ceb focus 6, may 2012

In this issueMessage from HoD 2

Editorial 2

Front Cover Article 3

Undergraduate Focus 5

Graduate Hub 6

Teaching Matters 7

Research Highlights 8

Research Feature 10

Industry Business 13

Department Events 16

Achievements 17

Alumni Corner 18

Staff Room 20

Arrivals and Departures 21

Dear Dr Sarah 22

Tea-Time Teaser 23

CEBFocusDepartment of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology

First CEB Industry Engagement Forum p.3

Downstream Processing of p.8Biopharmaceuticals

CUCES Annual Dinner p.5 Tom James’ Organic Drive p.15

Easter 2012Issue 6

www.ceb.cam.ac.uk

CEB Focus 6 Easter:_Layout 1 8/5/12 17:11

Welcome

is quarter has seen theculmination of intense effortsto expand and strengthenCEB’s internationalcollaborations in its strategicresearch fields ofSustainability and Healthcare.Most prominently, theUniversity of Cambridge andthe National ResearchFoundation, Singapore, have

announced plans for a collaborative research centre,specialising in energy efficient, low-carbon chemicalprocess technology, to be called the Centre for CarbonReduction in Chemical Technology in Singapore. isis a substantial initiative that has been headed by

Professor Lynn Gladden together with Professor MarkusKraft and Drs John Dennis and Adrian Fisher. Furtherinformation is available atwww.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-announces-centre-for-carbon-reduction-in-chemical-technology-in-singapore/. Simultaneously, the Department isadvertising a new Professorship in Sustainable ReactionEngineering which has been made possible by the kindand generous support of Johnson Matthey plc.Together, these developments will place CEB firmly atthe centre of international research in carbon reductionand sustainablity. A strategically valuable cross-University initiative has also begun with the KingAbdullah City of Science and Technology (KACST) ofSaudi Arabia. As part of this initiative CEB willdevelop a novel but generic cryopreservation technologyfor the banking of human cells, an absolute prerequisitefor their use as clinical products.

2 | www.ceb.cam.ac.uk

Notes from the Editorial TeamCEB Focus Editorial Team is led by Elena Gonzalez, PAto HoD, assisted by fellow editors Nick Ramskill,Marijke Fagan and Jawad Rehman. We would like tothank Alastair Clarke, who has recently left the team,for his invaluable contribution to previous issues anddevelopment of the newsletter. We are always keen towelcome new faces to our team, so please send an emailto [email protected] if you are interested injoining us.

is issue’s Cover Article focuses on the exciting plansfor new building in West Cambridge which haverecently been given the green light, very muchfacilitated by the help of corporate members likeJohnson Matthey. Research Highlights features work byAlister Inglesby and Dr Graziella El Khoury while theResearch Feature presents ground-breaking research inthe field of fouling the process industries by EdwardIshiyama. Also worth noting is the Alumni Cornerwhere alumnus John Potter gives his insights into eValue of a Chemical Engineer’s Education. Finally, tryyour hand at our new Teatime Teaser departmentcrossword!

CEB Focus would like to thank Vanessa Blake forregularly providing photos and department members,

alumni and corporate partners for article contributions.Please keep sending them to [email protected] receive a regular e-copy of CEB Focus subscribe bysending a message to [email protected] ‘Subscribe’ as the subject of the message.

CEB Focus returns in October with a Michaelmas 2012issue to welcome the new academic year 2012-13! eEditorial Team wishes you a wonderful summer!

Editorial Team: From left to right Marijke Fagan, Elena Gonzalez andAlastair Clarke; back row: Nick Ramskill and Jawad Rehman

Message fromHoD Professor Nigel Slater


Front Cover Article

Over a period of five terms, commercial companies willbe invited to join CEB post-doc researchers and PhDstudents for a one-day session to explore how to alignresearcher interests with real commercial problems. eIndustry Engagement Forum is to encourage earlycareer researchers to think more broadly about potentialsocietal and economic benefits arising from theirresearch interests and to understand how they mayincrease collaborations with industry. is Forum is awonderful, forward-looking initiative organized byCambridge Enterprise and funded by the UK’sEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EPSRC). “rough programmes like this, Cambridgeresearchers are able to gain insight into current researchtopics of interest to MedImmune and other partnercompanies,” said Dr Amanda Wooding of CambridgeEnterprise. “By all accounts, the first CEB session wentextremely well, and we hope this programme canbecome an important resource, for both our academicand industrial partners.”

CEB academics, early-career researchers andMedimmune industrialists got together with an aim to:• Encourage early career researchers to understand how

they may increase collaborations with industry• For industry to gain access to research expertise in

CEB• Expose staff to current research topics of interest to

Medimmune• Identify areas of common interest that can lead to

research collaborations, studentships or secondments

e first University of Cambridge Industry EngagementForum took place on 14 March 2012. Over 25 post-doc researchers, PhD students and academic staff fromCEB joined 11 scientists from MedImmune’sBiopharmaceutical Development Cambridge team.

Prof Nigel Slater, HoD, who took part in the activities,thanked all those who attended for their outstandingcontribution at the Industrial Forum and added, “I amsure that our MedImmune colleagues were mightilyimpressed; they certainly enjoyed themselves and I amconfident that we have provided a solid basis uponwhich a meaningful research collaboration can be built.But as important is the impression of us that they leftwith, and they can have had no doubt whatsoever thatCambridge can offer immensely professional researcherswith vision and motivation - just what they need tobuild their business.”

e aim was to brainstorm some of the key challengesfacing the development of future biopharmaceuticaldrugs. During the session, participants discussedspecific technical issues around biopharmaceuticalmanufacturing and how CEB’s expertise could beutilized to provide solutions to these commercialchallenges.

Dr Paul Varley (Vice President, BiopharmaceuticalDevelopment, MedImmune) said, “My team and I weredelighted to be the first participants in this new

www.ceb.cam.ac.uk | 3

First CEB Industry Engagement ForumA Bridge from Academia to Commercial Success

Victor Dillard, MBE student, presenting his ideas.

PhD students Christian Guyader and Matthew Townsend withDr Graham Christie at the Hauser Forum.


Front Cover Article


Industry Engagement Forum. It was a highlystimulating and energising meeting. e agenda, whichwe helped develop with CEB, involved brainstormingsome of the key questions that challenge us in thecommercialisation of new biological drugs, such as cost,reproducibility and administration route. It is also greatto be working with such a leading group as the CEB onour door step here in Cambridge.”

MedImmune scientists then worked in individual teamswith the CEB researchers to look at ways that academicresearch could help address these questions and developnew approaches and solutions. Each team thenpresented back its ideas and thinking to the Forum.

Dr Marcel Kuiper, a MedImmune Senior Scientist, whotook a leading role in organizing MedImmune’sinvolvement in the Industry Engagement Forum,added, “is has been a great opportunity forMedImmune to forge strong on-going links with one ofthe world’s leading research organizations, and creategreater understanding between industry and academia.In particular, we noted how the different mix of peoplecreated a real ‘buzz’ and enthusiasm throughout ourdiscussions and team-working.”

e level of debate and the flow and quality of ideasproduced was quite impressive allowing CEB staff andresearchers to appreciate the industry drivers forinnovation, and the commercial challenges they face indoing so.

