Dr Clarissa Wilding

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds in 2019 for my PhD, after obtaining a MSc in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham. I graduated from my PhD in Chemical and Process Engineering in 2023, where my thesis was on the development of artificially intelligent reactors for precision polymer synthesis, under the supervision of Dr Nick Warren and Professor Richard Bourne. This work focused on the derivation of a novel explicit model for dispersity as a function of conversion based on the mechanistic modelling of Reversible Addition-Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT) Polymerisation. This was then used to direct an autonomous self-optimising platform to further reduce the cost and waste of the optimisation process.  

From the beginning of 2023, I worked within Dr Nick Warren’s Group, developing an autonomous continuous flow platform capable of performing hazardous but industrially relevant polymerisations, in collaboration with Infineum. I am currently working as a Research Fellow on the “DigiScale” EPSRC grant led by Professor Thomas Chamberlain, where I aims to make use of my understanding of kinetic modelling and machine learning to identify important rate parameters for the synthesis of APIs, towards a digital twin.

Research interests

• Automation and machine learning for the development of self-optimising flow reactors and high-throughput screening platforms for data generation.
• Kinetic modelling of small molecule reactions and polymerisation.
• Data mining for reaction parameter estimation.
• Software development for improved accessibility of machine learning and modelling techniques for synthetic chemists.
• Polymerisation techniques: Radical and anionic polymerisation.

Qualifications

• MSc Chemistry
• Ph.D. Chemical and Process Engineering

Professional memberships

• Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry