BACG2026 Speaker Profile

Muhammad Asfand Yar Awan

PhD Researcher, CMAC, University of Strathclyde

Asfand Yar is a doctoral researcher with the CEDAR Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Strathclyde, based within CMAC, the Centre for Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation. His research asks a deceptively simple question: can the shape of a crystal be predicted before it forms? By studying how solvent choice and crystallisation conditions shape morphology, he’s working towards models that could let manufacturers engineer crystal form rather than simply observe it after the fact.

Before starting his PhD, he worked as a process engineer in the fertiliser industry, assessing and optimising ammonia and urea production plants, an experience that gave him a grounded sense of how research findings translate into real manufacturing settings. He holds an MSc in Sustainable Engineering: Chemical Processing from the University of Strathclyde.

His work draws together chemical engineering, crystallisation science, and process systems thinking, with a constant eye on what it takes to move crystallisation research from the lab bench to the plant floor.