PhD student, Ipshita Mandal, who took part in theForum said, “It was a brilliant initiative and the first ofits kind that I have experienced. Not only does it raisethe Department’s profile to corporate collaborators, butit also is an opportunity for researchers to learn fromindustry experts on cutting edge manufacturing andR&D being conducted in the company. Anopportunity to be creative with brainstorming researchideas for innovation and collaboration, an opportunityto develop networks for future career interests, and inmy opinion most importantly an opportunity to learnhow to plan long term research collaborations betweenindustry-academia.”

e team led by CEB academics Dr Axel Zeitler and DrGraham Christie, and including a group of PhDstudents alongside Medimmune industrialist ShahidUddin won the Best Project Competition with ‘stressbuster antibody’. MedImmune being the first companyto get involved in this initiative has already recognisedhe benefits and potential of this collaboration. CEBnow hopes other corporate partners will follow suit andteam up with them for future.

The Best Project Competition winning team from left to right,Muhammad Safwan Akram, Dr Axel Zeitler, Krishnaa Mahbubani,Dr Graham Christie, Murtada Alsaif, MedImmune's Paul Varley andShahid Uddin with Prof Nigel Slater.

From left to right: Prof Nigel Slater and Richard Hunter from MedImmunewith Dr Ken Seamon, MBE lecturer.


Undergraduate Focus


CUCES Annual Dinner 2012Akshay Deshmukh, CUCES President 2011-12

On the evening of the 2nd March, students, staff,alumni and friends of the department came together toenjoy the 2012 CUCES Annual Dinner at the DoubleTree Hilton hotel. e evening began with a sparklingwine reception and moved onto the Granta Suite of thehotel for a three course dinner and plenty of wine.During the dinner, guests were treated to amathematically involved speech from the current Headof Department, Professor Nigel Slater and subsequentlywith a DJ taking forward the entertainment baton lateinto the night. Students, staff and guests then advancedupon several of Cambridge’s most reputable nightlifeestablishments, enjoying the evening well into the earlyhours.

Following in a tradition older than the currentcommittee, the Annual Dinner proved to be a greatsuccess. e CUCES committee would like to thank allof the attendees for brightening the evening with theirinner radiance. We are indeed fortunate to serve suchan enthusiastic and sociable undergraduate body. Aspecial mention must go to Dr Kam Yunus for onceagain dancing until 3am and Dr James McGregor forhis fine blade, and then bandage, display.

e CUCES committee would like to take thisopportunity to thank the Department, Professor NigelSlater and Dr Bart Hallmark in particular, for arrangingthe sponsorship of the dinner after the late withdrawalof a sponsor.

Note fromOutgoing CUCES PresidentAkshay Deshmukh, CUCES President 2011-12

e raison d’être of CUCES, and indeed the CUCEScommittee, is to facilitate the interaction betweenstudents and a range of chemical engineering relatedindustries, in addition to providing and maintaining theinclusive social atmosphere which distinguishes ourdepartment. As a committee it has been a pleasure toserve these purposes and our fellow students throughoutthe Department.

Last year I was fortunate to inherit the CUCESpresidency from a CUCES committee which had comein the top five student committees across the country inthe National Placement & Internship Awards 2011. Iwould like to think that as a committee we havemaintained these standards in the face of a new range ofchallenges and opportunities. I would first and foremostlike to thank my committee, Marina (secretary),Laurence (treasurer), James (careers rep), Erica (eventscoordinator), Ben (social sec), Zsigi (IT & publicity)and Lauren (part 1 rep) for their hard work andcommitment throughout the year. I would also like tothank the department, in particular Dr Bart Hallmark,for helping us organise the vast range of careers eventsin Michaelmas term.

Going forward CUCES will face a changing set ofchallenges as well as a wave of new openings andprospects and I wish Lauren Atherton, the incomingCUCES president, and her committee the best of luckin the coming year. I am indeed privileged to have hadthe opportunity to serve on two CUCES committeesand I would like to thank Constantinos’ and mycommittees for making my time in the chemicalengineering department so enjoyable – I will indeedmiss being part of the CUCES committee!

CUCES Annual Dinner at Doubletree Hilton

Akshay (far right) with CUCES Committee


Graduate Hub


Psynova at SchizDX SymposiumDr Paul Guest (CEB post-doctoral Researcher )and Dr Paul Rodger (Psynova Neurotech Ltd. Director)

On March 22nd 2012, members of the SchizDXconsortium held a public symposium at the PittBuilding to mark the end of a successful collaborativeresearch project, which was funded by the EC throughits FP7 Framework. e aim was to identify molecularbiomarkers for use as a blood test to aid early diagnosisof schizophrenia. e consortium was comprised ofscientists and clinicians from Germany, the USA,Estonia and Ireland, alongside the Bahn Lab at theDepartment of Chemical Engineering andBiotechnology, and Psynova Neurotech, a spinoutcompany from the Bahn Lab.

e current diagnosis of schizophrenia is subjectiveand takes six months to three years for confirmation.is can result in years of untreated psychosis duringwhich disease severity can increase, leading to a worseoutcome. e use of a blood test would revolutionisethe clinical management of affected individuals sinceearlier treatment is associated with improved outcome.

e project successfully met the challenging objectivesby discovery of a validated biomarker panel forschizophrenia. is, in turn, has resulted in the launchof the first blood test for diagnosis of schizophrenia(VeriPsychTM) by Psynova and Myriad-RBM in theUSA. e test is expected to result in a quicker andmore cost effective diagnosis for some patients. Moredetails of the project on www.schizdx.eu

Salone Satellite ShowcaseCEB’s Electrochemistry Research group led by DrAdrian Fisher, showcased their BPV (Bio-Photo-Voltaic) Moss-Table Project at the recent Salon SatelliteExhibition in Milan (Italy). is project is a jointcollaboration between CEB and the Departments ofBiochemistry, Plant Sciences and IfM.

e SaloneSatellite was created in 1998 to bringtogether the most promising young designers from allover the world with the most important business peopleand talent scouts gathered in Milan to visit or exhibit atthe Saloni. Each year 700 young designers and studentsof the most prestigious design schools and universitiesexhibit and exchange ideas at this unique showcase. eproposals are evaluated by international professionalsfrom the world of design, architecture and media.CEB Electrochemistry researcher Paolo Bombelli whopresented the Moss-Table commented, “e event wasvery successful and exceeded our expectations. Ourproject perfectly fitted the Salone Satellite theme of‘Design and Technology’. Out of 10,600 people whoengaged with our stand during the six day event, 820expressed an interest in making contact after the show”.It has also been exhibited at the London DesignFestival, Cambridge Design Icons and EverythingForever Now.

More info on this event can be found onwww.cosmit.it/it/milano/i_saloni/salonesatellite

Scientific publications based on the BPV core technologyP. Bombelli, R. Bradley, A. Scott, A. J. Philips, A.J. McCormick,X. Anderson, K. Yunus, D. S. Bendall, P. Cameron, A. G. Smith,C. J. Howe, A. C. Fisher, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 4690-4698.

A. J. McCormick, P. Bombelli, A. Scott, A.C. Fisher, C.J. Howe,Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, 4, 4699-4709.

R. J. orne, H. Hu, K. Schneider, P. Bombelli, A. Fisher, L. M. Peter,A. Dent, P. J. Cameron, J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 18055-18060.


