Bristol-Myers Squibb-UCD Strategic Partnership - Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering Lectures

^{Some members of the team of BMS Guest Lecturers, 2017/18 and/or 2018/19 (L-R): Dr. Gearóid Duane, Senior Scientist, MS&T (Upstream); Dr. Nripen Singh, formerly Assoc. Director, MS&T (Downstream) and Adjunct Professor in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering; Aedín Hogan, Senior Scientist, MS&T (Downstream);  Dr. Andrew Kelly, Manager, Manufacturing Technology (Upstream).} 

Over the past two academic years, as part of the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS)-UCD Strategic Partnership, the UCD School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering has welcomed experts in bioprocessing technology from the BMS campus at Cruiserath to Belfield, as guest lecturers. The lectures, delivered as part of a total of 6 core modules within the Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering, Chemical Engineering with Biochemical Engineering Minor and Biopharmaceutical Engineering degree programmes, have provided undergraduate and postgraduate students with invaluable opportunities to gain a real insight into the commercial application of chemical and bioprocess engineering principles within a modern biopharmaceutical facility. 

For 2017/18, the series was coordinated at BMS by Dr Jessica Whelan, Assoc. Director, MS&T (Upstream); for 2018/19 by Dr Nripen Singh, formerly Assoc. Director, MS&T (Downstream).  Dr Singh, currently an Adjunct Prof. in the School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering, worked with Dr. Steven Ferguson, Asst. Professor in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering, on the development and delivery of lectures on Chromatography, as part of an Advanced Separation Processes module for Semester 1 2018/19. The BMS lecturing team included experienced professionals from a wide range of academic disciplines (including two graduates from the School, Dr Jessica Whelan (UCD BE 2002, PhD 2009) and Dr Gearóid Duane (UCD BE 2008, PhD 2013), allowing students to gain an understanding of the diverse roles which Chemical, Chemical & Bioprocess and Biopharmaceutical Engineers can play within the biopharmaceutical industry in Ireland. 

The BMS lectures, totalling 28 hours to date, have focussed on the principles and implementation of elements of commercial bioprocessing, rooted in science and engineering. The School gratefully acknowledges the support of BMS in providing these lecture series, which constitute a very meaningful and extremely valuable addition to our degree programmes. We look forward to welcoming the BMS lecturers back to campus in Spring 2020.

The BMS lectures in Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering represent just one element of the wide-ranging BMS-UCD Strategic Partnership. BMS provides UCD students (from a range of disciplines including Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering) with short- and longer-term placement opportunities at Cruiserath, in the departments of Manufacturing, Science & Technology (MS&T), Manufacturing Technology, Manufacturing Engineering and Manufacturing. UCD have worked with BMS in delivering the company's Corporate Social Responsibility STEM programme: since 2018 over 100 students from schools in Dublin 15 have attended outreach labs in the UCD O'Brien Centre for Science, supported by BMS.

2017/18

Bioreactor Control [Dr Gearóid Duane, Senior Scientist, MS&T (Upstream)]

Filtration [Aedín Hogan, Senior Scientist, MS&T (Downstream)]

Tech Transfer for mAb Production [Padraig Landers, Site Quality Director]

Chromatography [Dr Nripen Singh, formerly Assoc. Director, MS&T (Downstream)]

Information Management & Automation Systems  [Darren O'Brien, formerly Automation & IT Manager]

2018/19

Bioreactor Control [Dr Gearóid Duane, Senior Scientist, MS&T (Upstream)]

Separations [Aedín Hogan, Senior Scientist, MS&T (Downstream)]

Tech Transfer for mAb Production [Dr Andrew Kelly, Manager, Manufacturing Technology (Upstream)]

Chromatography [Dr Nripen Singh, formerly Assoc. Director, MS&T (Downstream)]