Andrew Livingston studied Chemical Engineering and then worked at an NZ food processing company followed by a PhD at Cambridge UK, and in 1990 joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, serving as Head of Department 2008-2016. From June 2017-May 2019 he was the interim academic lead, the interim Director, of the Rosalind Franklin Institute based at Harwell, UK, and from 1 November 2019 he has been the Vice Principal, Research and Innovation at Queen Mary, University of London.
He leads a research group with interests in membranes for molecular separations in liquids and the development of chemical processes using these membranes. The specialist platform pioneered by the Livingston Group has been membranes which are stable in organic liquids and so which can be applied in organic solvent systems. These have led to new chemical manufacturing processes, including Nanostar Sieving, used to make a range of exact biological (Peptides, Oligonucleotides) and synthetic (PEGS) apolymers. Awards include the Junior Moulton Medal, Cremer and Warner Medal, and Underwood Medal of IChemE, and Silver Medal of Royal Academy of Engineering. AGL was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2006.
In 1996, AGL founded Membrane Extraction Technology, a start-up which developed solvent stable Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) membranes was acquired by Evonik Industries of Essen, Germany. In 2018 AGL founded Exactmer, a new start-up dedicated to the production of exact polymer molecules including oligonucleotides, peptides and synthetic polymers such as PEG, using Nanostar Sieving technology.