Teaching Matters


Sustainability MattersDr JamesMcGregorDepartment Lecturer

e term sustainability is increasingly used by themedia, scientists, environmental organisations,politicians and others; tens of thousands of newsarticles including this phrase are indexed on Googleeach day. In many of these cases however, sustainabilityis used as a qualitative, catch-all term describingvarious facets of environmental, economic and societalpolicy. Chemical engineering is by its nature anumerate, quantitative discipline. Chemical engineersare therefore well placed to provide a rigorousassessment of whether a product, process or service isindeed sustainable. In this context sustainabilitynecessitates reducing energy demand and the emissionof carbon dioxide, without harming the environment.At its core is the concept of resource minimisation. isextends not simply to conventional process engineeringand large scale chemical plants, but to a considerationof e.g. solar energy, biofuels and water availability. elatter plays a key role in agricultural development whichin turn may have a significant societal impact. Forinstance, water shortages leading to increased foodprices were directly implicated in the unrest in NorthAfrica and the Arabian Peninsula last year, while closerto home water shortages have led to Cambridgeshirerecently being declared a drought zone.

e Part IIB lecture course Sustainability in ChemicalEngineering aims to provide students with the means toquantify the concepts described above throughintroducing two key tools: Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)and exergy analysis. LCA is an approach to assessing thecomplete environmental impact of a product or serviceand is often described as a cradle-to-grave assessmentincluding, as it does, resource utilisation duringmanufacture, use and disposal. Exergy is athermodynamic quantity that encapsulates both theenergy and the entropy flow through a system.Reducing exergy consumption is tantamount toreducing resource consumption. For both LCA andexergy analysis the course presents a number of casestudies. When applied to chemical processes suchanalyses allow, for example, the least efficient (orsustainable) steps to be identified. ey thereforeprovide a direct indication of where changes should be

made in order to make these processes more sustainable.Examples discussed range from desalination plants tohome-baked bread. Recent student comments uponcompletion of the course have included, “I think it'sreally important that all graduating chemical engineershave some concept of how important these issues areand how much they are linked with the chemicalengineering industry. It was very interesting to learnabout so many different issues in an academic way”; andalso, “We constantly hear the word sustainability butdidn't really understand the true meaning until now. Ithink we're now far more equipped to go out into theworld and speak about or analyse different processesintelligently.” Hopefully these are sentiments shared byall of those in the class.

Of course, sustainability is also an important researcharea within CEB and the undergraduate course is areflection of this focus. CO2 capture and subsequentconversion and the development of more selectivecatalytic processes are just two examples ofdepartmental research in this area. At the other end ofthe spectrum, research is also on-going to understandthe technology behind proposed geoengineeringsolutions to offset the effects of climate change shouldcurrent efforts to reduce carbon emissions beinsufficient. Such studies are a reflection of the urgentchallenges that are presented by society, and theposition of chemical engineers to address thesechallenges. It is in this context that the course aims toequip students with the necessary tools in order todevelop a quantitative understanding of such issues andthe skills to tackle these and other problems in thefuture.


Research Highlights


Our group is involved in the development of a varietyof novel affinity ligands for the purification of highvalue recombinant therapeutic proteins.

e global market for biopharmaceuticals is projectedto reach US$182.5 billion by 2015. ese productscomprise monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), vaccines,erythropoietin, insulin, cytokines, hormones and otherbiomolecules. For example, mAbs constitute one of themost rapidly growing categories of biopharmaceutical,with more than 25 antibodies approved by the FDAand 240 currently in clinical trials. However, issues,such as healthcare reform and the increased demandsupon healthcare budgets are forcing the pharmaceuticalindustries to reduce the manufacturing costs. Moreover,due to the development of new approaches for theupstream processing and the increase in proteinproduction yields from mammalian cells (5g/L), theproduction bottleneck for some high volume productsis shifting towards the downstream processing, whichmay constitute up to 80% of total manufacturing costs.

e concept of the “well-characterised biologic”requires that the biological molecule has to becharacterised for its identity, purity, impurity profileand potency. Regulatory reform is likely to stimulatethe development of new high-resolution separationprocesses. Of particular concern is the resolution andpurification of variants of the target itself, resultingfrom differences in glycosylation, folding, sequence,oxidation and a multitude of other post-translationalmodifications. e ability to resolve multipleglycoforms of therapeutic proteins, for example, iscrucial since the product registration is based on aparticular isoform composition.

Among the different classes of biopharmaceuticals, ourresearch is focused on the development of syntheticaffinity ligands for immunoglobulins (IgG and itsfragments) and other glycoproteins, (erythropoietin).

e aim is to implement cost-effective and highlyefficient purification protocols, in order to reduce thepurification and polishing steps during the downstreamprocessing, and replace the biomolecules currently usedin affinity chromatography. Biological affinity ligands,

such as IgG-binding proteins (Proteins A, G and L) andsugar-binding proteins (lectins), suffer from a widerange of limitations: ey are expensive to produce andpurify, may be contaminated with host DNA andviruses, show lot-to-lot variation, and low scale-uppotential, and they may be degraded duringconventional sterilization-in-place (SIP) and cleaning-in-place (CIP) procedures and lead to ligand leachingand subsequent contamination of the end product withpotential toxins.

e synthetic affinity adsorbents are based on“biomimetic” ligands and the notion of de novo liganddesign and intelligent combinatorial libraries. eligand synthesis follows a defined five-part strategywhich comprises: (i) Identification of a target site anddesign of a complementary ligand based on X-raycrystallographic studies of complexes between thenatural target protein and the biological ligand; (ii)solid-phase synthesis and evaluation of an intentionallybiased combinatorial library of related ligands; (iii)screening of the ligand library for binding the targetprotein by affinity chromatography; (iv) selection andcharacterisation of the lead ligand,

supported by in silico molecular modelling and dockingof the ligand into the target protein, and (v)optimisation of the adsorbent and chromatographicparameters for the purification of the target protein.We are currently applying a new approach for the solid-phase synthesis of the ligands. It is based on the

Downstream Processing of BiopharmaceuticalsDr Graziella El Khoury, Healthcare Biotechnology

Figure 1. IgG molecule binding to an Ugi ligand immobilized onSepharose beads (blue sphere)


Research Highlights


multicomponent Ugi reaction, which is a four-component reaction in which an oxo-component(aldehyde-activated agarose beads), a primary orsecondary amine, a carboxylic acid and an isonitrilegroup are condensed, in a one-pot reaction conductedat a constant temperature (50°C), to yield a di-amidescaffold product. e Ugi components can be varied tomimic key amino-acid residues of the biological ligandwhich are involved in its interaction with the targetmolecule. is approach also introduces the possibilityof developing branched, cyclised and 3D affinityligands.

We have developed various Ugi ligands mimickingdifferent IgG-binding proteins, namely, protein L andprotein G. e protein L mimic was developed for theisolation of IgG from crude extracts, and morespecifically for its ability to bind IgG-Fab fragment.

Moreover, we have recently synthesised andcharacterised a protein G mimic for the purification ofmammalian immunoglobulins derived from differentspecies and particularly the non-conventional camelidIgGs.

Camelid IgGs, present in the serum and milk ofCamelus dromedaries, contain Ig subclasses thatnaturally lack light chains; they are termed “heavy-chain” antibodies or HCAb and display a molecularweight of ~95kDa instead of 160kDa for conventionalmammalian antibodies. eir heavy chain also lacks theCH1 domain and the heavy chain only variable domain(VHH) is connected directly to the constant domain(CH2 and CH3) via the hinge region. e small size ofthese VHH domains (~15kDa) allow greater access toburied epitopes and recognition of antigenic sites inclefts that generally could not be reached by largerconventional antibodies and hence they are effectiveenzyme inhibitors.

Furthermore, we are currently focusing on thedevelopment of a variety of branched and complex Ugiligands for different immunotherapeutic proteins andglycoproteins of interest. e relative ease of conductingthe Ugi reaction suggests that this work may becomethe gold standard procedure in use worldwide forselective processing of high value biopharmaceuticals.

