PhD Studentship in Chemical Engineering

Campus: South Kensington, London

The Molecular Systems Engineering group (MSE) in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company, has a fully-funded PhD studentship available for an October 2025 start. The PhD project will be focused on the study of the phase equilibria of active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients used in an important class of medicine formulations, namely amorphous solid dispersions.

Pharmaceutical drugs with low solubility are often formulated via amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs) to improve their efficacy and in vivo performance. ASDs consist of an active pharmaceutical ingredient dispersed in a polymer which stabilizes the amorphous form of the drug. Despite advances in drug product development, current workflows still rely on extensive experimental investigations and empirical methods, which lead to high material consumption, extended development times, and are not transferable to new molecules. This project will focus on the development of advanced computational tools to evaluate thermodynamic and kinetic stability of complex ASDs, which would bring significant benefits to drug formulation development, facilitate decision making, and accelerate development timelines from drug discovery to commercial manufacturing.

Specifically, the PhD candidate will work on the development of new molecular thermodynamic methods to predict the solubility and phase separation of ionized active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients, and to determine the adsorption and desorption behaviour of active ingredients. The project will be conducted as part of a collaboration with a team at Eli Lilly and Company, and the PhD candidate will have the opportunity to carry out a placement with the industrial partner.

The Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London is one of the world's leading research schools in chemical engineering and offers many exciting opportunities for science and engineering graduates to advance their skills. Within the Department, the MSE group has been developing state-of-the-art approaches to design molecules and processes to address pharmaceutical challenges. The successful candidate will join a multi-disciplinary team of researchers at all levels and will work closely with Professors Amparo Galindo, Claire Adjiman, and George Jackson. The MSE group and Department offer a supportive environment with opportunities for professional development including courses, participation in international conferences and interactions with industry partners, especially via the Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering.

Applicants are expected to have obtained (or be heading for) a high 2:1 or First Class Honours degree at Master’s level in chemical engineering, another branch of engineering or a related science.

Informal enquiries about the post can be made to Prof Amparo Galindo:

a.galindo@imperial.ac.uk

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