Postdoctoral Research Associate (Chemical Engineer) - Medicines for All Institute

A postdoctoral position is available with the Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Chemical and Life Sciences Engineering Department. M4ALL, in collaboration with Phlow, has received significant funding from BARDA to undertake a novel continuous process for the production of generic drugs in order to re-establish a basis of manufacturing in the US. This project offers the unique opportunity to participate in a development and technology transfer for the first ever continuous process for many of these generic compounds. The project will utilize a contemporary approach to drug development including developing significant process understanding, a control strategy, process control and process analytical technologies.

The research project will involve the process chemistry development, reaction engineering, process understanding and experimental protocols required to demonstrate understanding and control of the chemical process. This opportunity offers the post-doctoral scholar a unique training opportunity which will be difficult to obtain elsewhere, namely working across the chemistry, crystallization, physical properties, and process control space, to develop a control strategy for a continuous process destined for a regulatory filing.

The successful applicant will need to be interested in mentoring and supporting graduate and undergraduate students and have the skills to do so, as well as work in collaboration with a larger and more diverse group of scientists working on the project at other sites.

Required Qualifications:
• Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering or related field
• Experience with continuous chemistry, and/or crystallization concepts.
• Experience in Design of Experiments (DOE).
• Expertise in modern analytical techniques including HPLC, NMR, IR, CG.
• Medicines for All and College of Engineering support a diverse faculty, staff, and student environment. The candidate will demonstrate experience that shows their commitment to fostering such an environment. And will also demonstrate their experience that shows their commitment to fostering innovative research.
• The desire to be a leader in the laboratory, helping others who are less experienced, and ensuring the highest levels of laboratory safety are ensured.
• Excellent communication skills are needed to ensure accuracy of reporting, including the ability to develop and justify original research proposals, compose manuscripts for publication, and verbally describe research efforts.
• Demonstrated ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams, displaying excellent interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to develop research plans for multiple individuals
• An Entrepreneurial mindset
• Generate conclusion reports, present data in team meetings & participate in writing of abstracts & publications
• Conduct scientific work programs and make contributions both independently or as a member of a team with other R&D staff
• Work through problems logically and apply innovative solutions
• Maintain customer focus, motivate self, and demonstrate a high degree of urgency
• Use scientific literature and database resources in the execution of project related work

Preferred Qualifications:
• Using kinetic understanding, predict the ability of a reaction to be carried out in flow
• Experienced in Python programming and Matlab
• C FD modeling using commercially available packages, and/or Dynochem and/or g-PROMS modeling.
• Use the principles of green chemistry to drive the improvement of processes and use metrics to measure the impact.
• Expertise in physical properties of solids concepts
• Expertise in the areas of crystallization, isolation, drying, and how physical properties of solids affect performance.
• Practical experience with continuous chemistry, and/or crystallization
• Experience with physical properties measurements such as DSC, TGA, XRPD etc.
• Experience in advanced process control
• Experience in quality by design

Application Instructions:
In order for your application to be reviewed by the hiring committee, please upload three documents as a single PDF file that contains the following: 1) cover letter of interest outlining your research experiences 2) CV and 3) a list of three professional references including email addresses and phone numbers. References will not be contacted without notifying candidates first.

Salary Range: $53,500 - $55,000

Position Details:
Department: Medicines for All Institute, College of Engineering
Employment Type: PD - Post Doc
Restricted Status: Position is restricted by the availability of funding.
FTE: 100%
Exemption Status: Exempt