Microbial fuel cell research in CRESTAlister Inglesby PhD Student, CRESTMicrobial fuel cells (MFCs) are bioelectrochemicalsystems (BES) that use bacteria and their associated bio-catalytic reactions for electric power generation. MFCtechnology has received much attention within thebioenergy field due to its potential for powering diversetechnologies from wastewater treatment to autonomoussensors for long-term operations in low accessibilityregions.

Work conducted on MFC technology by the Center ofResearch in Electrochemical Science and Technology(CREST) under the guidance of Dr Adrian Fisher hasfocused on the development of micro scale MFCdevices, which support parallel, low cost andreproducible systems for high-throughput screening andsensitivity analyses of biological and electrochemicalperformance parameters respectively. Furtherapplication of MFCs as secondary modules in anaerobicdigestion (AD) systems has been investigated. MFCsoffer a number of complementary properties to ADsystems such as toxic ion mitigation, pH buffering andimproved bacterial retention.

International collaborations have developed from thisproject with the work recently being presented inailand and Singapore at the UK-Southeast AsiaPartners in Science on New Approaches to EmergingEnergy Systems workshop. e seminar was co-organised by Electrochemical Materials and SystemLaboratory, National Metal and Materials TechnologyCenter (MTEC), Royal Society of Chemistry, UK, andBritish High Commission in Singapore. e primaryobjective of the seminar was to provide an opportunityfor ai and Singaporean researchers to meet leadingUK researchers in the area of fuel cells (includingmicrobial fuel cells) from academia.

CREST have recently had the following journal articlesaccepted with the former being recommended as anRSC ‘Hot Article’.

ReferencesInglesby, A. E., Beatty, D. A., Fisher, A. C., 2012, Rhodopseudomonas palustrispurple bacteria fed Arthrospira maxima cyanobacteria: demonstration ofapplication in microbial fuel cells. R.S.C. Advances, DOI: 10.10.1039/C2RA20264F, Accepted ManuscriptInglesby, A. E., Beatty, D. A., Fisher, A. C., 2012, Enhanced methane yieldsfrom anaerobic digestion of Arthrospira maxima biomass in an advanced flow-through digester with an integrated recirculation loop microbial fuel cell,Submitted to Energy and Environmental Science


Research Feature


Process industries have lived with fouling ever since thebeginning. Fouling is the formation of unwanteddeposits on surfaces. Types and mechanisms of foulingare versatile; white scale formed in water kettles are afamiliar example. Fouling deposits have a relatively lowthermal conductivity hence their formation on heattransfer surfaces reduces their thermal efficiency. Whenfouling occurs in process flow streams there is atendency to cause hydraulic limitations; imagine theformation of cholesterol in our heart arteries. In thisarticle, three examples are illustrated to emphasise theimportance of coupling thermal and hydraulic effects infouling analysis, which would otherwise result in severetraps.

Trap during design – Use of fouling factorTake an example of a heat exchanger design exercise.One common approach to face fouling in heatexchangers is the use of ‘fouling factor’. Fouling factor

in design, results in overdesigned units and unitoverdesign is based on the analysis of heat exchangerperformance using effectiveness – NTU method; i.e. forbigger exchangers the drop in effectiveness due tofouling is less. is analysis masks the hydraulicperformance and it is important to bear in mind that

the use of ‘fouling factor’ results in more surface area forfouling and sometimes a lower flow velocity. In certainprocesses (such as crude oil refinery), the tendency offouling increases with lower flow velocity (i.e. lowersurface shear) and higher surface temperature. Hence inthe long run, the overdesigned unit could result inhigher fouling penalties than the original design(despite the increase in capital cost); thus trapping thedesigners with the misuse of fouling factors (Figure 1).

Trap during operation – ermo-hydraulicchannellingA hydraulic aspect related to flow resistance wasidentified by observation of the parallel hundred footdrains of the Cambridgeshire Fenlands. Consider astream which initially splits into equal flows Figure 2(i).Assume that there are few weeds growing on the streampath ‘b’ giving a higher flow resistance compared tostream path ‘a’. e flow split will spontaneously adjust

to take the path that has less flow resistance causingflow degeneracy, Figure 2(ii). Less flow in path ‘b’would mean a favourable environment for the weeds togrow, hence more weeds (i.e. more flow resistance). Ifthis continues, as in Figure 2(iii), path ‘b’ wouldcompletely disappear.

The Fouling Trap: Trap of our ownMakingDr Edward Ishiyama, Powder and Paste Processing Group

Figure 1. Use of fouling factor in heat exchanger design (Figure taken from Pugh et al., 2011)


Research Feature


Similar flow degeneracy could occur in certain heatexchanger arrangements. Consider a schematicrepresentation of a highly simplified installation of twoexchangers in parallel, with the exchangers beingnotionally identical (only A is slightly fouled than B,and B is completely clean), (Figure 3). C1, C2 representcold stream flows and H1 and H2 represent hot streamflows.Assume the case where the crude oil is heated through

these units and that the rate of fouling increases withreduced flow velocity and increased surfacetemperature. e crude stream split is not controlled, soflows C1 and C2 will differ, with C2 > C1 (as A has aslightly higher flow resistance than B due to the initialfouling): the hot streams H1 and H2 are assumed toremain equal. e imbalance will result in Aexperiencing a higher film temperature and lower wallshear stress, i.e. a higher fouling rate. e availablepressure drop, P1—P2, is common to both A and B andtherefore the cold steam flow in A will continue to

decrease. e net result is that fouling in A willreinforce the flow imbalance, increase fouling rates andgive rise to a greater disparity in behaviour. is positivefeedback phenomenon is termed ‘thermo-hydraulicchannelling (THC)’. THC phenomenon masks theactual extent of fouling and has a considerable adverseimpact on the overall network performance (Ishiyama etal., 2008).

Trap during monitoring exchanger performanceOne important aspect of fouling is that the thermo-physical properties of the foulant deposit could changewith time (e.g. when exposed to a heated surface for aprolonged period such as pizza source on the heatingtray; they would become much harder to clean). isphenomenon is known as deposit ageing. Ageing ofdeposits strongly effects how we interpret unitperformances. Usually heat exchanger performances aremonitored using fouling resistances. Fouling resistance,Rf, could be denoted by

Rf =

Here U and Ucl are the overall heat transfer coefficientat operating and clean states, respectively. Forsimplicity, assume that the relationship between foulingresistance and the deposit thickness, δ, could be givenby a thin-slab approximation,

δ = Rf λwhere λ is the deposit thermal conductivity.

Figure 2. Flow channelling in Cambridgeshire fenlands

Figure 3.Thermo-hydraulic channelling in heat exchangers arranged inparallel

1U

1Ucl



Research Feature

Consider a fouling resistance profile given in Figure4(a). e fouling resistance profile is usually obtainedthrough temperature and flow measurements. ehydraulic effect of fouling is masked in the absence ofpressure drop measurements as with ageing, the thermalconductivity of the material is no longer the value of anon-aged deposit, and interpretation of the extent offouling could be misleading as in the two extreme casesas shown in Figure 4(b) and 4(c). Figure 4(b) representsan example of the deposit thickness when all deposit isnon-aged and representing a thermal conductivity of0.1 W m-1 K-1. Figure 4(c) shows a case when alldeposits are fully aged with a thermal conductivity of2 W m-1 K-1. e message is to be aware of theimportance of considering deposit ageing inengineering applications, so that the thermalperformance could be correctly interpreted whendeducting hydraulic performance.

ConclusionsFouling plays a key role in interacting between thethermal and hydraulic performance of heat exchangers.ree fouling related issues were highlighted that couldtrap engineers during design, operation and monitoringof heat exchangers.

