Professor Alastair Florence

Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences

Personal statement

Director of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC) and associated 45 PhD Doctoral Training Centre. Leads the new world-class CMAC National Facility within the Technology and Innovation Centre (TIC) at the University of Strathclyde offering access to academic and industrial users to state-of-the art processing, analysis and characterisations facilties and support. Expertise in crystallisation and physical form control and characterisation of pharmaceuticals spanning polymorphism, solvate, co-crystal and salt formation and studies of amorphous systems. Extensive experience in the formation of pharmaceutical particles in continuous processes using a range of technologies as part of the CMAC programme. Interests also in the development and application of new technologies to control and monitor crystallisation and pharmaceutical solids.

Approaches for the characterisation of particles are also widely used and physical analysis of crystalline pharmaceuticals with a focus on the influence of crystallisation processes on structure and critical pharmaceutically relevant attributes that dictates product performance. Exploitation of X-ray powder diffraction techniques for phase identification, structure determination from powder diffraction data and in-situ phase surveys including local order using variable-temperature X-ray powder diffraction are key areas.

Has published over 120 peer reviewed research papers in these areas and currently supervises a large multidisciplinary research group including pharmacists, chemists and chemical engineers.

Expertise

Back to staff profile

Prize And Awards

Bhattacharyya Award Ceremony: Recipient; 20/10/2025
The CrystEngComm Outstanding Paper Award: Recipient; 13/5/2025
Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (FRPS): Recipient; 2024
Best Poster Award @ CMAC Annual Open Day 2018: Recipient; 25/10/2018
Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Conference Science Medal: Recipient; 9/2004

More prizes and awards

Publications

Back to staff profile

Publications

Quality by digital design in action : a workflow for crystallisation and isolation: Houson Ian, Siddique Humera, Chong Magdalene WS, Robertson Murray, Turner Alice J, Nordon Alison, Osman Amal, Galindo Amparo, Dunn Andrew S, Johnston Blair, Benyahia Brahim, Brown Cameron J, Mustoe Chantal L, Price Chris J, Reilly Chris D, Adjiman Claire S, Jackson George, Prasad Elke, Halbert Gavin, Feilden Helen, Sefcik Jan, McGinty John, Robertson John, Smith Kenneth, Al-Attili Mais, McGowan Mark, Siddique Mariam, Pathan Momina, Rajoub Nazer, Hamilton Niki, Feeney Rachel, Brown Scott, Urwin Stephanie J, Bernet Thomas, Pickles Thomas, Li Wei, Florence Alastair J; International Journal of Pharmaceutics Vol 686 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.126343
In-silico analysis of API particle size and drug loading on direct compression tablet properties: Salehian Mohammad, Florence Alastair, Markl Daniel; International Particle Technology Forum (2025)
Quality by digital design to accelerate sustainable medicines development: Mustoe Chantal L, Turner Alice J, Urwin Stephanie J, Houson Ian, Feilden Helen, Markl Daniel, Al Qaraghuli Mohammed M, Chong Magdalene WS, Robertson Murray, Nordon Alison, Johnston Blair F, Brown Cameron J, Robertson John, Adjiman Claire, Batchelor Hannah, Benyahia Brahim, Bresciani Massimo, Burcham Christopher L, Cardona Javier, Cottini Ciro, Dunn Andrew S, Fradet David, Halbert Gavin W, Henson Mark, Hidber Pirmin, Langston Marianne, Lee Ye Seol, Li Wei, Mantanus Jérôme, McGinty John, Mehta Bhavik, Naz Tabbasum, Ottoboni Sara, Prasad Elke, Quist Per-Ola, Reynolds Gavin K, Rielly Chris, Rowland Martin, Schlindwein Walkiria, Schroeder Sven LM, Sefcik Jan, Settanni Ettore, Siddique Humera, Smith Kenneth, Smith Rachel, Srai Jagjit Singh, Thorat Alpana A, Vassileiou Antony, Florence Alastair J; International Journal of Pharmaceutics Vol 681 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2025.125625
Automated scale-up crystallisation DataFactory for model-based pharmaceutical process development : a Bayesian case study: Pickles Thomas, Leghrib Youcef, Weisshaar Matt, Gonacharuk Mikhail, Timperman Peter, Doherty Timothy, Ford David D, Moores Jonathan, Florence Alastair J, Brown Cameron J; Digital Discovery Vol 4, pp. 2025-2032 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1039/D4DD00406J
Mesoscopic solute-rich clusters in organic solutions: Yerragunta Manasa, Veliz Alejandro C, Warzecha Monika, Hadjiev Viktor G, Florence Alastair J, Zerze Gül H, Rimer Jeffrey D, Vekilov Peter G; Crystal Growth and Design Vol 25, pp. 3958–3967 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.5c00370
Accelerated medicines development using a digital formulator and a Self-Driving Tableting DataFactory: Salehian Mohammad, Florence Alastair, Markl Daniel; 6th APV Continuous Manufacturing Conference
(2025)

More publications

Research

Back to staff profile

Professional Activities

Small Molecule Matters Roundtable: Participant; 6/10/2025
PharmaTech Integrates 2025: Participant; 18/9/2025
PharmSci 2025: Participant; 10/9/2025
Life Sciences Strategy 2025-2035: Participant; 21/8/2025
2025 Accelerate Conference: Speaker; 11/8/2025
CMAC Summer School 2025: Participant; 9/6/2025

More professional activities

Projects

DTP 2224 University of Strathclyde | Paterson, Fraser: Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator) Prostredny, Martin (Co-investigator) Paterson, Fraser (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2029
AI enabled CMC Datafactory: Markl, Daniel (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2026
CERSI for the Digital Transformation of Medicines Development and Manufacturing: Markl, Daniel (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2026
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber-physical Systems for Medicine Development and Manufacturing (CEDAR) | Awan, Muhammad Asfand Yar: Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Brown, Cameron (Co-investigator) Awan, Muhammad Asfand Yar (Research Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 01-Jan-2029
DPN-MED: Digital Plug-and-Produce Network for Sustainable Medicines Development and Manufacturing: Fitzpatrick, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2025
DPN-MED: Digital Plug-and-Produce Network for Sustainable Medicines Development and Manufacturing: Fitzpatrick, Stephen (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Principal Investigator) Florence, Alastair (Co-investigator) Johnston, Blair (Co-investigator) Markl, Daniel (Co-investigator); 01-Jan-2025 - 30-Jan-2025