Prof Gordon J. T. Tiddy Symposium - Monday 20 Jan 2025

Prof Gordon J. T. Tiddy sadly passed away on 6 October 2024. This symposium is held in his memory.

Registration open - click here.
Date: Monday 20th Jan 2025 (Burlington House, London 11:00-17:00)

As we celebrate Gordon's life we will host scientific talks and hear some personal reflections from friends and colleagues who were lucky enough to know him. 

Programme: 

11:00-11:25 - Welcome and the FSTG - Helen Ryder and Simon Gibbon
11:25-11:55 - Jason Gray, Beckley Psytech Limited - Powder Flow in Formulations
11:55-12:25 - Malcolm Faers, Bayer AG - A stepwise scientific paradigm for designing future Suspension Concentrate formulations for emerging UAV, VLV and precision crop protection application technologies
12:25-12:45 - Robin Curtis, The University of Manchester - At the interface of colloids (proteins) and surfactant science: my relationship with Gordon Tiddy
13:00-13:45 - FSTG AGM - all welcome 
LUNCH SERVED BETWEEN 12:45-14:00
14:00-14:30 - Tapas Sen, University of Central Lancashire and Yogita Sen, Teva Pharmaceuticals - Our scientific journey in the UK and Gordon's role
14:30-14:50 - Mike Anderson, The University of Manchester - Reflections on gyroids, mesopores and curvature
14:50-15:00 - Bindhu Gururajan, Novartis - Application of scientific modelling approach for formulation and process science for anti cancer drug product development
15:00-15:15 - John Walsh, Unilever - personal reflection
15:15-15:30 - Helen Ryder/Flor Siperstein - Formula 
15:30 - Networking reception 
17:00 - soft close 

Gordon had an illustrious industrial and academic career as a world leading expert in the fields of surfactant, colloid, and formulation sciences as well as being recognised for his expertise in NMR. He was well-respected and responsible for the formation of the RSC's Formulation Science and Technology Group. With a firm foundation set the FSTG has remained an active and dedicated interest group supporting the formulation community. Gordon earned recognition for his research accomplishments; the Rhodia prize by the European Colloid and Interface Society in 2007 and the inaugural Formula Pierre Fillet Award in 2013. 

 

Abstracts: 

A stepwise scientific paradigm for designing future Suspension Concentrate formulations for emerging UAV, VLV and precision crop protection application technologies
Malcolm A. Faers
Bayer AG, Monheim, Germany.
Agriculture is undergoing rapid developments with the introduction of UAV, VLV and precision application technologies which bring new requirements concerning the performance of crop protection products. It is therefore important to ensure that future crop protection formulations are designed to perform reliably and efficiently with these fast-evolving technologies.
Crop protection formulations are some of the most complex formulations to design. There are various design methodologies available including adaption of existing formulations, the shelf-gallop,1 experimental design, HTFS, AI/ML, blue-sky and science-based design. However, adaption of existing formulations offers limited opportunity for innovation, experimental design has a too large variable space with these formulations to be realisable, HTFS equally has a large experimental space to investigate, AI/ML normally requires large data sets in the target recipe space which are not generally available, while blue-sky is highly dependent on chance. This leaves science as an available methodology and is the subject of this work.
The spray application, deposition and biodelivery of crop protection formulations can be broken down into a series of general steps, which importantly can be understood scientifically and experimentally measured. If this process is followed for a Suspension Concentrate (SC) formulation as an example, the following seven important steps can be identified:
1. Atomisation.
2. Spray retention.
3. Wetting and spreading.
4. Spray deposit dry-down.
5. Uptake and biodelivery.
6. Wash-off (rain).
7. Biological performance.
Importantly, these steps are chosen specifically to represent the universal key steps involved in optimising the delivery of the active ingredient to the target, minimising off-target losses, and covering steps that can be influenced by the formulation recipe. The presentation will cover experimental examples of these steps. Following this stepwise scientific methodology can result in novel recipes that cannot readily be achieved by other methodologies, and that can offer improved performance and improved biodelivery of the active ingredient, reduced environmental impact and improved sustainability.
1. Garrett, P., Tiddy, G. and Treiner, C., 2006. Papers from Formula IV: Frontiers in Formulation Science, an International conference organised by RSC, held in London, July 4-7th 2005. COLLOIDS AND SURFACES A-PHYSICOCHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING ASPECTS, 288(1-3), pp.1-2.

Abbreviations: UAV unmanned aerial vehicle, VLV very-low volume, HTFS high throughput formulation screening, AI artificial intelligence, ML machine learning.

Reflections on gyroids, mesopores and curvature
Michael W Anderson
The University of Manchester
About 35 years ago scientists at Waseda University(1), Japan and Mobil Oil Corporation(2) in the USA independently made the remarkable discovery that the liquid crystalline phases of surfactants could be petrified into permanent solid silicate architectures. Such structures, already well known in nature, could be readily synthesised in the laboratory and led to a whole new branch of mesoporous chemistry. In the early days the structures and mechanisms of formation of these materials was poorly understood as the solid-state chemists, such as me, who were synthesising these new materials knew little of the world of surfactant chemistry. It was at this time that I was introduced to Gordon Tiddy who open my eyes to the structure and chemistry of liquid crystals and we formed a collaboration to learn more about both the mesoprous structures and also the surfactants themselves.
1) T. Yanagisawa, T. Shimizu, K. Kuroda and C. Kato, In 56th National Meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan, Tokyo; Chemical Society of Japan: Tokyo, 1988; pp Abstr., I, 761, No. IXIID42
2) C.T. Kresge, M.E. Leonowicz, W.J. Roth, J.C. Vartuli and J.S. Beck, Nature, 359 (1992) 710
 
Our scientific journey in the UK and Gordon's role
Tapas Sen and Yogita Sen
The soft matter chemistry involving surfactants and lipid molecules has shaped the careers of Drs Tapas and Yogita Sen. Tapas currently works as a Reader in Nanomaterials Chemistry at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK and Yogita works as a Scientist at the Combination Products and Devices of Teva Pharaceuticals Ltd, UK.
Drs Sens will discuss their work in the field of nanoscience of surfactants and lipid molecules and their various applications in healthcare and the environment. Moreover, they will share more personal experiences of working with Gordon.