ReferencesIshiyama E.M., Paterson W.R. and Wilson D.I. (2008). ermo-hydraulicchannelling in parallel heat exchangers subject to fouling, Chemical EngineeringScience, 63(13), 3400-3410.

Pugh S.J., Ishiyama E.M, Polley G.T., Kennedy J., Viellet M., Paterson W.R.and Wilson D.I. (2011). Next generation software for management of cruderefinery preheat trains subject to fouling, Heat Transfer Society Forum,Westminster, London

Figure 4: Estimation of deposit thickness based on fouling resistance under different deposit thermal conductivities using ‘thin-slab’ approximation


Industry Business


OBR is a network of students, academics andprofessionals from science, business, law and otherfields connecting idea-holders across the UK and USwith one another and with industry resources. eiraim is to bring down barriers between people interestedin the life sciences industry in order to help move ideasforward.

is community transcends the online space and offersnumerous opportunities to collaborate and learnthrough our online publications, business developmentworkshops, industry immersion program and talks ataffiliated institutions from leaders from biotech,pharma, finance, law and entrepreneurship.

CEB Focus caught up with Lalarukh Haris, the OBRCambridge President and Director of Education &Development, at Addenbrookes Hospital where she isbased as a PhD Candidate in the Department ofMedicine.

How did OBR actually come about?My colleague, Dan Perez founded OBR in 2011. Hewas always interested in how science gets brought to thereal world, and was disappointed there wasn’t more of aconversation on campus between academics (thesepeople who think for a living), and professionals withthe commercial experience necessary to act on an idea.It seemed odd to him that after a company wouldspin-out, most of the conversation with other oncampus thinkers would end. So he started OBR firstlyas a way to “start a conversation”. After a brief summerpilot at Oxford attracted several hundred members, he

decided a similar vacuum and value proposition existedin Cambridge – and the team appreciated that onlygood could come from increased dialogue betweenOxford/Cambridge. at set us on an interesting modelof connecting various innovators from diverse campuses& disciplines not only with each other but withindustry resources.

How do you operate and how do you manage to puton such an impressive event programme?OBR is now spread out in 4 main chapters, each ofwhich has its own committee. ese committees arethen run by a main executive committee that has eightmembers. We also have a central Education andDevelopment Committee that decides on the themesand speakers of events for each term. OBR Cambridgeis operated by the hard work of sixteen individuals, eachof which has an assigned role. We have five team leadsat Cambridge which delegate and work on roles such asbusiness development and event management monthsbefore the event actually takes place.

What is your specific role within the ExecutiveCommittee?Within the Executive Committee, I am the Director ofEducation and Development as well as President forOBR Cambridge. It is my duty to present event themesand speakers to the committee as well as ensuring theOBR Cambridge chapter runs efficiently.

We are delighted to hear that our own Prof ChrisLowe is a member of your Scientific Advisory Board.How has his contribution helped the running ofOBR?Prof Chris Lowe has been a great advisor for OBRCambridge. He has been open to my suggestions andgiven me direction in steering the CambridgeCommittee. He has supported us throughout ourreload this year.

Where do the much-needed financial resources tooperate come from?Our financial resources are pooled from various sourcesof sponsorship and partnership. ese are companiesand organisations that believe in our aims and share the

Meet the Oxbridge Biotech Roundtable (OBR) Cambridge Chapter

OBR Cambridge from left to right Dan Perez, Lalarukh Haris and GabrielMecklenburg


Industry Business


same passion towards Biotechnology. Some of ourbiggest sponsors are: Stevenage Bioscience Catalyst,Venner Shipley, Oxford Biotherapeutics and ImperialInnovations.

What is OBR’s mission and the main objectivebehind your work?We are a group of students, academics and professionalswho believe in breaking down the barriers between thescientific and industrial community. We want to bridgethe gap between these two and foster a communicativeand novel platform that will move innovative ideasforward. I personally did my undergraduate degree inBiotechnology before I moved towards Medicine.However being in the medical sciences has made meaware of the disconnection between the world ofindustry and the discoveries in medicine. I believecommercialisation and connection of ideas is somethingthat needs to be highlighted in the UK, OBR is onesuch platform that allows this to happen througheducation, communication and consulting.

Could you tell us about the OBR network ofvolunteers helping you organise events?OBR Cambridge has partnered up with CambridgeUniversity Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC),Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) and JudgeBusiness School on many of our past events. We have agreat relationship with these organisations and amongstothers we help out by means of reciprocal volunteeringon the day of an event and advertising prior to ourevents. We aim to spread out our network throughCambridge Science Park and institutes such asBabraham, Sanger and European Institute ofBioinformatics (EBI). Our network involves a diverserange of professions from medics, scientists, engineersto business men, lawyers and computer scientists.

Amongst these professional we cater to an audience ofundergraduates, graduates, post docs, academics andindustrialists.

Our events this term are targeting two main themes:Management & Leadership and Mergers &Acquisitions. ese themes will be targeting asegmented sub-theme in each campus, keepingconsistent with the main theme in the next term.Incidentally, Prof Chris Lowe contributed a talk toManagement & Leadership back in April.

How could CEB help OBR achieve its goals?OBR is a greatly successful and young platform thatthat brings various disciplines together in passion ofmoving biotechnology forward. CEB is an existingdepartment that achieves and shares the same passion asus. By connecting these two at Cambridge we can helpeach other cultivate and promote this idea.

Finally, how could our students get involved andwhat is to be expected?We are fast moving organisation, which means we arealways coming up with new projects and new positionswithin our team. If you are passionate and driven andare looking for a platform to become an entrepreneur orconnect ideas with life sciences and the biotechindustry, please get in touch with us.

Our events are a great source of what we are, soattending our events and networking with ourprofessionals is something that offers great value toanyone interested in what we do.

For OBR Cambridge vacancies go towww.oxbridgebiotech.com or contact Lala [email protected]

At the launch of the OBR Cambridge chapter


Industry Business


Organic DriveTom James

From 2004 to 2008 I studied fora MEng in the ChemicalEngineering Department (as itwas then). I had the opportunityto undertake both research, suchas using superparamagneticnanoparticles to target tumourswith the CUBE team, anddesign: the brief to our year’s

design project was for a bio-butanol plant, which wouldturn out to be taste of my future choice of industry.

Towards the end of my time in Cambridge, like manyengineers, I started looking into the management andstrategic consulting industries. After graduation I spenttwo years working with an operations consultancyacross several industries: from BAE SubmarineSolutions on the Astute Class in Barrow-in-Furness,and the Vanguard Class refit in Devonport, tohealthcare in the NHS. e time I spent in consultancygave me exposure to various organisations, and gave mean understanding of how successful businesses work.

After a couple of years I became increasinglydisillusioned with my place working in the consultingindustry. I realised that, if I were not careful, I couldeasily fall into the trap that has befallen so many otheryoung individuals working in the sector, every yearbecoming more dissatisfied with what they were doing,yet increasingly less able to do anything about it due tothe inevitabilities of a mortgage, a family, and thebaggage that comes with a regular white collar career. Atthe end of 2010 I left consultancy with two colleagues,Duncan Morrison and Geoff Cunningham, to form thebiofuels company Organic Drive. By the summer of2011 Organic Drive had designed and commissionedits first plant.

Biodiesel marketAlthough there are several organisations in the UK whouse biodiesel in rich blends with mineral diesel as partof their Corporate Social Responsibility, most biodieselis blended up to a 7% limit by the fuel majors and soldat forecourts as EN 590 diesel. Biodiesel is also used by

green-conscious organisations as a drop-in replacementfor heating oil and in CHP.

