Post Doc at Indiana University Will joined AZ at Macclesfield in 2006. He has developed a strong track record in process design and scale up working from grams to tonnes[1], including biocatalysis[2] and flow chemistry[3]. Will is currently AstraZeneca’s scientific lead for New Modalities in the early phase. In this role he supports the development and manufacture of antibody drug conjugates (ADC), peptides and oligonucleotide drugs for clinical trials. He is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Manchester in the Division of Pharmacy, and an industrial lead for both the Centre for Biocatalytic Manufacture of New Modalities and the Centre for Doctoral training (CDT) in integrated catalysis

[1] The Development of a Dimroth Rearrangement Route to AZD8931, Goundry, W. R. F.; Boardman, K.; Cunningham, O.; Evans, M.; Jones, M. F.; Millard, K.; Rozada-Sanchez, R.; Sawyer, Y.; Siedlecki, P.; Whitlock, B., Org. Process Res. Dev., 2017, 21, 336–345

[2] The Development and Scale-up of a Biocatalytic Process to Form a Chiral Sulfoxide, Goundry, W. R. F.; Adams, B.; Benson, H.; Demeritt, J.; McKown, S.; Mulholland, K.; Robertson, A.; Siedlecki, P.; Tomlin, P.; Vare, K., Org. Process Res. Dev., 2017, 21, 107–113

[3] Development of a Continuous Flow Sulfoxide Imidation Protocol Using Azide Sources under Superacidic Conditions, Goundry, W. R. F.; Elsner, P; Gutmann, B; Roberge, D; O’Kearney-McMullan, A., Org. Process Res. Dev., 2015, 19, 1062-1067

MR ROBERT PEELING

Britest

Rob Peeling is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with 40 years experience. Over the years he has held roles in Research and Development, Process Design, Plant Operations and Process Safety across  titanium pigments, catalysts, fine chemicals and platinum group metals refining.  Since 2016 he has been delivering process understanding training and facilitation services to clients for Britest Ltd. where he is the Technical Services Director. Clients and Britest members come from a range of process industry sectors including pharmaceuticals, catalyst manufacture, contract chemicals and food processing. Britest also engages in government funded industry/academic collaborations which in recent years have focused on sustainable process and circularity.

Received an MSci in Chemistry with a Year in Industry at Imperial College London, spending a year as an analytical chemist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. Joined Pfizer in 2019 as a process chemist and am currently carrying out a secondment as a process supervisor in the pilot plant.

Dr. Hughes completed his undergraduate studies the University of New Brunswick in 1994 and then a PhD in organic chemistry at the University of Toronto. After completing his graduate studies in 2000, Dr. Hughes accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute. In 2002 he started at Merck Frosst joining a newly formed satellite Process Chemistry group.  In 2008 Dr. Hughes relocated to Merck’s Rahway site managing several enabling technology groups including the catalysis, automation, flow chemistry and biocatalysis groups.  In 2013 Dr. Hughes assumed a position as VP of Business Development and Alliance Management at Codexis.  In 2016 Dr. Hughes returned to R&D at Merck, a Principal Scientist in the Process Chemistry organization.  In Jan 2022, Dr. Hughes moved into a Senior Principal Scientist position within the Discovery Process Chemistry department.

Sarah Cleary (she/her)

Chief Scientific Officer and Cofounder, HydRegen, UK

Dr Sarah Cleary is Chief Scientific Officer and cofounder of HydRegen Ltd, and has a passion for innovation and sustainability. Before starting her PhD, Sarah interned at Seventh Generation (Unilever), where her commitment to building green chemistry into manufacturing practices was solidified.

Sarah earned her PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Vermont in the Brewer group, after which she joined Prof. Kylie Vincent’s group at the University of Oxford as a postdoc to help develop exciting biocatalytic hydrogenation technologies. During this time, she implemented the biotechnologies in typical lab-scale hydrogenation equipment, showing the applicability and sustainability metrics of the catalysts. Sarah, Prof. Vincent, and Dr Holly Reeve then cofounded HydRegen Ltd which, at its core, is a process company that builds tools to make biocatalysis more accessible to chemists, with the aim to provide sustainable manufacturing solutions across the chemicals sector.

At HydRegen, Sarah plays a pivotal role as CSO and head of chemistry R&D. Her work has contributed to demonstrating the biotechnologies in existing chemical manufacturing infrastructure, validating the process scale-up strategies in batch and continuous flow.

Dr Nikolay Cherkasov, Founder & Managing Director of Stoli Chem

Nikolay Cherkasov received his PhD from Moscow University (Russia) and spend 10 years in academia working on catalysis and continuous processing. He has 50+ research papers in the area of catalysis, process development & automation, and process intensification. The academic work led to the establishment of the company, Stoli Chem, which innovates continuous chemical production for sustainability.

