John Blacker has been involved in the Fine Chemical/Pharmaceutical industry for 20 years and is currently Chair of Process Chemistry (www.chem.leeds.ac.uk/john-blacker) and Technical Director of the Institute of Process Research and Development (www.iprd.leeds.ac.uk) at the University of Leeds, part of both the School of Chemistry and the School of Chemical and Process Engineering. His interests are in sustainable chemical manufacture using catalysis, flow and efficient batch processes. He undertakes much work with industry to assist in the development of better production processes and improved products.
Richard A. Bourne is currently a Tenure Track Fellow at the iPRD at the University of Leeds. He completed a PhD working on reactions in supercritical carbon dioxide under the supervision of Prof. Martyn Poliakoff, CBE, FRS at the University of Nottingham. He then worked as a research fellow with Prof. Martyn Poliakoff and Prof. Michael W. George looking at reactions of singlet oxygen and as part of the EU FP7 SYNFLOW project. He now investigates rapid process development and continuous flow chemistry using automated flow reactors and inline analysis.
Jessica Breen is currently a freelance journalist. She gained her PhD from the Durham University on fluorine chemistry in flow, under the supervision of Prof. Graham Sandford. After a year's postdoctoral fellowship in carbon capture chemistry with Prof. Christopher Rayner at the University of Leeds, she began working in the iPRD with Prof. John Blacker on the synthesis of chiral amines in flow.
Murray Brown joined SmithKline Beecham in 1997 (subsequently to become GSK) after completing a PhD and post-doctoral research at Cambridge University studying enzymes of the Shikimate pathway and polyketide synthases. He has had a variety of roles in early drug discovery in the hit ID, lead optimisation and early safety prediction arenas leading groups developing in vitro biochemical and cellular assays. Recognising that reagent generation, assay development and screening skills could equally be applied to the discovery and optimisation of novel enzymes, he led an Innovation group seeking biological alternatives to chemical synthesis. He is now part of the Synthetic Biochemistry team within the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies group developing platform capabilities for faster, better development of biocatalysts and Synthetic Biology approaches leading to robust biological processes for manufacturing drug substances. He is lead coordinator for CHEM21 (a €26M Innovative Medicines Initiative project), and represents GSK on various IB advisory boards, such as SynbiCITE (http://synbicite.com/), biocatnet (http://biocatnet.com/), SynBioCDT (http://www.synbio-cdt.ac.uk/), BrisSynBio (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/brissynbio/) and SynBERC (http://www.synberc.org/).
James Clark is Professor of Chemistry at York, Director of the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, and a Director of the Biorenewables Development Centre. He is also Chief Technical Officer for the University technology company Starbons Ltd. James has been at the forefront of green chemistry worldwide for about 20 years: he was founding scientific editor of the world-leading journal Green Chemistry, senior editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry Green Chemistry book series, and President of the Green Chemistry Network. His research and collaboration with industry has led to numerous awards including the 2011 RSC Environment Prize, the 2011 SCI Chemistry for Industry award, the RSC John Jeyes and SCI Environment medals, the Royal Academy of Engineering Clean Technology Fellowship, and distinctions from universities worldwide, including an honorary doctorate from Gent University in 2013. He was also research leader for projects that won EU and Royal Society of Arts Better Environment awards and the Prince of Wales award for innovation, as well as the 2012 Rushlight environment award. He has published over 400 original articles and written or edited over 20 books. He has given plenary lectures worldwide, and advises companies and governments across the globe on these topics.
Andri Constandinou is a 2nd year PhD student in the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GCCE) at the University of York. She is also involved in the CHEM21 project and her research focusses on assessing the green credentials of current and improved synthetic routes to target APIs.
