Supporting Crystal Growth since 1969

BACG2026 Speakers

Hear from leading experts delivering sessions across a broad range of topics, including Molecular & Mechanistic Crystallisation, Computational & Data-Driven Crystallisation, Crystallisation Engineering & Process Translation, Industrial Applications of Crystallisation, and Frontiers & Exotic Crystallisation Use Cases. Presentations will take place across three days, beginning with the Early Career Researchers Day on 29 June, followed by the Main Conference Days on 30 June and 1 July.

Return to Main Conference Page

Invited Speakers

University of Birmingham

Adam Michalchuk

University of
Birmingham

Read bio

Following doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh and Novosibirsk State University, Adam moved to the German Federal Insitute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), first as a postdoctoral fellow then as a senior scientist. In 2022 Adam took up his current role at the University of Birmingham, maintaining close ties to the BAM as a Wilhelm-Ostwald Fellow. Adam’s interdisciplinary research spans computational, theoretical, and experimental aspects of solid-state reactivity, with particular focus on understanding the impact of mechanical force on solid state transformations. He has co-authored >80 scientific articles in this space, with his research recognised by numerous international awards, including the 2025 BTM Willis Prize and the 2022 ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Impact Award.

CMAC, University Of Strathclyde

Alastair Florence

CMAC, University Of
Strathclyde

Read bio

Professor Alastair Florence is a Distinguished Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Strathclyde and is Director of CMAC providing leadership across the portfolio, engaging with our key stakeholders and driving the Centre’s vision to transform the development and manufacture of medicines. He works with the centre, academic and industry teams to deliver a vibrant portfolio of research, training, infrastructure and translation programmes that includes the EPSRC MediForge Industry 5.0 Hub, EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training: Cyberphysical Systems for Medicines Development and Manufacture (CEDAR), Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Medicines Manufacturing Accelerator, Digital CMC CERSI and CMAC’s National Facility and Data Lab.

Imperial CollegeLondon

Amparo Galindo

Imperial College
London

Read bio

Amparo Galindo is a Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial. She received a bachelor degree in Chemistry from the University Complutense of Madrid, and a PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Sheffield. She joined Imperial College as an EPSRC Advanced Fellow in 2000, continuing in Imperial as Lecturer, Reader, and then Professor. She works developing statistical mechanical approaches for complex fluids, delivering molecular theories suitable for solvent and process design. Her group works at the forefront of the development of SAFT methods for property prediction. She was made a Lilly/RAEng Chair in Pharmaceutical Molecular Systems in 2018, and awarded the 2023 Guggenheim Medal of the Institution of Chemical Engineers for her work in thermodynamics of complex fluids. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the current Editor in Chief of the journal Fluid Phase Equilibria.

University ofBristol

Benjamin Palmer

University of
Bristol

Read bio

University of Bristol (UK)/Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel)

Ben received his PhD from Cardiff University with Prof. Kenneth Harris before under-taking postdoctoral research with Profs. Lia Addadiand Steve Weiner at the Weizmann Institute, exploring biogenic molecular crystals. He started his independent group in 2019 as the Nahum Guzik Assistant Professor in Ben-Gurion University. He is currently an Associate Professor in Chemistry at the University of Bristol and a Full Professor at BGU. His groups explore organic biomineralization and bio-inspired materials. He is the recipient of the 2024 Israeli Chemical Society Tenne Prize and the 2025 Blavatnik Award.

University of Strathclyde

Jan Sefcik

University of
Strathclyde

Read bio

Jan Sefcik obtained his first degree in Chemical Engineering from Slovak Technical University in Bratislava, followed by PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. After working as Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech in Pasadena and Senior Researcher at ETH Zurich, he joined University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in 2005, where he is now Professor in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering. His research expertise is in particle and colloid engineering, crystallisation and nucleation. His research has been supported by a wide range of governmental funding bodies, charities and industry, and published in over 140 papers in refereed international journals. He is a member of the Presidium of the Slovak Research and Development Agency, the executive committee of the British Association of Crystal Growth, and the Working Party on Crystallisation of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering.

University of Strathclyde

Katharina Edkins

University of
Strathclyde

Read bio

Professor Kathi Edkins is trained Pharmacist and has experience in pharmaceutical solid state, crystallography and neutron scattering. She has started her independent research group at Durham University in 2014 before moving to Belfast and Manchester. Since 2024, she is Professor in Molecular Pharmaceutics at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, where she leads a group of 10. Her research focusses on supramolecular recognition in disordered materials with a main interest in the factors leading to crystallisation of specific crystal forms and how to control these. In addition, she researches diffusion in soft materials such as gels with the goal to generate novel drug delivery platforms with tailored release kinetics. For her research on pharmaceutical hydrates, she has been awarded the BTM Willis Prize for early career researchers in neutron scattering in 2016, and she holds an ERC consolidator award since 2024.

FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Eliska Zmeskalova

FZU – Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Read bio

Eliška Zmeškalová, Ph.D., is a scientific researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and at the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague. She obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Technology of Pharmaceuticals from UCT Prague in 2016, followed by postdoctoral research at University College Cork, Ireland. Since 2019, she has led the Laboratory of Single-Crystal Diffraction at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on crystallographic and solid-state analysis of pharmaceutical molecular materials, especially structure–property relationships in polymorphs, salts, solvates, and cocrystals. She collaborates extensively with the pharmaceutical industry and was awarded the Otto Wichterle Prize in 2025.

Thomas Vetter

FHNW

Abstract & Early Career Researchers Day Speakers

Profile Image

Abhishek Dutta

Izmir Institute of Technology

Alice McNelly

Pharmaron

Angelica Niazov-Elkan

Tel Aviv University

Ann Pui Shan Chow

ISCE²

Antonello Raponi

Mines Saint Etienne

Botond Szilágyi

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

Danilo Candela

Politecnico di Torino

Deepak Rajput

Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

Fragkoulis (Frank) Theodosiou

Durham University

Gaetano G.M. Bonetti

Leibniz Institute for Crystal Growth (IKZ)

Gayathri Manoj

University of Leeds / Diamond Light Source

Hamish Mitchell

University College London

Hikaru Jolliffe

CMAC

Huaiyu Yang

Loughborough University

Jianing Li

Imperial College London

Jingwei Cai

Tianjin University

Joseph McHale

University of Leeds

Kate McPherson

CMAC, University of Strathclyde

Leif-Thore Deck

University of Cambridge

Luca Sironi

Durham University

Lucas Nahas

University of Strathclyde

Mae Macleod

University Of Strathclyde

Matteo Paloni

UCL

Nahla Osmanbegovic

KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Nausheen Basha

The University of Manchester

Nicholas Francia

The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre

Pietro Sacchi

The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre

Rose McCarthy

University of Leeds

Ryan Leeming

Syngenta

Scarlett Abrams

University of Nottingham / Diamond Light Source

Stefanos Konstantinopoulos

Imperial College London

Veronica Kras

AstraZeneca

Yashoda Abeykoon

University of Manchester

Zhao Jiang

Durham University

Zsófia Szalay

Gedeon Richter Plc. (Richter Gedeon Nyrt.)

Return to Main Conference Page