Processe basic reaction at the heart of the biodieselproduction process is the transesterification oftriglycerides (vegetable oils and animal fats) with excessmethanol using acid or base catalyst to produce glyceroland the fuel, consisting of fatty acid methyl esters(FAME). At the end of the reaction the glycerol andFAME are separated. e FAME must then be cleanedbefore it can be sold, meeting the European StandardEN 14214.

A plant with capacity of 5,000 tonnes p.a. wouldnormally cost in the region of £5M. However, a budgetof less than £200k would require serious improvisationand innovation. My background in chemicalengineering would help the design and build of a novelplant within 6 months without any commissionedexpertise. CapEx and Opex were massively reduced,vitally important because the business was self-fundedby the three business partners.

Main reactorOil and methanol exist in two phases. High shear isneeded in order to mix the two phases and enable masstransfer for the reaction to take place. To avoid the costof a specifically commissioned reactor and high shearimpeller, an ex-fermentation vessel was adapted for thetask and fitted with a baffled recycle loop to provide thehigh shear necessary.

Crude biodiesel purificationOnce the excess methanol has been recovered from thecrude biodiesel the product must be purified to removeexcess catalyst, soap by-product, and trace glycerol,along with other contaminants. e traditional methodfor achieving this involves counter current waterwashing. is has several drawbacks: product is lost inthe waste water; the washed biodiesel must go throughfurther refining; the waste water can present anenvironmental hazard; water adds cost to the process.ese problems were avoided by using a novel two stageadsorption/ion exchange process:• Cellulosic stage – the biodiesel is passed through a

cellulosic adsorbent material made from waste



Industry Business

sawdust from saw mills. is material is free andproduces an excellent renewable solid fuel oncebreakthrough has occurred.

• Ion exchange/styrene-divinylbenzene copolymeradsorption stage – this step is adapted from a unitoperation traditionally used in pharmaceuticalpurification and has been studied in the labs ofCEB. e previous inexpensive cellulosicadsorption step means that the life of the ionexchange media is greatly prolonged.

Organic Drive is the first company in the world to beable to meet EN 14214 at a commercial scale withthis novel process, and in recognition of this inNovember of 2011 I was runner-up in the IChemE’sYoung Chemical Engineer of the Year Award.

Many of you reading this will be thinking about whatyour next steps will be in your career. You may bethinking about staying in academia, looking intobecoming a professional engineer, or exploring thepossibilities outside of chemical engineering, as Ioriginally did. What I would say to you now is thatthere are limitless opportunities out there, and theskills that one learns as a chemical engineer can giveyou a disproportionate advantage in areas that have amassive technical barrier to entry. Get out there andmake stuff.

Department Events

Alumni Speaker Series

ursday 24 May 2012, 4.00pmAlumna Dr Wendy Alderton (Director ofScience, Abcodia) will be giving the lastpresentation of this academic year. eSpeaker Series returns in October!

First Year Talks

Wednesday afternoons on 2, 9, 16, 23and 30 May 2012Talks by the first year PhD studentsintroducing their work to the departmentwill be held in LT1 at Pembroke Street. Teaand cakes will be served during each set oftalks and there will also be a drinksreception and prize giving at the end oftalks on the 30 May.

CEB Pub Nightsere are two Happy Hour and PubNights to look forward to this term. Comealong to the Tea Room for drinks andsnacks followed by the usual pub gathering(location TBC).

Friday 11 May 2012, 5.00pmHosted by the Bahn Group (FriederHaenisch and Andreas Albrecht led)

Friday 8 June 2012, 5.00pmOrganised by the Powder and PasteProcessing Group (Amanda Talhat led)

CUCES BBQSet to happen in June, hosted by the NewCUCES Committee.

Duncan Morrison and Tom James lining up pipework


Achievements


CEB NewDirector of TeachingDr Patrick Barrie hasbecome Deputy Head ofDepartment (Teaching),taking over from DrDavid Scott as Director ofTeaching.

Patrick obtained hisBachelors degree inNatural Sciences and wenton to obtain his PhD inPhysical Chemisty atCambridge in 1991. After

a spell as a research fellow at University CollegeLondon, he returned to Cambridge and is currently aSenior Lecturer in the Department. He is a Fellow ofEmmanuel College.

Patrick’s research interests are varied, but have usuallybeen related to the behaviour of molecules in poroussolids with applications in the field of applied catalysis.He is particularly interested in methods for obtainingphysically meaningful parameters from experimentaldata that can then be used for modelling processes.

Patrick has been involved in the administration ofundergraduate teaching for a number of years, dealingparticularly with admissions and quality assuranceissues. e high quality of his lecturing earned him aPilkington Award for Teaching back in 2008.

Patrick has already started planning the undergraduateteaching for the next academic year. His aim is toensure that we aspire to excellence in teaching as well asresearch.

Head of Department, Professor Nigel Slatercongratulated Patrick and thanked his predecessor:"Welcome to Patrick and very sincere thanks to Davidfor his immense contribution over many years and theacclaim that this has won the Department."

BRIC prizes awarded to ourBioScience researchersRecently the Bioprocess Research Industry Club(BRIC) and the British Biosciences Research Council(BBSRC), which invests in world-class bioscienceresearch and training on behalf of the UK public, held adissemination event in Leeds on 7 and 8 March. iswas a forum for bioprocess professionals to view anddiscuss academic research projects with a view toapplying these projects in industry. At this conferenceboth Dr Nicholas Darton and Dr Duncan Sharp fromthe CEB BioScience Engineering group led by ProfNigel Slater, HoD, won both conference prizes.

Dr Nicholas Darton won the prize for best presentationon his research into Fast ion-exchange separations in aDisposable Plastic Microcapillary Disc. In this researchmicrocapillary film was engineered for use in thebiopharmaceutical industry for the high speedseparation of monoclonal antibody therapeutics.During the course of this work the platform technologydeveloped was also applied to the synthesis of radio-therapeutics and in the capture of lentiviral vectors foruse in gene therapy.

Dr Duncan Sharp won the prize for best poster for hisposter entitled Amphipathic Polymer for Human cellpreservation. His research has focused on the use ofnovel cell membrane permeabilising polymers to delivernon-permeating cryo/lyoprotectants into human cells.Potentially this could lead to improved stem cellcryopreservation methods, reducing losses in both cellviability and functionality. In addition, this approachcould make the preservation of stem cells bylyophilisation a reality.

Dr Nicholas Darton and Dr Duncan Sharp with the winning poster


Alumni Corner


My first problem was to choose between studyingChemical Engineering and a career in the RAF. I joinedthe RAF for my National Service in May 1953.Meanwhile, my place to study for a degree atPeterhouse Cambridge was kept on hold for two years. Ipassed through full Pilot Training and this enabled meto join 504 County of Nottingham Squadron of theRoyal Auxiliary Air Force – the “weekend pilots”. Ibecame an active member of the squadron – mainlyduring my vacations. In 1957, my flying days came toan end as the R.Aux.A.F. ceased to fly and we weredisbanded. I had already decided to take the CambridgeUniversity 2-year Chemical Engineering course aftertwo years Natural Sciences.

In 1959, I joined the Research Department of ICI onTeesside in what became the Agricultural Division. SidAndrews, my manager, had decided that he neededChemical Engineers to learn to program the computerso that the Chemical Engineer had direct contact withthe computer rather than needing to pass requests,information and data through a programmer – a wisedecision at that stage in the development of computers.I worked on simulation of the Ammonia reactionprocess, Steam Reforming, Methanol and otherprocesses for about three years. ICI had developed alow-pressure catalyst for methanol and I was a co-patentee of a new design for the internals of the reactor.