Ian Fairlamb (born 1975 in Crewe, England, UK) was appointed to a lectureship in Organic Chemistry at the University of York in October 2001, following a PhD under the guidance of Dr J. Dickinson investigating the synthesis of squalene synthase inhibitors (1996–1999) and a post-doctoral research position with Prof. G. C. Lloyd-Jones studying the mechanisms of various Pd-catalysed processes (2000–2001). In January 2010, he was promoted to Full Professor in Chemistry (Chair). His research is at the interface between Inorganic and Organic Chemistry. 15 PhD students have graduated from the Fairlamb research group over the past 13 years. The current group consists of MChem, MSc, PhD and PDRAs (ca. 16 members), many of whom are working on interdisciplinary collaborative projects. Key areas involve synthetic chemistry (e.g. cross-couplings, pericyclic processes, Pauson–Khand reactions), transition metal catalyst design (halide and pseudohalide effects, olefin ligands), mechanistic understanding specifically involving palladium nanoparticles and clusters, biological probes and therapeutic transition metal-containing complexes. The latter area involves the design of thermal and photochemical carbon monoxide-releasing molecules (CO-RMs) and anticancer compounds (both organic and transition metal-based), work that involves collaboration with chemists, biologists and biophysicists.
Farhana Ferdousi received her BSc in Chemistry in 2003 from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She achieved her MS in Inorganic Chemistry in 2005 at the same university. Before joining as a Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2007, she spent a short period as a Lecturer in the Department of Natural Sciences, Stamford University, Bangladesh. She is currently pursuing a PhD under the direct supervision of Prof. Andy Whiting at Durham University. Her work mainly involves the development of new catalytic approaches for direct amide bond formation and their application in peptide synthesis as well as in some important drug syntheses.
Anton Glieder is Professor for Biotechnology at the Graz University of Technology, where he leads a research group for the engineering of protein and pathway expression systems by synthetic biology. After his studies in chemistry at the University Vienna and his PhD studies in Microbiology at the University Graz, he spent several years as a researcher and innovation manager in industry and as a postdoc in Biocatalysis at the University of Technology in Graz. During his research stage at Caltech and in Graz, he gained experience in protein engineering, which also led to close and successful collaborations with industry. Later he became a cofounder, CEO and CSO of ACIB in Austria. Today's major scientific interest is in innovative eukaryotic expression systems and their application for protein and pathway engineering.
John Hayler read chemistry at the University of Exeter and studied for a PhD in organic synthesis at the University of Bath. He joined SmithKline and French (subsequently SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoSmithKline) in 1987 and is currently a manager in the API Chemistry department, part of Product Development and Supply. His scientific interests include the application of green and sustainable principles to the manufacture of pharmaceutically active compounds.
Christopher Hone is currently studying for a PhD in Chemical Process Research and Development at the iPRD at the University of Leeds. He is working on the development of methodology for the design, optimization and scale-up of continuous flow processes. The project is part funded by AstraZeneca and Chris is working under the supervision of Prof. Frans Muller, Dr Richard Bourne and Prof. Steve Marsden.
Andrew J. Hunt gained a PhD in Chemistry from University of York (2006) focussed on “the extraction of high value chemicals from British upland plants”. Dr Hunt now leads the Natural Solvents section of the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at the University of York. The use of bio-derived solvents and supercritical fluids in extractions, reactions and chromatography is a key aspect of his work. Research highlights include innovative work on the use of supercritical carbon dioxide for the extraction and recovery of liquid crystals from defunct display devices. This collaborative project led to a Rushlight award for innovation in recycling. Other related work on the recovery and expansion of waste polyvinyl alcohol from this waste stream has received significant press attention including an ASC press conference at the ASC green chemistry conference Washington DC, June 2010. More recently, he leads the EU SUNLIBB work package on high value products as part of an integrated biorefinery and now manages the PHYTOCAT project on metal recovery by plants (http://www.phytocat.org/). His research interests include elemental sustainability (metal recovery), materials science (utilisation of waste residues), waste treatment, catalysis, biorefineries and green solvents.
