Kevin Ward, PhD Biopharma Group

After graduating with a BSc in Chemistry and being attracted by an advertisement for a PhD studentship in pharmaceutical freeze-drying at Aston University in the UK, Kevin Ward began his career in lyophilisation in 1993. His PhD included studies on protein stabilisation; the preparation, loading and preservation of “stealth liposomes;” and the thermal properties of lyophilised amorphous and crystalline mixtures. Following his PhD, Kevin worked in the pharmaceutical industry and in vaccine development before joining the Biopharma Group in 2000 and, as Director of R&D, he has built up a team of dedicated freeze-drying scientists. Since that time, Kevin and his team have had experience of more than 2,500 unique projects for over 500 client companies worldwide, developed 3 analytical instruments, ran more than 400 training courses, and successfully secured EU- and UK- government funding for 15 novel research projects. He has appeared on BBC television for his team’s work on the preservation of red blood cells and has been an advisor to the BBC for one of their popular science shows. Kevin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a member of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. From 2000-2014, he was part of a not-for-profit focus group that produced a large number of technical monographs to support users of freeze-dryers, and he chaired the group from 2007-2014. He has been industrial supervisor to two doctoral students, an external examiner and a Visiting Lecturer at University College London and University of Sussex Pharmacy Schools in the UK. An author of numerous papers, book chapters and patents, Kevin continues to lecture on the international stage and co-edited a textbook on technological advances in freeze-drying that was published in January 2019.