Speakers and Programme
Speakers
BACG Annual Lecture
Professor Jennifer Swift
Georgetown University, USA
Lecture title: Hydrate-Anhydrate Transformations
Plenary Lectures
Professor Kerstin Forsberg
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Lecture title: Crystallization of battery precursors connecting battery recycling and cathode synthesis
Professor Bart Kahr
New York University, USA
Lecture title: Why are crystals straight?
Dr Ahmad Sheikh
ACOS Distinguished Research Fellow
AbbVie Inc., North Chicago, USA
Lecture title: Structures, Conformations, and Crystals: Impact on Drug Development
Thematic Keynote Lectures
Dr Nornizar Anuar
Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
Lecture title: Exploring Polymorphism through L-Isoleucine: Crystallisation Routes and Structural Insights.
Professor David Hogg
University of Leeds, UK
Lecture title: Reconstructing the 3-D shape and face-specific growth rates of a crystal from a single camera
Dr Aniruddha Majumder
University of Aberdeen, UK
Lecture title: Modelling and Simulation of Continuous Tubular Crystallizers: Applications in Chiral Resolution and Encrustation Mitigation
Dr Andy Maloney
CCDC, Cambridge
Lecture title: Crystal informatics for the design of formulated products
Dr Karen Robertson
University of Nottingham, UK
Lecture title: Crystal growth and polymorphic transformations on a larger scale
Dr Jennifer Webb
Syngenta, UK
Lecture title: Particle Science for Agrochemical Industrial Crystallisation: Challenges and Advances
Outline Programme (subject to change)
Tuesday 1st July
11:00 - 16:30
Early Career Researchers Day
The ECR Day is designed to kick off BACG 2025 with a programme tailored to the interests and development of early career researchers. Attendees can expect a mix of soft skill and career talks, short presentations from fellow PhD students, and networking opportunities. Open to all PhD students, postdocs and early career researchers, the day aims to foster connections, spark collaboration and provide practical insights for navigating the early stages of a research career. A great warm-up before the main conference begins.
16:30 - 19:30
BACG Conference Registration, Poster Session and Welcome Reception (17:30 - 18:30)
Early Career Researchers Day Programme
11:00 - 12:00
Registration
11:30 - 12:30
Lunch
12:30 - 14:00
Career Talks (20 min presentation + 10 min Q+A)
Chair: Gabriele Sumanskaite, University of Leeds, UK; Fragkoulis (Frank) Theodosiou, University of
Durham, UK
12:30 - 13:00
Dr Laksha Parameswaran, Resolian, UK
13:00 - 13:30
Dr Syarifah Abd Rahim, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, Malaysia
13:30 - 14:00
Professor Megan Povey, University of Leeds, UK
14:00 - 14:45
Session 1 - Student and Early Career Researchers Talks (12 min talk + 3 min Q&A)
Chair: Dr Syarifah Abd Rahim, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah, Malaysia
14:00 - 14:15
Study of (Semi-)Batch Reactive Crystallization of L-Glutamic Acid with aid of PATs, focusing on Polymorphism and Crystal Habit, Biyu Zhang, KU Leuven, Belgium
14:15 - 14:30
Predicting the impact of particle size and shape distributions on filtration performance of crystallized products, Oleksandr Prykhodko, University of Manchester, UK
14:30 - 14:45
Improving Supersaturation Control in Low-Solubility Systems: Integrating Machine Learning with Model Predictive Control, Joseph McHale, University of Leeds, UK
14:45 - 15:30
Coffee + Networking
15:30 - 16:30
Session 2 - Student and Early Career Researchers Talks (12min talk + 3min Q&A)
Chair: Dr Laksha Parameswaran, Resolian, UK
15:30 - 15:45
Influence of impurities on lithium iron phosphate crystal structure and electrochemical performance, Connor Gibson, University of Leeds, UK
15:45 - 16:00
Investigating the influence of polymorphism in the stabilization of Pickering formulations for encapsulation and controlled release of active ingredients, Giulia Del Duca, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
16:00 - 16:15
Peptide Cocrystals: Enhancing Properties and Unlocking New Applications, Yibing Peng, Loughborough University, UK
16:15 - 16:30
Crystallisation of Blends of Cocoa Butter Equivalents and Milk Fat by Studied Small- and Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering, Molly Massey, University of Leeds, UK
Wednesday 2nd July
08:15 – 08:40
BACG Conference Registration
08:40 – 09:00
Opening of the Conference
Professor Nick Plant, Pro-Vice-Chancellor: Research & Innovation, University of Leeds
09:00 – 09:40
Plenary Lecture 1: Why are crystals straight?