Klaus Kümmerer is Professor for Sustainable Chemistry and Material Resources and Director of the Institute for Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. Before, he was professor for environmental chemistry and environmental hygiene at the Department for Environmental Health Science at the University Medical Centre Freiburg. He has been conducting research into sources, fate effects and risks connected to chemicals and pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment for 15 years and is one of the worldwide leading scientists in the field. Only recently, he developed the framework of green and sustainable pharmacy and elaborated in detail the concept benign by design as a major building block of sustainable chemistry and pharmacy. He has published numerous articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and he (co)edited several books on the topic (latest: Pharmaceuticals in the Environment, Springer, 3rd edition, 2008; Green and Sustainable Pharmacy, Springer, 2010; Water Reuse, Springer forthcoming). In 2009, he won the Recipharm International Award for his work on pharmaceuticals in the environment and the conceptualization of green and sustainable pharmacy. Furthermore, in June 2015 he received the Water Resource Management Award from the Rüdiger Kurt Bode Foundation, Germany. He is founding editor of the peer-reviewed journals Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy as well as associate editor of Chemosphere. He is member of the management board of the European technology platform SusChem on behalf of the German Chemical Society. He is also a member of the Commission for Water Research of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and of the board of the Division of Sustainable Chemistry within the German Chemical Society as well as a reviewer for national and international funding bodies.
Bert U. W. Maes was born in Belgium, graduated in 1997 from the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and obtained his PhD in 2001 from the same institute. He performed postdoctoral work in the group of Prof. Anny Jutand (CNRS) at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris (France) studying fundamental mechanisms in catalysis. In 2003, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at UAntwerp. In 2008, he was promoted to Associate Professor and in 2014 to Full Professor. He currently holds a research position, which allows him to spend more time on research. In 2015, he became the chair of the Department of Chemistry. His research interests centre on heterocyclic chemistry, homogeneous catalysis, organometallic chemistry and sustainable chemistry. Bert Maes is a member of the Industrial Research Council (IOF) of UAntwerp and deputy member of the Committee on Innovation Policy (CIB) of the Flemish Council for Science and Innovation (VRWI), advising the Flemish government for science and innovation policy. He is a member of the board of the section Medicinal and Bioorganic Chemistry of the Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV), the Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS) committee, the European Colloquium on Heterocyclic Chemistry (ECHC) committee, the Arkat/Arkivoc/Flohet Steering Committee, the advisory board of Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry and the editorial board of the book series Topics in Heterocyclic Chemistry.
Jens Maes was born in Geel, Belgium and obtained his Master Degree in 2010 from the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He currently works as a PhD student in the group of Prof. Bert Maes at the University of Antwerp. His research is focused on the development of base metal-catalyzed direct amination reactions.
Josef Messinger was born in Duisburg (Germany). He started his career in chemistry as a chemical assistant in a research laboratory of Bayer AG (Uerdingen). He studied chemistry at the University of Duisburg (Germany) and McMaster University in Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) and in 1991 completed his doctoral thesis on “Conformational analysis of charge transfer complexes and benzodiazepine derivatives” in the group of Prof. Volker Buss (Theoretical Chemistry, University of Duisburg). From 1991, he worked for Solvay Pharmaceuticals GmbH (later Abbott Products GmbH) in Hannover as a medicinal chemist on different projects and in different indication areas. He extended his activities further as lecturer at the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover. Since 2011, he has been working in the medicinal chemistry department of Orion Pharma (Espoo, Finland) as a senior advisor. He has over 45 patents and publications covering synthetic tools and techniques, biotransformations, new pharmacological active molecules, structure–activity relations, and modelling and modelling tools.
Emily A. Mitchell was born in Montréal, Canada and received her PhD in 2008 from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) under the supervision of Dr Michael C. Baird. Her research focused on fundamental studies in the optimization and nature of palladium(0) complexes for applications in cross-coupling reactions. She currently holds a postdoctoral position in the group of Prof. Bert Maes at the University of Antwerp. Her research focuses on direct functionalization through transition metal catalyzed sp3 C–H activation.
