Professor Nigel Titchener-Hooker, CEEng, FREng, FIChemE heads the UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering and directs the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing of Emerging Macromolecular Therapies. This involves collaboration with an international consortium of 30 companies and is valued at over £30M. As the first director of the Engineering Doctorate Centre for Bioprocess Leadership he managed a portfolio of over 60 doctorate programmes with companies spanning the whole breadth of the biotech industry. His particular research interests are centred on the delivery of whole bioprocess solutions and in particular the interface between unit operations. He pioneered studies in the area of process-business decision making and as Director of the Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMRC) in Bioprocessing was closely involved with the creation of ultra scale-down tools for the evolution of process flowsheets for the efficient recovery and purification of high value protein therapeutics.
Nigel has held consultancies with a broad range of international companies and serves on the editorial board of key journals. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 in recognition of his pioneering work on biopharmaceuticals manufacturing he is also a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He was the first non-USA Chair of the Board of the prestigious Recovery of Biological Products conference series. He was selected to the EPSRC Strategic Advisory Network reporting direct to Council. In 2013 he was awarded the Donald Medal by the Institution of Chemical Engineers in recognition of his contributions to the discipline and led the Department to win a Queens Anniversary Trust Award for its pioneering studies underpinning the bioprocessing industry in 2014.