Professor Bart Kahr, New York University, USA
09:40 – 10:25
Coffee break and posters/exhibition
Parallel Session 1, 10:30 – 12:20
10:30 - 11:00
Session 1.1: Crystallisation fundamentals: nucleation, growth & crystal properties 1
Session 1.2: Biological, macromolecular & bio-mimetric crystallisation
Session 1.3: Crystal informatics for design of formulated products
- Keynote Lecture 1 - Exploring polymorphism through L-Isoleucine: Crystallisation routes and structural insights
Dr Nornizar Anuar, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia - Keynote Lecture 2 - Modelling and simulation of continuous tubular crystallizers: applications in chiral resolution and encrustation mitigation
Dr Aniruddha Majumder, University of Aberdeen, UK - Keynote Lecture 3 - Crystal informatics for the design of formulated products
Dr Andy Maloney, The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC), UK
11:00 - 12:20
- Session 1.1 - Contributed talks
- Investigating polymorphism of calcium sulfate using co-solvents
Charlotte Wyatt, University of Leeds, UK - Quantifying the effect of solvent on the morphology of organic crystals using a statistical thermodynamics approach
Dr Marc Meunier, Dassault Systemes, UK - Supersaturation effect on crystal morphology of iron (II) sulphate heptahydrate
Gabriele Sumanskaite, University of Leeds, UK - Stereoscopic imaging of crystal systems exhibiting polymorph dictated habit variance
Benjamin Holland, University of Nottingham, UK
- Investigating polymorphism of calcium sulfate using co-solvents
- Session 1.2 - Contributed talks
- Food crystallization & crystal engineering for food formulations
Professor Elena Simone, Politecnico di Torino, Italy - The interactions of protein-calcium oxalate in crystallization process
Ella Owen, Loughborough University, UK - Self-assembly and complexation of cellulose nanocrystal in amorphous carrageenan-polylactic acid
Dr Fatmawati Adam, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia - Crystallization for protein purification
Dr Wenqian Chen, National University of Singapore, Singapore
- Food crystallization & crystal engineering for food formulations
- Session 1.3 - Contributed talks
- Solid form selection summary: a recent review (and data tapestry)
Dr Robert Docherty, West View House Consulting, UK - Machine learning-driven prediction of tablet properties: bridging crystallization and pharmaceutical formulation
Chuhong Cheng, De Montfort University, UK - Efficient process optimization of hybrid cooling/anti-solvent crystallization for 2-amyl anthraquinone via constrained bayesian optimization strategies
Hongmei Zhang, Shenyang University, China - Molecular study of diverse paracetamol solid forms: Prediction of mechanical properties using computational tools
Dr Siti Fatimah Ibrahim, University of Leeds, UK
- Solid form selection summary: a recent review (and data tapestry)
12:20 - 13:25
Lunch break and posters / exhibition
13:30 - 14:10
Plenary Lecture 2: Structures, conformations, and crystals: Impact on drug development
Dr Ahmed Sheikh, AbbVie Inc., USA
14:10 - 14:40
EDI Session
Chairs: Dr Elena Simone, Politecnico di Torino, Italy; Dr Karen Robertson, University of Nottingham, UK
Parallel Session 2, 14:20 – 16:05
14:20 - 16:05
Session 2.1: Crystallisation fundamentals: nucleation, growth & crystal properties 2
Session 2.2: Digital design & control of industrial crystallisation processes 1
Session 2.3: Co-crystallisation & multicomponent crystallisation
- Session 2.1 - Contributed talks
- Lattice free energy calculations with normalizing flows Edgar Olehnovics, University College London, UK
- Unravelling nucleation in ferritin nanocages from atomistic molecular dynamics simulations
Dr Matteo Paloni, University College London, UK - Aromatic stacking in benzoic acid derivatives: nucleation rate and molecular dynamics study
Luca Sironi, Universita degli Studi di Milano, Italy - Enthalpic and entropic contributions to the Gibbs activation energy for homogeneous crystal nucleation from solution
Nathan Hennessy, University of Leeds, UK
- Session 2.2 - Contributed talks
- Utilising rapid post-breakage regenerative growth to improve crystallisation processes
Deniz Etit, Imperial College London, UK - The effect of mixing on the evolution of particle size distribution of batch cooling crystallization processes Kimiya Ramezani, University of Manchester, UK
- Scalability assessment of secondary nucleation induced by fluid shear
Lucas Nahas, University of Strathclyde, UK - Tailoring carbamazepine dihydrate crystals using a vortex-based cavitation device: influence on size and aspect ratio
Subhrajit Swain, University of Limerick, Ireland
- Utilising rapid post-breakage regenerative growth to improve crystallisation processes
- Session 2.3 - Contributed talks
- Morphology change and structural transition of single cocrystal during the thermal cycle
Chunrong Li, Loughborough University, UK - Isostructurality in molecular crystals: influence of chemical structure on crystal packing
Dr Colin Seaton, University of Bradford, UK - Investigating nucleation kinetics of cocrystals in cooling crystallization Dr Jose Parambil, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, India
- Characterizing nucleation, thermal degradation, growth and dissolution rates of a conglomerate forming compound
Michele Chen, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Morphology change and structural transition of single cocrystal during the thermal cycle
16:05 - 16:40
Tea break and posters / exhibition
16:30 - 17:00
BACG Young Scientist Plenary Lecture
Chair: Sarah (Sally) Price, University College London, UK
17:15 - 17:30
Group photo
17:30 - 18:15
BACG Members AGM
19:00 - 22:00
Conference Dinner (University of Leeds Refectory)
19:00
Pre-dinner Drinks
19:30
Dinner followed by presentations of BACG Lifetime Achievement / Poster / Crystals in Art Competition Awards
Thursday 3rd July
08:45 - 09:25
Plenary Lecture 3: Crystallization of battery precursors connecting battery recycling and cathode synthesis
Professor Kerstin Forsberg, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
Parallel Session 3, 09:40 - 11:40
09:30 - 10:00
Session 3.1: Crystallisation fundamentals: nucleation, growth & crystal properties 3
Session 3.2: Digital design & control of industrial crystallisation processes 2
Session 3.3: Crystallisation in energy & environment
- Keynote Lecture 4: Crystal growth and polymorphic transformations on a larger scale
Dr Karen Robertson, University of Nottingham, UK - Keynote Lecture 5: Reconstructing the 3-D shape and face-specific growth rates of a crystal from a single camera
Professor David Hogg, University of Leeds, UK - Keynote Lecture 6: Particle science for agrochemical industrial crystallisation: challenges and advances
Dr Jennifer Webb, Syngenta, UK
10:00 - 11:40
- Session 3.1 - Contributed talks
- Low power (whispering) acoustic control of crystal nucleation
Professor Megan Povey, University of Leeds, UK - On two-step nucleation: how non-aqueous media control the physical form of CaCO3 in the reaction of Ca(OH)2 dispersions with gaseous CO2
Professor Sven Schroeder, University of Leeds, UK - Stochastic nucleation and solid state deracemization provide a spontaneous route to homochirality
Dr Leif-Thore Deck, University of Cambridge, UK - In-situ measurement of asymmetric crystal growth of α-form L-Glutamic acid with 3D shape fitting
Chen Jiang, University of Leeds, UK - Research on morphology monitoring sensor based on acoustic emission
Dr Xingjun Wang, Loughborough University, UK
- Low power (whispering) acoustic control of crystal nucleation
- Session 3.2 - Contributed talks
- Two-dimensional population balance modeling (2D-PBM) and machine learning-based multi-objective optimization for the cooling crystallization process of resveratrol
Álmos Orosz, Budapest University, Hungary - Bringing direct nucleation control to reality: preparing automated crystallisation algorithms for large scale industrial application
Dr David Bowskill, Syngenta, UK - An automated scale-up crystallisation DataFactory for model-based pharmaceutical process development Dr Thomas Pickles, University of Strathclyde, UK
- The challenges of amorphous precipitation: a pharmaceutical example
Dr Sarah Wright, AstraZeneca, UK - Effect of anti-solvent on ferrous sulfate heptahydrate particle size distribution
Dr Syarifah Abd Rahim, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Malaysia
- Two-dimensional population balance modeling (2D-PBM) and machine learning-based multi-objective optimization for the cooling crystallization process of resveratrol
- Session 3.3 - Contributed talks
- Evaporation of and crystallization in a saline droplet Benjamin Mignot, University of Leeds, UK
- Influence of impurities on lithium iron phosphate crystal structure and electrochemical performance Connor Gibson, University of Leeds, UK
- Towards harvesting light energy using sustainable optically active materials
Dr Johanna Galloway, University of Leeds, UK - Characterisation of the incongruent dissolution of polyhalite in aqueous environments
Dr Xiaojun Lai, University of Leeds, UK - SolECOs: a data-driven platform for sustainable solvent design in single and binary crystallization systems
Dr Yiming Ma, Loughborough University, UK
11:40 - 12:00
Coffee break
12:10 - 12:50
BACG Annual Lecture: Hydrate-anhydrate transformations
Professor Jennifer Swift, Georgetown University, USA
12:50 - 13:00
Closing
13:00 - 14:00
Lunch