Laurianne Moity is a chemist whose previous experience involves working in the fields of formulation and organic synthesis at ARD (Agro-industries Research and Development, Reims, France) in order to valorise bio-based succinic acid into valuable bio-surfactants, and solvent selection and bio-based products at the GCCE (Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, York, UK). Laurianne recently completed a PhD at the University of Lille for Prof. J.-M. Aubry and Dr Valérie Molinier, where she worked on the design (Computer-Assisted Organic Synthesis), modelling (COSMO-RS and Hansen solubility parameters) and evaluation (synthesis, physico-chemical property measurements) of new bio-based solvents. She focused on isosorbide, glycerol and itaconic acid derivatives to replace hazardous solvents in agrochemical formulation.
Jonathan Moseley obtained his BSc in chemistry from Southampton University in 1986 and his PhD from Cambridge University in 1992. He worked as a medicinal chemist for Merck Sharp and Dohme for three years both before and after his PhD. In 1996, he moved to Zeneca (now AstraZeneca) as a process development chemist where he worked on pharmaceutical development projects from early route selection, kilo-lab and pilot plant scale-up, through to established manufacturing processes. His research interests include the application of new technologies to chemical synthesis, notably microwave chemistry, on which he has published extensively. At the beginning of 2011, he joined former colleagues to form their own company, CatSci Ltd, which delivers expertise in the development, optimisation and understanding of catalysis and other challenging reactions across the chemical research, development and manufacturing sectors. At CatSci, he is the Research Director, and leads project delivery and the scientific research programme. CatSci makes regular routine use of DoE on many of its projects.
Leena Otsomaa (Ph.Lic. eMBA) was born in Savonlinna (Finland). She is currently working as Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Orion, a globally operating Finnish pharma company developing pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. She studied chemistry at the University of Oulu (Finland) and completed her licentiate thesis on “Synthesis of 6-Deoxyamino Sugars” in the group of Prof. Ari M. P. Koskinen. She completed her eMBA studies in the Turku School of Economics. She started her career in chemistry as a research scientist in a synthetic chemistry laboratory at Orion in 1996. Since the beginning of 2010, she has been an active member (Orion representative) of the Scientific Committee of Chemical Industry Federation of Finland and later in 2012–2013 as vice chairperson. Currently Leena Otsomaa is acting as the chairperson of the Scientific Committee of Chemical Industry Federation of Finland.
Graham Pattison graduated with a first-class MChem degree from Durham University in 2005. He then remained at Durham for a PhD in organofluorine chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Graham Sandford, examining the use of highly fluorinated aromatics as scaffolds for the synthesis of highly substituted heterocycles. In 2009, he moved to the University of Edinburgh to work with Prof. Hon Wai Lam, working in the area of asymmetric catalysis. In late 2012, he moved to the University of Warwick as an IAS Global Research Fellow to commence independent research. His research interests are in the development of new sustainable catalytic reactions and in organofluorine chemistry.
Sirpa Rasku obtained her PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Helsinki (Finland) in 2000. In 2001, she joined the research function of Orion, a globally operating Finnish company developing pharmaceuticals. She started as a research scientist in Medicinal Chemistry working in early phase drug discovery projects. Currently she is working as a laboratory manager in one of the synthetic chemistry laboratories in Medicinal Chemistry.
James Sherwood is a research scientist at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at the University of York. His previous experience includes working as a medicinal chemist at GlaxoSmithKline, before conducting postgraduate research under the supervision of Prof. Tom Welton and Dr Paul Lickiss at Imperial College London in the field of solvent effects. He has also worked for a company making bio-diesel from waste cooking oils. James recently completed a PhD at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence for Prof. James Clark and Dr Duncan Macquarrie, where he examined the synthesis and application of bio-based solvents in examples of organic transformations of relevance to the pharmaceutical industry. James’ research interests now also include the analysis and certification of bio-based products, including solvents (http://www.biobasedeconomy.eu/research/kbbpps/).