My next role was in plant management of the SteamReforming Plant and the development of the Methanolplant. I was then promoted to Section Manager of theFertiliser Section in the Research Department -comprising about 30 staff.

It was a very lively period at Billingham and I had beenthere for over seven years when I was invited to visit thecontracting company, Humphreys and Glasgow, inLondon. My wife and I had several reasons for thinkingwe would like to move south and so I accepted anappointment as Business Development Manager atH&G in the middle of 1967. As well as BusinessDevelopment, I was responsible for the Laboratory anda small Patents Department. In addition, we carried out

studies and consulting work where projects had not yet“reached the drawing board”. At H and G, I spent aconsiderable time on travelling, attending meetings,consultancy work, papers etc.

One of the major projects I lead was a study forUNIDO of the potential in the then East and Westwings of Pakistan for developing fertiliser andpetrochemical projects. e work went in a number ofstages and lasted nearly a year. One aspect of the studywas to balance the developments sensibly between thetwo wings. About six months after the end of theproject, the two wings became Pakistan andBangladesh!

We also carried out a somewhat similar study inVenezuela, again including petrochemicals andfertilisers and taking into account raw materials in thecountry. On the day I was about to leave Caracas forhome, I received a phone call from the MD. Heannounced that a pharmaceutical project was comingup in Bolivia and suggested that I make a visit there -on my way home!

It just so happened that it was Carnival weekend inSouth America and that gave me four days to get to LaPaz. I flew to Cusco via Lima and on the flight to CuscoI sat next to a Spanish nun who was also by herself, sowe had dinner together. It was fairly cold and she hadno socks so I lent her a pair. e next day, I was off on

TheValue of a Chemical Engineering EducationJohn R Potter (Class of 1959)

The Famous Monolithic Gateway



the 7a.m. train to Lake Titicaca taking all day climbingto over 15,000 feet – almost the snow line – and thenrunning through the Altiplano to the Lake in theafternoon. e steamship, built in the UK in 1927 andreassembled at the lake, set off at about 8 p.m. andarrived at the Bolivian end of the lake just as dawn wasbreaking. I got to La Paz by train about midday onMonday. e next morning I had my meeting andstarted my journey home with a flight to Lima. Nobusiness arose from the visit but such is contracting!

After 4 years at H&G, I was invited to join a companyat Gillingham Kent, which had about 100 staff andmanufactured stainless steel pressure vessels and had asmall contracting section, which mainly suppliedcomplete units including the vessels made in thefactory. e two owners of the business were planningto retire and the Steel Brothers Group based in Dorkingacquired it. I was appointed Managing Director andChairman of the business renamed Steel BrothersProcess Plant Limited. (Steels already had a number ofsmallish engineering companies representing about atenth of the Group.) e company manufactured bothstainless steel vessels and carbon steel vessels cladinternally with stainless steel. Of the latter type, a majorproject was the manufacture of seven vessels for a newPolypropylene plant in Brazil, which was financed byLloyds Bank. ese vessels also contained internallylarge stainless steel heat transfer panels, which were veryhighly polished.

During this period I was very nearly high jacked. Acolleague at Dorking asked me to travel with him to

Australia at short notice to investigate a businessopportunity. He booked us on an earlier BA flight.However, he could not get First Class for such a longflight and I changed us to another flight 2 hours later.e BA flight was high jacked to Libya!

Around this time, 1977, Steel Brothers decided to forma holding company and transfer the engineeringcompanies into the new holding company. At this stage,I was appointed Chief Executive of the EngineeringDivision. My new responsibility brought down myassociation with work of a Chemical Engineering natureto less than 15% and increased my responsibility toabout 1000 staff, with the companies ranging fromabout 15 up to 500 staff, the latter being in the miningengineering company. It was, however, a veryinteresting group of disparate engineering companies inEngland, Holland and Germany. With now only about15% involving Chemical Engineering, I will turn morebriefly to the second, slightly longer half of my career.

My appointment with Steel Brothers came to an end in1986/7, when there was new senior management in theGroup and also the flavour of the time was“Concentration on Core Businesses”. e various smallengineering companies clearly did not represent a corebusiness! We gradually sold the individual engineeringcompanies over a period of about a year and I started tolook for a new appointment. Firstly, I was asked tocarry out several consultancy projects, whileinvestigating new employment prospects.

Further consultancy work came to me from another ex-RAF and Cambridge University colleague, who owneda sizable business primarily in central heating. Healso acquired a Dutch company manufacturing coppertube for heating systems and I was asked to makeregular visits to liaise with the Dutch Management.en, over a year or so, my time became almost fullyused with work in various sections of the UK Company,of which I became an employee from 1994 until mygradual retirement in the first year or so of the newMillennium.

Oh, just a minute, I need to make the coffee! (And,by the way, my socks did not reappear – no doubtinadvertently!)

Alumni Corner

Enroute from Peru to Bolivia(Source: By boat-train through the Andes, J.R. Potter)


Staff Room


Life across the PondAmanda Taylor

I moved to Cambridge fromAmerica in September 2007,when my husband, Ben, wasaccepted here as a PhDstudent. In one crazy flurry ofactivity, we sold our home,our vehicles, and I left myteaching job of six years tocross ‘e Pond’. I’m so gladwe did!

In addition to my wonderful job as the ResearchSecretary here at CEB, I’ve loved all the travelling we’vebeen able to do. When in high school, I had adelightfully quirky history teacher who really sparkedmy interest in both British and European history, and I

continued the study while at Uni. I couldn’t wait to gotravelling around to visit all the places I’d only readabout; for me, Europe is like Disney Land!

One of my goals when leaving America was to fill mypassport with stamps of the countries I’ve visited. I’mhappy to report that I’ve done so well, I had to haveextra pages added! Plus I’ve managed to cross a fewthings off my Bucket List: e Coliseum, e EiffelTower (we took the stairs!), spending the night in acastle, German Christmas Markets and Augsburg(where Ben was born) and strolling along the canals ofVenice. I still need to kiss the Blarney Stone, though!

I’ve made so many friends from all over the globe andfrom all walks of life. While I still miss many‘Americanisms’ like anksgiving and football(American football, that is!), I wouldn’t trade my timehere for the world.

Passion for RestorationRozWilliamsChief Teaching Laboratory Technician

My main hobbies and interests outside work includehard landscape gardening and motorcycle restoration.e images show my back garden, for which I usedentirely recycled or reclaimed materials. e majority ofthe wood was formerly groynes from the seaside. erhododendrons (sadly not currently in flower, as tooearly in the year) are planted in four tonnes ofericaceous topsoil that I had delivered. e fish shownhere used to be in a tank in the Teaching Lab, and theyhad 27 babies last year!

My motorbike is a 30 year old Z1000, upon which Ihave lavished a great deal of time! As you can see, it isnot yet finished, but the engine has been overhauled,polished and painted, and I have restored the tank, sidepanels and tailpiece and had them professionally re-sprayed in iridescent purple. I shall be taking it to workto show it off, when it is complete.


Arrivals and Departures


Prof Francis Gadala-Maria

Visiting AcademicUniversity of South CarolinaProf Gadala-Maria first visitedCEB in 2004, when hecollaborated with Prof MalcolmMackley and Bart Hallmark, hisgraduate student at that time,on microcapillary films. Histime in the department was soenjoyable and productive thatwhen he was again eligible for asabbatical leave, his choice wasclear. is time he iscollaborating with Dr IanWilson and Dr Bart Hallmark,now a Design Lecturer, on therheology of bubbly liquids, thatis, liquids with suspended gasbubbles. is area complementswell his expertise on therheology of suspensions, whichare liquids with suspended solidparticles. e two types ofmaterial are similar in someways and very different inothers; unlike solid particles,bubbles are compressible,deformable, can coalesce, andthe gas from which they aremade can diffuse into thesuspending liquid and viceversa. Prof Gadala-Maria findsCambridge a beautiful place andthe academic environment verystimulating. He particularlyenjoys the interactions withfaculty, staff, and students in thedepartment and in RobinsonCollege, where he has beenappointed a Senior Member.

