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Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
Rutgers logo
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Honors

•    R&D Council of New Jersey Chairman's Award, 2018
•    Elected member, USP expert committee on Quality Standards for Pharmaceutical Continuous Manufacturing, Nov. 2016
•    Inventor of the Year Award 2016, NJ Inventors Hall of Fame
•    Professor of the year Award, Rutgers School of Engineering, 2015
•    Rutgers University Teacher Scholar Award, 2015
•    University of Alberta Distinguished Speaker Award 2015
•    PSE Model-Based Innovation Prize 2013
•    American Institute of Chemical Engineers, North American Mixing Forum 2008 Award for Excellence and Sustained Contributions to Mixing Research and Practice
•    American Institute of Physics Prize (Gallery of Fluid Motion by Physics of Fluids) “Three-Dimensional Chaotic Mixing”, Physics of Fluids, Volume 16(9), S8, P.E. Arratia, MM. Alvarez, T. Shinbrot and F.M. Muzzio
•    Rutgers Board of Trustees Research Fellow (Gold Star) Award
•    Dupont Young Professor Award 1995-1997
•    Dupont Education Award 1998-2001
•    Hoechst-Celanese Young Professor Award, 1995
•    Merck Fellowship for Young Faculty Development, 1993-1997
•    3M Foundation Untenured Faculty Award, 1993, 1994, 1995
•    Exxon Education Foundation Award, 1992, 1993

 

Professional Experience

•    2006-Present Director, NSF Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems
•    2005-2011 Director, NSF-NIH Nanopharmaceutical Engineering IGERT training program
•    President, Integra Continuous Manufacturing Systems
•    1996-2016 President and Owner, Mixing Consultants Inc
•    2012-2014 Chief Scientific Officer, Acumen Biopharma LLC
•    2015 Member, “Promoting Adoption of Continuous Manufacturing”, an FDA workshop organized by the Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, October 2015.
•    2015 Member, Scientific Advisory Board on API/Formulation interfaces, Astra Zeneca, UK, July 2015
•    2015 Member, NSF Review panel on Foresights, August 2015.
•    2015 Member, NSF ERC Blue Ribbon Award Recommendation panel, 1/26-1/29, 2015
•    2014-Present Consulting Member, Committee on Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacology, U.S. FDA.
•    2010-2014 Voting Member, Committee on Pharmaceutical Sciences and Clinical Pharmacology, U.S. FDA.
•    2008-Present Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Pharmaceutical Engineering Research Center, Graz University, Austria
•    2008-Present Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Rutgers Energy Institute
•    2008-Present Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Rutgers Institute for Advanced Materials, Devices, and Nanotechnology
•    2008-2014 Member, Board of Directors, Rutgers Center for Innovative Ventures and Technology
•    2014-2018 International Editorial Board member, Chemical Engineering Science
•    2011-Present Editorial Board member, Integrated Pharmacy Research and Practice
•    2007-Present Editorial Board member, Journal for Pharmaceutical Innovation
•    2004-Present Editorial Board member, Pharmaceutical Technology
•    2004 Committee of Visitors, NSF Program on Nanoscale Science and Technology, June 2004
•    2000-2003 Member, PQRI working Group on Blend Homogeneity
•    Reviewer; NSF; AIChE J.; Physics of Fluids A; Advances in Polym. Tech.; Ind. and Eng. Chem. Res; J. Am. Ceramic Soc., Chem. Eng. Sci., J. Fluid Mech., Int. J. Pharmaceutics, Pharm Research, Drug Dev. & Ind. Pharmacy, J. Chem. Eng., etc.
•    2001-2003 Member, College Appointments and Promotions Committee
•    Consultant, ExxonMobil, Merck and Co., DuPont, M&M Mars, Pfizer, National Starch and Chemical Co., Hoechst-Celanese, Abbott, Watson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Hockmeyer, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Amoco, Dexter, Koch-Glitch, NIRO-GEA, GSK, Wyeth, Allergan, Sepracor, Natural Alternatives International, Schering-Plough, ILC Dover, Haldor-Topsoe, Patheon, Irvine Scientific, Johnson and Johnson, Vertex, Eli Lilly, Altana, