[DMANET] PhD studentship at University College London: combinatorial optimisation approaches for biopharmaceutical facility design

Dear colleagues,
I would like to draw your attention to our three-year PhD Studentship in
the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies, starting 1 October 2013.


Project description:
Applications are invited for a PhD research studentship associated with the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies, leading to the award of a PhD degree. The Centre is hosted at University College London (UCL), in collaboration with Imperial College London, and focuses on the creation, delivery and dissemination of decision-support tools to enable lifecycle optimisation of novel macromolecular therapies. The Centre's user group is made up of companies, sector groups and networking organisations and provides guidance to the Centre on its research programme, potential impact of its research and transfer of the technology developed.

The goal of this PhD project is to devise a tool integrating cost modelling and multi-objective optimisation to address challenges associated with the design and operation of biopharmaceutical facilities. Based at UCL Biochemical Engineering, you will create process economics models to assess the cost-benefit of specific facility design decisions and develop combinatorial optimisation algorithms to identify the optimal facility configurations (e.g. mathematical programming models, evolutionary algorithms). You will also create simple and user-friendly interfaces to facilitate interaction with the tool and visualise outputs. You will benefit from the interaction with the Centre's user group.

Value of the Award:
Depending on how you meet the EPSRC's eligibility criteria, you may be entitled to a full or a partial award. A full award covers tuition fees at the UK/EU rate and an annual stipend of £15,590 (2013/14). A partial award covers fees at the UK/EU rate only.

Person Specification:
Applications are sought from candidates with a minimum of an upper-second-class Honours degree or a MSc in a related subject (biochemical engineering, industrial/manufacturing engineering, computer science, operations management, operational research or a related discipline). The ideal candidate will have computer programming experience; have good theoretical and practical knowledge of their subject area; have the ability to work in an interdisciplinary subject area and have the motivation to learn new subjects.

How to Apply:
To apply you should send your CV and a covering letter to Dr A. Sofia Simaria (a.simaria@ucl.ac.uk) by email. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship and state how your interests and experience relate to the project.

Supervisors:
Dr A. Sofia Simaria, Dr Suzanne Farid, Department of Biochemical Engineering, University College London
Sponsor:
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
Duration of the award:
3 year PhD; start date October 2013

Closing Date: 17th May 2013


For further information please contact:
Dr A. Sofia Simaria
E-mail: a.simaria@ucl.ac.uk
Phone: (++44)(0)2031084120
Department of Biochemical Engineering
University College London
Torrington Place
London WC1E 7JE
United Kingdom




-----------------------------------------------------------
Ana Sofia Simaria, PhD
Lecturer in Bioprocess Systems Engineering
The Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering
Department of Biochemical Engineering
University College London
Torrington Place
London, WC1E 7JE
UK

Tel: +44 (0)2031084120
E-mail: a.simaria@ucl.ac.uk
www.ucl.ac.uk/biochemeng
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/biochemeng/industry/epsrccentre
www.ucl.ac.uk/biochemeng/industry/mbi
www.vision-ucl.co.uk





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