JPAG Pharmaceutical Analysis Careers Fair and Research Awards Symposium, RSC 11th November 2025
Student bursary report- Elizabeth Anne Wolf (M.Sc, University of Strathclyde)
I am a recently graduated MSc student from the University of Strathclyde. I studied pharmaceutical analysis completing my thesis on “Determining pKa by RP-HPLC of N,N-Dimethylbenzylamine as a Model for Ionizable Lipids.” In my research I worked on method development for an HPLC method to determine the pKa of a tertiary amine as a proof of concept for the work to eventually be applied to ionizable lipids used in lipid nanoparticle formulations.
My motivation for attending the JPAG Pharmaceutical Analysis Careers Fair and Research Awards Symposium was firstly to present a poster presentation on the research I did for my masters thesis and secondly to network with peers, experienced academics, and industrial scientists, in addition to taking advantage of the career advising available through the career fair.
The Joint Pharmaceutical Analysis Group (JPAG) has over 1,500 members worldwide and is jointly sponsored by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Its remit is “to encourage, assist and extend the knowledge and study of pharmaceutical analysis and quality control by the holding of scientific meetings, the promotion of lectures, practical demonstrations and discussions”. The Group is very active and organises up to eight meetings a year addressing all aspects of pharmaceutical analysis and many related facets of medicine control and registration. One meeting every year is allotted for Short Papers, with prizes awarded for the best presentations by less experienced analysts. Some meetings are held in collaboration with other RSC interest groups and other organisations.
The Pharmaceutical Analysis Symposium is geared towards early career scientists (undergraduate, postgraduate, industrial) highlighting both oral and poster presentations on the latest research being carried out by my peers. In addition a careers fair runs in parallel during the symposium and provides the opportunity to have 1:1 consultations with career advisors from a selection of pharmaceutical employers and organisations including major pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations and recruitment advisors. Additionally, there were two keynote speakers as well as a talk from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Careers Team on “Job Hunting in the Pharmaceutical Industry”
The first keynote of the day was Dr. James Heaton (GSK), who I had previously met as a guest lecturer during my MSc course. His talk was on “Pivoting from Academia towards Development and Discovery Science in the Pharmaceutical Industry as a Separations Scientist” I really appreciated his talk but I think at this point in my career trajectory, I would have preferred more focus on Dr. Heaton’s move from academia to industry than focus on the science he does, although that was quite interesting as well. I particularly liked to hear how the skills I’ve been learning are applied in industry to help create new medications. His best advice for people entering industry was to “learn the business” and know where the stakeholders are.
This first keynote was followed by the talk on “Job Hunting in the Pharmaceutical Industry” from Mrs. Laura Woodward (Royal Society of Chemistry) which was quite helpful and provided information on the best place to look for relevant jobs and included information on speculative applications that I found helpful. She also talked about figuring out what sort of role interests you and then searching for that.
The second keynote was at the end of the day and by Dr. Caroline Copeland (King’s College London). She spoke on “Publishing, Parenting, and Perseverance: Navigating an Academic Career Without a Break.” I really appreciated her talk and think it gave me a new appreciation for mothers in academia as well as a look at what academia really entails. One thing she emphasized throughout her talk was “protecting your time” and having a plan. I hope to take this advice as I move forward in my career.
There were eight oral presentations by early career scientists split into two sessions. The first session included Mrs. Indigo Dean (Pharmaron), ‘Optimising HTE polymorph and salt screening of pharmaceutical compounds using Thermal Analysis.’ Ms. Lucy Goodacre (King’s College London), ‘Analysis of Sumatriptan Deposition in Mucus-Lined Nasal Cavity Models.’ Miss Lucy Smith (Pharmaron), ‘Normal phase chiral chromatography – screening and workflow optimisation.’ And Ms. Helena Friedrich (King’s College London), ‘O-PTIR and Synchrotron AFM-IR spectroscopy for probing microplastics in mammalian cells at subcellular level.’ The second session included Mr. Amar Rai (Imperial College London), ‘Benchmarking Mass Spectrometry Structural Elucidation Tools: Assessing the Universal Fragmentation Model (UFM) on baxdrostat and zibotentan.’ Ms. Phoebe McManus (AstraZeneca), ‘Accelerated Predictive Stability for Starting Material and Intermediate Retest Period Management.’ Ms. Isabel Baskaran (University College London), ‘Nitrosamines measurements by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS).’ and Dr. Matthew Wallace (University of East Anglia), ‘Aqueous pKa determination of water insoluble drugs in a single NMR measurement.’
Mrs. Indigo Dean was the winner of the The Geoffrey Philips Analytical Science Award for her podium presentation and received £1000 to use towards presenting her research at another conference. Ms. Lucy Goodacre was the podium presentation runner up and received £250. Ms. Sinead McCade (King’s College London) was the poster presentation award winner for her poster on ‘Inhibition of viral entry by heparan sulfate mimicking polymetric nanoparticles.’ Mr. Jack Kerr (AstraZeneca) and Mrs. Rama Hassoun (University College London) were the poster presentation runners up for their research on ‘Development and implementation of a rapid, accessible platform for the analysis of process waste streams by gas chromatography’ and ‘Analytical methods to evaluate antibody conjugation on polymeric nanoparticles’ respectively. I particularly appreciated Dr. Matthew Wallace’s podium presentation on pKa determination as it is most relevant to the work I did for my thesis.
There were 24 people, including myself, presenting posters. During the time for circulating to view posters, I was able to present my research to multiple interested people as well as network with my peers from both academia and industry. The opportunity to talk to people further along in their careers was quite valuable to me and I truly believe this has been an enlightening opportunity for me.
The career fair was exciting and included information from multiple companies and recruiting agencies. I really appreciated getting to hear from current employees of these companies about what working in industry is like as well as how the skills I’ve built through my degree could be applied to jobs.
Reflecting, I had a wonderful time and really appreciated the ability to present my research, both because I am passionate about the topic and for the ability gain more practice in scientific communication. I also valued the ability to connect with peers both in academia and industry especially as I am on the precipice of the next chapter of my career and still not sure which of these paths I am most eager to pursue.
I would like to thank the Chromatographic Society for funding my attendance to the symposium, The Joint Pharmaceutical Analysis Group for allowing me to present a poster on my recent research as well as send appreciation to the Royal Society of Chemistry for being exceptional hosts!
