Dr Thomas Turner

Profile

Dr Thomas Turner is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in High Throughput Crystallization and Analysis in the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds, where his current research focuses on molecular solid solutions, investigating how the incorporation of small organic molecules into host crystal structures can be used to modulate material properties such as solubility, polymorphism, crystal morphology, and dissolution behaviour. He completed his PhD at the University of Leeds, where he studied crystallisation of organic and pharmaceutical materials, with a focus on nucleation using in-situ synchrotron X-ray scattering. He then undertook postdoctoral research using molecular modelling to predict particle morphology, surface chemistry, and mechanical properties of organic materials, and to understand their impact on pharmaceutical processing. He has also worked on the development of the EPSRC-funded national facility FlowXl, which combines in-situ X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy to study nucleation and crystallisation in flow systems.

Research interests

• Experimental crystallization science to probe the fundamental apects of crystal nucleation and growth kinetics using poly and iso-thermal methodologies
• Synchrotron radiation techniques for probing short (Å) and long (nm) range structural order during crystallization processes using in-situ sample cells and environments
• Crystal engineering through the use of multi-scale modelling tools to translate bulk inter-molecular (synthonic) crystal chemistry to surface and surface-interfacial chemistry for particle morphology prediction and particle design
• In-situ experimental characterization of crystallization processes using infrared, Raman and UV-vis spectroscopy together with X-ray methods such as diffraction and tomography

Qualifications

• PhD Chemical Engineering
• Master of Chemistry