Patrick Löb

Deputy Head of Division Chemistry & Leader of the group “Flow Chemistry” at the Fraunhofer IMM

Dr. Patrick Löb, born 1970 in Mannheim, studied chemistry at the University of Hei-delberg. He received his PhD at the “Organisch-Chemischen Institut" lead by Prof. Dr. R. Gleiter on the subject of “Synthesis of strained organic polycycles" in 2020. He joined 2001 the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH IMM, the predecessor institution of Fraunhofer IMM, as a scientific fellow in January 2001 and started work in the department of “Microreaction Technology" headed by Prof. Dr. V. Hes-sel. Since then, he is dealing with the development, realization and application of (mi-cro)structured flow reactors to improve chemical production processes for industry (mainly fine chemical, specialty chemicals and pharmaceutical industry) in context of industry and public funded projects on national, European and international level. So, e.g. he coordinated the past EU FP7 projects CoPIRIDE and POLYCAT, both dealing with Flow Chemistry, Process Intensification and novel reac-tor and plant concepts. He is now Leader of Group Flow Chemistry and Deputy Head of Division Chemistry at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM, Mainz, Germany He is author and coauthor of various publications, particularly in the fields of micro process engineering, application of micro-structured components within organic synthesis and Flow Chemistry.

Dainis Kaldre

Process Chemist, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

Dr. Dainis Kaldre, born 1987 in Riga (Latvia), studied chemistry at the University of Latvia. He completed his doctorate with Prof James L. Gleason at McGill University (Montreal, Canada, 2016), specializing in developing new class of organocatalysts and their applications in novel organic transformations. In 2016 Dainis moved back to Europe to pursue Postdoctoral studies with Prof. Nuno Maulide (University of Vienna, 2016-2017) and Prof. Christof Sparr (University of Basel, 2018), working on novel methodologies in organic chemistry and natural product synthesis. He joined F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG (Basel, Switzerland) in 2019. Dainis now is a scientist in the Process Chemistry and Catalysis Department. His main focus is the application of continuous flow technology for small molecule API synthesis and enabling smooth transfer of the flow processes to the pilot and production plant. Dainis (co)-authored more than 30 various publications and patents, particularly in the field flow chemistry and new synthetic methodologies and won several company-internal science awards.

Bernd Werner

Development NCE, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma

Bernd Werner studied chemistry at TU Darmstadt from 1989 to 1995. Then he went on to get his PhD in organic (sugar) chemistry at the same place, wrapping that up in 1999. After that, from 2000 to 2001, he worked on central process development for liquid crystals at Merck KGaA in Darmstadt. From 2001 to 2012, Bernd was at the Fraunhofer Institute IMM GmbH, where he was involved in the development, construction, usage, and sales of microstructured devices like mixers, heat exchangers, reactors, and plants. He also handled project management there. Since 2012, he’s been with BI Ingelheim in Chemical Development Germany as a flow chemistry specialist, opening a dedicated flow chemistry lab. In addition, he has been heading different regular API development labs and furthermore is heading meanwhile the Kilolab there.

Lana Borukhova

Head of Drug Substance Continuous Manufacturing: Industrial Strategy and Implementation, Sanofi

Lana Borukhova is leading the industrial implementation of continuous manufacturing for drug substance at Sanofi France. Her team is responsible for industrialization of new products at manufacturing organization. She defended her Ph.D. thesis in 2016 on Flow reactor networks for the integrated synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Volker Hessel in collaboration with Ajinomoto OmniChem N.V.. She started her carrier at Janssen Pharmaceutica as a Process Engineer in API Small Molecule Development. Subsequently, she moved to Innosyn B.V. to specialize in delivering sustainable solutions within process engineering using continuous processing. She relied on data-rich experimentation to rapidly optimize and develop continuous processes for pharmaceutical, fragrance and polymer-based products. Her current interest lies in advanced process control and hybrid manufacturing.

Larry Yuanxian Wang

Director Technology Innovation Center, PharmaBlock

I am based in Nanjing, China, leading the Tech Innovation Center (TIC) of PharmaBlock group. I got my PhD from U of Minnesota in 2018, and BS from Peking University in 2013. Author of over 10 publications and patents. Formal name is Yuanxian Wang, I can go by Larry Y. Wang.

Linden Schrecker

CEO and Founder, SOLVE Chemistry

Linden is the CEO and founder of SOLVE, an Imperial spin-out focusing on enabling the optimal selection of reaction conditions in the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and speciality chemicals. Linden completed his PhD at Imperial College London with Prof Mimi Hii and Prof Klaus Hellgardt developing transient flow methodology to efficiently collect data from chemical reactions for which he received a departmental prize both for his thesis and final year presentation. During this time Linden engaged in many academic and industrial collaborations, most notably with BASF, produced multiple peer reviewed papers, a patent, and successfully raised £780,000 to found SOLVE.

Torsten Stelzer

Visiting Associate Professor at MIT

Dr. Torsten Stelzer received his M.S. and Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, in 2005 and 2009, respectively. He stayed on as Assistant Professor (Habilitand) before joining the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT for a two-year sabbatical leave (2012-2014). At the end of 2014, he took the unique opportunity to combine his professional goal of being a professor with his desire to live in Puerto Rico as part of a dual career couple. As Assistant/Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Puerto Rico, he formed the collaborative Crystallization Design Institute. His research focuses on integrated end-to-end, continuous manufacturing for process intensification with an emphasis on crystallization, downstream processes, and materials science of polymerbased crystalline systems for personalized drug delivery. At the UPR he leads several multi-PI, multi-institutional projects, including MIT, Northeastern University, University of Wisconsin – Madison (UW), University of Liège (Belgium). Currently he holds a standing Visiting Professor position at MIT and an Honorary Associate position at the Materials Research Science & Engineering Center at UW. As an expert in industrial crystallization, he also serves as a consultant and collaborator for the private sector. Thus far, he has authored over 55 publications, eight (8) book contributions, and is an inventor on 15 patents/applications. You can find details of Dr. Stelzer at https://linkedin.com/in/torstenstelzer and his research group at https://cdiupr.weebly.com.

Jeff Derrick

Process Research and Development, Merck

Jeff Derrick earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Michigan. Subsequently, he pursued his Master of Science in Inorganic Chemistry at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in South Korea, under the supervision of his undergraduate advisor, Prof. Mi Hee Lim. During his time at UNIST, his research focused on elucidating the relationship between metal ions, amyloid proteins, and oxidative stress in Alzheimer’s disease. Jeff completed his M.Sc in 2016 and in pursuit of new scientific challenges, joined the research group of Prof. Chris Chang at the University of California, Berkeley. There he dedicated his efforts to the development of various electrocatalytic systems with the aim of converting carbon dioxide into value-added chemicals. He successfully obtained his Ph.D. in 2022. Currently, Jeff is part of the flow team within Enabling Technologies at MSD, Rahway (NJ, USA) where he has been developing continuous flow methods for process chemistry.

Di Sha

CSO, Ou Shisheng(Beijing) Co., Ltd

Dr. Sha obtained her MD degree and later pursued a PhD in neuroscience in the US. During her doctoral studies and postdoctorate training, she focused on studying the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases and exploring potential pharmaceutical treatments. Dr. Sha relocated to Silicon Valley in 2015 and transitioned into the field of data science. She took on a role as a data scientist, leveraging big data and machine learning techniques to analyze biomedical data collected from hospitals. In 2018, Dr. Sha returned to Beijing, China, where she co-founded a startup company. The focus of the startup was AI-based functional medicine research, exploring innovative approaches to personalized medicine and healthcare. In 2022, Dr. Sha made a career move and joined Ou Shisheng (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. Here, she assumed the leadership role in the biology application team. As the team lead, she is responsible for overseeing and guiding the application of biological and medical knowledge within the company's technological advancements and projects.

Guillaume Gauron

Corning Advanced-Flow Reactors - EMEA Technical Sales Manager

Dr. Guillaume Gauron obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from “Université d’Orsay Paris XI” in 2007. He started his industrial career at IBA Molecular (Cis Bio) as a R&D radiochemist. During his seven years at IBA Molecular, he had the opportunity to work in all phases of the development cycle of aseptic radiopharmaceutical products. From development, qualification, validation, clinical trials, to final-stage technology transfer to production teams in Europe and the US. In 2014, he joined Corning as an Application Engineer for the Advanced Flow Reactors business where he managed client projects from early-stage technical interactions through to the installation phase. Since 2018, Dr. Gauron assumed leadership of technical sales for Corning’s AFR business in the EMEA region.

Howard Stamato

Stamato Solutions

Howard J. Stamato has over 30 years of experience in a broad range of skills. He has worked with projects from most major pharmaceutical companies, as well as generic and nutritional products. His work has been instrumental in delivering many life-changing medications with annual sales in the billions. Working for two major chemical companies, in household and personal products, with a multinational equipment manufacturer and clients from other industries rounds out his knowledge. Of interest during that career were: designing equipment, facilities, processes, products, and business workflows. He has been a key contributor advancing information technology systems, simulation/modeling, and has pioneered in fields such as knowledge management, data science, and visualization. He has also worked in regulatory affairs, as a consultant, served as an expert witness, and contributed on several advisory boards. Howard has participated in over 60 peer reviewed presentations, posters, and articles as well as patents and book chapters.

Federico Casanova

CEO, Magritek

Dr. Federico Casanova is a director on the Magritek board, and Group CEO of Magritek in Germany where he is responsible for applications, development, and sales operations in the EMEA region. He studied physics at Cordoba in Argentina where he did his master thesis and subsequently his PhD in NQR imaging. After finishing his PhD Federico moved to Aachen, Germany, as a Humboldt fellow to join the group of Bernhard Blümich for his postdoc. He spent ten years at Bernhards lab as senior scientist in charge of the low field research line. There, he published over 50 articles in scientific journals, filed several patents in the field of mobile NMR, and edited a book on single-sided NMR. His expertise is in NMR hardware and methods, NMR imaging, and spectroscopy. He is one of the founders of Magritek and has been working for the company since 2011.

Laurent Vanoye

Head of the flow chemistry platform - CP2M laboratory

Laurent has been a CNRS engineer for 15 years, specializing in flow chemistry and catalysis, with a strong passion for kinetics. He is the head of the flow chemistry platform at the CP2M laboratory in Lyon, France, a position he has held for the past five years under the guidance of Claude De Bellefon. He is also a researcher, coauthoring 45 publications, primarily on aerobic oxidation catalysis, in flow and under explosive atmospheres. In addition to his research, Laurent teaches catalysis and kinetics at the CPE-Lyon engineering school. Prior to this role, Laurent completed his PhD in 2006 at the Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier, focusing on biomass upgrading catalysis. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the Queens University Ionic Liquid laboratory in Belfast, furthering his expertise in these areas.

Sebastian Haertner

Merck KGaA - Principal Project Lead - Future Manufacturing

In 2003 he gained his diploma of chemistry at the university of Marburg and finished his PhD in applied physical chemistry in 2006. He joined Merck in 2006 as lab manager for quality control. In 2009 he took over the group lead for process intensification. He led different worldwide projects for NPI and new technology implementations with focus on process intensification. Since 2018 he is the portfolio / innovation manager in the engineering department and the principal project lead for the smart manufacturing initiative in Merck. He describes himself as: a curious chemist in the process development engineering department, bringing forward smart manufacturing for Merck and being the ambassador for modular production ensuring the future for our children.

Eric Trzeciak

Overseas Business Department, Tacmina

Originally from Columbus, Ohio, USA, Eric moved to Japan in 2019 after graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in Japanese. He worked in Gifu City Hall for around five years where he translated and provided interpretations for foreign residents to make municipal services more accessible to them. Eric joined Tacmina, a leading precision pump manufacturer, at the beginning of this year and is currently looking over mainly the North American and European markets. As a sales engineer, he works with customers to find the optimal pumps and equipment for their liquid transfer needs.

Alexander Peschl

CEO, Peschl Ultraviolet

CEO of Peschl Ultraviolet Alexander Peschl, born on 27th January 1976 in Mainz, Germany, is married and has two daughters. He is the founder and CEO of Peschl Ultraviolet GmbH, proQuarz GmbH, Peschl Consulting, and Peschl Inc., and holds stakes in other internationally operating companies. Since 1999, he has been leading the company, which specializes in the development and manufacturing of large-scale photoreactors for industrial applications, as well as scaling photochemical processes from the laboratory scale to large-scale production. Mr. Peschl is an internationally recognized expert in the field of applied photochemistry and has significantly contributed to the advancement and optimization of photochemical processes over the past 25 years. He began his professional career in the fields of IT and mechanical engineering before moving into applied lighting technology. His scientific expertise and innovative spirit led to the founding of his company, which now serves a broad international clientele in various industrial sectors, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and environmental technology. In his role as CEO and lead researcher, Mr. Peschl has led numerous research and development projects that have significantly improved the efficiency and sustainability of photochemical processes. His work is documented through numerous scientific papers, book chapters, and over 16 patents. A major milestone under his leadership was the development of highly efficient photoreactors for use in explosion-hazardous areas in 2002, which have since been successfully implemented by large industrial companies and remain the standard today. Since 2017, the technology has been expanded to LED-based ATEX-certified photoreactors under his guidance. His particular interest lies in the use of efficient photoreactors in continuous production. In his free time, he enjoys reading, engaging in water sports, hunting, hiking, and traveling.

Michael Eberhardt

Hydrogen Technology Group, Fraunhofer IMM

Hydrogen Technology Group, Fraunhofer IMM

André Pomraenke

Senior Engineer in the Group Digital Systems for Industrial Processes and Facilities - Fraunhofer IFF

Senior Engineer in the Group Digital Systems for Industrial Processes and Facilities - Fraunhofer IFF