Prof Litster wins Geldart Medal from IChemE

The medal founded in 2014, is awarded biennially to one or more individuals who have made a significant recent contribution to research in particle technology. This is recognised through scientific advancements widely acknowledged within the community and high impact findings recognised outside the particle technology community.

Prof Lister said, “I’m honoured to receive the Geldart Medal from IChemE. Design and processing of particulate products such as pharmaceutical tablets is vital for the production of affordable medicines. Developments in chemical engineering science of particulate systems over the last 20 years have transformed the industrial processes to manufacture medicines more effectively, efficiently and reliably."

"It’s a fantastic example of what can be achieved when academia and industry comes together and I feel very privileged to have been part of these developments, working closely with colleagues at The University of Sheffield, CMAC Research Hub and the UK Particle Technology community more broadly. Of course, these advances have also impacted other industry sectors manufacturing formulated products such as foods, consumer goods and specialty chemicals."

"The science of particulate systems remains of vital importance in both chemical engineering education and research to address 21st century grand challenges.”

Professor Litster's research area is Particulate Products and Processes. His expertise is on wet granulation with over 30 years experience in the field. His key contributions include the development of key regime maps for granulation processes and the development of mathematical models for engineering design and scaling of granulation processes. Professor Litster is also the co-author of the well known monograph in this area - The Science and Engineering of Granulation Processes and his approaches are now widely used in engineering practice in industry.

He was Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University in the USA for over 8 years and spent 20 years in academic positions at The University of Queensland in Australia including Head of Chemical Engineering and Head of School of Engineering.