Helen Sneddon read Natural Sciences at Christ's College, Cambridge University, and stayed at Cambridge to complete her PhD in organic chemistry, on β-keto-dithianes and their application to the synthesis of natural products, with Professor Steven V. Ley. After postdoctoral work on the asymmetric catalytic chemistry of palladium(ii) with Professor Larry Overman at the University of California, Irvine, she joined GlaxoSmithKline in Stevenage, UK in 2007 as a medicinal chemist, working on respiratory medicines. In late 2011, she founded GSK's Green Chemistry Performance Unit, a team she still leads, looking at improving the environmental sustainability of research and development, and the routes arising from it. She has particular interests in solvent and reagent selection and the development of more efficient transformations, has published over 30 papers in scientific journals, and is honorary professor in Sustainable Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, School of Chemistry.
Louise Summerton is the Training, Education and Networks Manager in the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence (GGCE) at the University of York and has over 10 years’ experience in the preparation and delivery of green chemistry training and educational material. Louise is currently leading on the creation of an Education and Training package for the CHEM21 project. She has also been involved in securing the funding for, as well as the coordination and delivery of, numerous desk-top research projects on a national and European level, of which two included close collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining the GCCE, Louise worked as a Medicinal Chemist for GlaxoSmithKline in Stevenage, UK and a Research Chemist for Croda in Hull, UK.
Andy Wells is an expert in chemical process research and development (R&D) and has experience across the pharmaceutical R&D lifecycle, especially in synthesis and active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) supply from discovery chemistry through to commercial operations. Andy spent 25 years working at Smith Kline and French, SmithKline Beecham and AstraZeneca before setting up Charnwood Technical Consulting Ltd (CTC Ltd) to promote the uptake of more sustainable manufacturing. Key areas of interest are in the application of homo/hetero-metal catalysis, organo-catalysis, industrial biotechnology, solvents and green chemistry solutions. Andy has experience across a broad range of scientific disciplines, and is a keen exponent of working at the interface of the physical and biological sciences to deliver more sustainable manufacturing. Andy Wells has worked on over 200 industry projects using biocatalysis as a key enabling technology across all scales from discovery to manufacturing. CTC Ltd is a member of the CHEM 21 consortium, and Andy Wells is a work package leader (http://www.chem21.eu/). Andy Wells is a visiting professor at the Chemistry Department at York University UK, a visiting industrial fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies at Bath University, UK and is Chairman of the Board of the Centre for Biocatalysis, Biotransformations and Biocatalytic Manufacture at Manchester University, UK. Andy has ∼150 publications, patents and invited lectures.
Andy Whiting carried out PhD studies with Professor R. J. Stoodley at Newcastle University, working on beta-lactam chemistry, before moving on to postdoctoral research at Boston College with Professor T. Ross Kelly working on natural product synthesis and the development of chiral Diels–Alder Lewis-acid catalysts. After a short period in industry with Ciba-Geigy Central Research, he moved to his first academic position as Lecturer in Chemistry at UMIST. In 2001, he moved to a Readership at Durham University and became Professor in 2009. He is currently Director of the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Processes at Durham, with research interests in organic synthesis, methodology and catalysis.
Birgit Wiltschi is the head of the Junior Group Synthetic Biology at the Austrian Center of Industrial Biotechnology in Graz, Austria. She earned her PhD from Graz University of Technology, stayed at the University of California in Berkeley for a research sabbatical, and carried out postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany and the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg, Germany. Her research focuses on the engineering of proteins with unnatural amino acids. She is also interested in methods for the combinatorial assembly of multi-gene expression constructs, e.g. for metabolic engineering.