Christian Guyader

PhD StudentBioscience Engineering GroupHaving grown up in Belgiumwith Franco-Danish roots Icame to Cambridge to study formy undergraduate andgraduated from the departmentwith a MEng in June 2011.Having had an amazing timehere as an undergraduate andhaving an offer for a veryinteresting project, I decided tostay for a PhD. I thereforereturned to Cambridge inJanuary after having spent fourmonths travelling around SouthAmerica. Since June, a lot of thefaces in College have changedbut the department was more orless how I had left it and I easilyfell into place in Prof Slater’swelcoming group, where I hadalso done my Part IIB project.One of the major differencesfrom being an undergraduatehere is that I am now on theother side of the supervisiontable, trying to teach theundergraduates - hopefullysuccessfully! My PhD projectfocuses on the development of apeptide based vector for thedelivery of genes into humancells in the field of gene therapy.I think this is probably thegreatest contrast to myundergraduate life, having myown project in a field I reallyenjoy!

Dr Kyung-Min Song

Technology Information ManagerSamsung Advanced Institute ofTechnologyAfter spending five years in thedepartment through MPhil,PhD and Post-doc I feel I haveachieved a lot with excellentteaching, research and support.e MPhil ACE course is such afantastic and unique coursewhere chemical engineeringsubjects are mixed well with thebusiness subjects. Back in 2006-7, there were only 13 of us from12 different countries whichgave us the feeling that we werethe representatives of our owncountries. I am happy to seethat the numbers are growingeach year. I also very muchenjoyed my PhD and post-docprojects working with MRI, allthanks to my supervisor, ProfLynn Gladden, and everyone inCEB. I will rememberCambridge not just for theacademic achievements and theblades won in May Bumps, but(with equal importance) as aplace where I started my familyand met fantastic people andlifelong friends. For all thesereasons, I can say that my timein Cambridge has undoubtedlybeen the most valuable time inmy life. I am currently atSamsung Advanced Institute ofTechnology in London and Ihope to contribute back to theDepartment in the future.


Dear Dr Sarah…

As a PhD student I spend so much time working on myreally specific research question and it can start to seemquite lonely and meaningless in the larger scheme of things.How do I convince myself that my project is important toanyone else other than me?

Many thanks,Increasingly Isolated

Dr Sarah says…

I’d like to answer this by telling you a tale, if I may.

One birthday, I decided to treat myself to a new dresser;one where I could store all my favourite things, such aseyeliner, jewellery, black pointy hats, etc. May as wellget a huge one, I thought (I have a lot of eyeliner),fabricated from the obligatory pinewood, the stuff youjust have to look at and a dent appears in it. And tomake my birthday even more memorable, I decided toprocure the furniture flat-packed. Now, I’m the first toadmit that I’m no DIY expert, but I do know whichway to turn a screw in order for it to disappear into ahole. But I swear you need a degree in etymology inorder to understand instructions such as “attach to rightside with hole B using medium screw C on left board 2horizontal, round edge up, in with notch on board 3.”Anyway, in the end I just followed the pictures, holdingvarious pieces of wood in place with my toes whilst Itried to screw them together at right angles to eachother.

So after much toil, and a few slices of birthdaypannetone (to aid morale), I had the skeleton, which Icarefully moved into position. (Note to self: alwaysassemble large items of furniture as near as possible totheir final resting place.) I inserted the drawers, attachedthe hinged doors, and filled it to capacity. Not only didit look great (the bits that I didn’t quite get flush wereluckily at the back, facing the wall), but it alsoperformed suitably well as a storage facility. I was prettypleased with myself. So I had another slice of cake.

One day, a month or so later, I was doing a bit of cathair-removal from the floor near the dresser when Iespied a small silver-coloured ball, approximately 3mmin diameter. Hmmm, what’s this? Maybe one of the catsbrought it in between their paw pads. inking nothingof it, I threw it away. And then a couple of days lateranother one appeared. Perhaps I should keep it thistime – it may be a gift from the House Pixie – so Iopened the dresser drawer and whoosh! a load morespewed out onto the floor, the point of source being abroken drawer runner. But there’s still a groove in theside of the drawer, so why do I need a runner full oflittle ball-bearings? e drawer will fit in nicely aunaturale … screeeech.

Now I only keep totally useless things in that drawer,such as my TV licence, a bottle of suntan lotion, and a‘Jools Holland and Friends’ CD, just so I don’t have toopen it more than once a year.

And there you go – as above, so below

Do you have a question for the Doctor? Send in yourchemical engineering dilemmas [email protected] for Dr Sarah to address in thenext issue.

Dear Dr Sarah


Dr Sarah, with eyeliner, trying to work out the meaning of it all…


Teatime Teaser


Welcome to the new look Teatime Teaser!We hope you enjoy the local look-alikeswhich were all sent in by our readers and ourCEB crossword (solutions available online).Please send us your suggestions for futureissues at [email protected]

Dr James McGregor and Kevin Bacon

Across Clues1. Gas, liquid and solid (6)4. HoD (5)6. Type of electron pair (4)7. 21% O2 (3)10. Periodic table part - aid insect

(anagram) (9)12. Bond type (5)13. Stir (7)15. Has low thermal conductivity (9)17. Oil sands (3)19. Organism’s hereditary info (6)20. Solvent (7)22. Stagnant area in reactor, _-zone (4)23. Channel for conveying exhaust

gases (4)24. Antimony (2)26. Dimensionless characteristic (8)28. C12H22O11 (7)29. Amount of substance, SI unit (4)

Down Clues1. Ionised state of matter similar to a

gas (6)2. Rough area (8)3. Deforms under an applied shear

stress (5)4. Temperature (7)5. System of units (acronym) (5)8. Separated (9)9. Has magnitude and direction (6)11. Microscopic unit of length (8)14. Famous number (8)15. PV=nRT (5,3)16. Integration theorem (6)18. Elementary particle (6)21. Natural catalyst (6)25. 705.06 Torr (3)26. π? (3)27. Equal (prefix) (3)Prof Markus Kraft and Bunsen Honeydew

Dr Geoff Moggridge and Gary Sinise


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Design/production:w

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.cambridgedesigners.co.ukFor further information please visit www.ceb.cam.ac.uk or contact us at [email protected]

Department of Chemical Engineering and BiotechnologyInstitute of BiotechnologyTennis Court RoadCambridge CB2 1QT

Tel: +44 (0)1223 334160Fax: +44 (0)1223 334162

Magnetic Resonance Research CentreJ J Thomson AvenueCambridge CB3 0HE

Tel: +44 (0)1223 334777Fax: +44 (0)1223 334796

Letters to the editorWe welcome comments from our readership. Please email us your viewsand suggestions for future articles on [email protected]

Newsletter DisclaimerCEB Focus Newsletter Committee reserves the right to edit content before publishing. This newsletter is published for information purposesonly and while every effort has been made to ensure that info is accurate and up-to-date, the Committee is not responsible for any omissionsor liable for any damages in connection with the information published. The University of Cambridge does not accept liability for any contentpublished herein.

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ceb focus 6, may 2012

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