Nick Tyrrell took his A-levels at a time when hands-on practical work was a significant part of the curriculum for both Physics and Chemistry.  He went on to take a degree in Chemistry at King’s College London, graduating in 1974, and staying on to do a PhD working Drs Jim Thomas and D Ivor John. Research in the field of Penicillin chemistry was completed in 1980, and was followed by Post-doctoral research at Imperial College.

His move to industry came in 1982, when he joined May & Baker Ltd in East London, part of the Rhone-Poulenc group with sites in Paris and Lyon.  After starting in the process development labs, he soon moved to their adjacent Kilo-Lab, trialling a multi-step process upon which new plants were to be built in both London and Paris.  With the original process concept provided by French colleagues, this provided a first opportunity for working in an international team, and travel to Paris for the next stage of trialling at Pilot Plant scale.

His next move was to the Agrochemical sector, with Dow Chemical at King’s Lynn in Norfolk, and then into Biotechnology by joining Chiroscience in Cambridge in 1992.  The next 16 years were a whirlwind of development chemistry during which the company first almost failed due to a funding crisis, then grew ca 10-fold, through a stock-market flotation, the Biotech stock bubble, and mergers first with Celltech and then UCB of Belgium.

Across this period processes were developed and trialled at up to 20-litre scale in Cambridge, and the taken into GMP manufacture in contract facilities at sites in Hungary, Germany, Scotland, Belgium and Italy.  In all cases the process documentation was written in the local language; quite a challenge for a non-linguist when doing the proof-reading !  Credit of course to all Nick’s counterparts in each country for their skills in both English and chemistry, and good-nature in sometimes stressful situations.

Nick’s last move was made to Almac Sciences in 2008, where he now holds the position of a Senior Investigator.  The boot is now on the other foot, and he and his colleagues develop and scale-up processes supplied by external clients, from first laboratory trials through to regular GMP manufacture.  As at Chiroscience he much appreciates working with a fine team of colleagues from all over the world.  Whilst retirement is a now option he remains happy and fulfilled in lab and plant work, the secret to which is to never have held a managerial position of any kind.

• BSc, Univ. Bielefeld and Michigan, 1992
• MSc with K.P.C. Vollhardt, UC Berkeley, 1994
• PhD with W. A. Herrmann, TU München, 1997
• PostDoc, K. B. Sharpless, Scripps Institute, 1998
• Research chemist, Bayer-AG, 1999
• Habilitand, M. T. Reetz, MPI Mülheim, 2000
• Lecturer, RWTH Aachen, 2005
• Associate professor, TU Kaiserslautern, 2005
• Evonik Chair of Organic Chemistry, RU Bochum, 2016

Martin Monedero is a senior flow chemist at AM Technology. He leads feasibility and process development studies, collaborating with research institutions and companies across the chemical industry. His focus is on helping organisations transfer batch production to flow and develop novel chemical processes in flow.

Etienne is a scientist at Cambrex where he engages in the development and testing of materials for pharmaceutical use. The focus of his work is to connect with various pharmaceutical industrial businesses and contribute to the development of their pharmaceutical products.

Etienne holds a MChem and a PhD in chemistry, both from the University of Strathclyde, where he specialised in organic and organometallic synthesis, solid-state characterisation, and crystallography. He is now involved in the solid form screening and crystallisation development of active pharmaceutical ingredients throughout the development of a drug.

Steven Twiddle obtained both his undergraduate Chemistry degree and Organic Chemistry PhD from the University of Durham UK, the latter under the supervision of Prof. A. Whiting.  Upon completion Steve moved to the USA and the group of Prof. M. E. Krafft at Florida State University as a post-doctoral research fellow.  He subsequently returned to the UK after accepting a process chemist role in the Chemical Research and Development department at Pfizer in Sandwich.  Steve has designed and developed chemical processes and successfully transferred to scale­up facilities around the globe, including a 6 month secondment to Pfizer’s commercial manufacturing site near Cork, whilst facilitating the API tech transfer of Vizimpro.  As an API project lead Steve led teams in the development of API processes, multi­kilo clinical API manufactures and control strategies.  Currently as a Director of Process Chemistry, Steve has accountability for safe and efficient running of the group, colleague development and portfolio delivery.

Stephanie is currently on an ex-pat assignment as a Principal Scientist in the Crystallization Lab at Boehringer Ingelheim in Biberach Germany.

Stephanie received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada with Prof. Charles L.B. Macdonald in 2017. There, she specialized in Crystallography and organophosphorus transformations. After working at several different chemical companies in the polymer industry, she joined Boehringer Ingelheim as a Senior Scientist in the Solid-State Science & API Engineering lab in Ridgefield, CT in April 2021.