Meet our Team: Hikaru Graeme Jolliffee
In this month’s edition of CMAC’s Meet our Team series, we are celebrating Hikaru Graeme Jolliffee, the Lead Modeller of the MMIC GC1 project.
Hikaru was born and grew up in Luxembourg, where he completed the European Baccalaureate at the European School of Luxembourg. Students there take many subjects in their final year, but Hikaru’s favourites were Maths, Advanced Maths, Chemistry, Physics, History, and Geography (with the latter two taught in French, his second language). Following this, Hikaru pursued his undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied Chemical Engineering with Environmental Engineering.
He then went on to pursue a Masters of Engineering, where his project focused on the techno-economic optimisation of pharmaceutical flowsheets, extending through to primary processing. This involved the use of mathematical modelling and an understanding of multiple unit operations. Subsequently, he pursued a PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, where similarly, his research focused on the techno-economic evaluation of continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing flowsheets.
When Hikaru joined CMAC as a post-doc in 2018, he described the role as a natural fit. In this role, he supported various projects and researchers with his modelling and coding knowledge. He said:
“During the first year, I assisted with various core HUB projects by writing code for data analysis, engaging in tablet compaction modelling work, and supporting Master's students”.
One year later, Hikaru joined the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) project as a Digital Manufacturing Engineer, where he is currently the lead modeller in the CMAC team working on project. In this role, Hikaru coordinates the modelling activities of colleagues in the CMAC team, and liaises with industry partners, chairing regular technical discussions. The modelling work involves development of novel approaches to predict unit operation performance in Continuous Direct Compression flowsheets using minimal experimentation.
Hikaru’s day-to-day activities vary over the course of the project. Initially, it primarily involved a lot of reading and digesting the current state of the art, followed by a significant amount of data analysis and model development. In recent months, as the project nears its conclusion, most of his day-to-day tasks involve finalising reports and drafting papers.
In addition to overseeing all modelling activities and driving the key ones, Hikaru also liaises with project industry partners and chairs regular technical calls to update key stakeholders. Another of his key responsibilities is knowledge and tech transfer within the project, and he has written several journal and conference submissions based on the GC1 modelling work.
Hikaru is striving to attain a position where he can direct and oversee multiple research directions. He considers his biggest achievement as finding a modification to an equation in literature to make it applicable to comparable but fundamentally different types of equipment, such as batch powder blenders. A paper detailing this accomplishment has recently been submitted. Additionally, he describes his favourite parts about working at CMAC as the people, the work, the flexibility and the location.
In his spare time, Hikaru enjoys taking his three-year-old dog for walks, gaming, and DIY. His favorite shows to watch are Reacher, Shogun, Blue Eye Samurai, and The Traitors.
