Formulation Science & Technology Group

Chair: Helen Ryder. Projects and grants manager for multidiciplinary characterisation facilty, Henry Royce Institute. Helen joined the School of Materials, University of Manchester in January 2016 as Project Manager for the Multidisciplinary Characterisation Facility (MCF). Helen has a Masters in Chemical Engineering (UMIST) and her PhD was on the imaging and characterisation of colloidal systems (The University of Manchester). Helen is the Chair for the Formulation Science and Technology Group, an interest group of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) (2011-present), and a member of the RSC’s Member Network Committee (2017-present).
Secretary: Philip Gill. Principal Propellant Chemist – Roxel UK. Phil is an R&D scientist with 20+ years’ experience in the life assessment and formulation of propellants and explosives. Research focus is on: (i) life assessment of propellants; (ii) understanding the mechanistic relationships of raw ingredient specification and formulation processes; and (iii) development and validation of materials and physical/chemical processing and ageing models. Phil joined Roxel UK in 2021, having previously worked in academia.
Treasurer: Vivian Christogianni. R&D Manager - Arda Biomaterials Ltd. Chartered chemist and post-graduate chemical engineer with a PhD in polymers and materials science. Expertise in biomaterials, silicones, adhesives and sustainable formulation + process development. Committed to creating eco-friendly solutions benefiting people and the environment. 10+ years of experience in unlocking polymer, composite, and textile potentials in London-based start-ups. Currently leading sustainable biomaterial formulation development, transforming brewery waste into cruelty- and plastic-free leather.
Emanuel Ajayi. Spirit Energy
Nikolaos Daskalakis
Sam Peel, IFF
Bernadeta Pochopien, BP
Shashi Ravi Suman Rudrangi, works as a Senior Manager of Drug Product Development and Commercialisation (Technical Head) at Kent-Athlone Pharma Group, United Kingdom and Ireland. He is diversified with over 13 years of experience in formulation research and development, project management and oversight ranging from project inception to final deliverable. He has an extensive experience and an excellent understanding of oral solid dose pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, equipment, processes, and cGMP.
Dr Rudrangi pursued his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Kakatiya University, Warangal, India in 2008; his master’s and doctoral studies in Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom in 2010 and 2015, respectively. He was recently admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in January 2024 and was awarded the ‘Chartered Scientist (CSci)’ status by the Science Council and Royal Society of Chemistry in June 2018. Dr Rudrangi has been serving on the committee of the Formulation Science and Technology interest group since 2019. His research work has been recognised by awards in the United States of America, Germany, Turkey, and the Netherlands and he has chaired many national and international pharmaceutical conferences.
Denise Li. Dr Denise Li is an Impact Acceleration Associate at the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership (ECFP). She completed her PhD under the Soft Matter and Functional Interfaces Centre for Doctoral Training (SOFI CDT) in 2018, studying the Structure and Stability of Phospholipids in Dermatological Formulations. Denise then went on to join the Physical Sciences team at Mondelēz International. Her role involved utilising and maximising the capabilities of the analytical facilities to support product development and problem solve manufacturing issues.
She has experience working on various collaborative projects between academia and industry; sectors including chemical, food and personal care. Her research interest focusses on understanding the structure and phase behaviour of soft matter materials. This information enables us to determine the product’s functionality, stability and shelf life, for instance.
Bin Yang. A PhD in Physical Chemistry and Charted Chemist of UK Royal Society of Chemistry, currently Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca. She has more than 15 years of research experience at academic institutes and industrial environment on the topics of pharmaceutical science, colloidal and interfacial science, drug delivery, biophysical characterisation. The current research area focus on the formulations/drug delivery system development for a range of drug modalities, including small molecules, peptides biologics and nucleotide-based therapeutics, understand how the formulation impacts on the biology, pharmacokinetics and in vivo drug performance. She also greatly contributing to the formulation strategy and platform capability, CMC attributes for projects.
Maria Inam
Bindhu Gururajan. Bindhu Gururajan work as Formulation Project Leader in Novartis Pharma, Basel, Switzerland. He has done his Master’s in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and PhD in Formulation Engineering from The University of Birmingham, U.K. Later did his Post-Doctoral research in Pharmaceutical Sciences with University of Greenwich, U.K. based in Pfizer Research Center, Sandwich site on granulation process scale up and modelling. He has two decades of hands on practical experience in drug development and delivery by working for four major pharmaceutical company namely Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novartis. In 2020, he was appointed as Honorary Visiting Professor at School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh (https://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/about/people/prof-bindhumadhavan-gururajan) . He is certified as Chartered Engineer and Chartered Scientist and also got elected as Fellow in prestigious institutions namely Royal Society of Chemistry, Institute of Chemical Engineers, Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals and Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 2020 he got his Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma from Benchmark six sigma organization.
He is currently work on late phase drug product development project in particular formulation and process development by applying Chemical Engineering first principles approach.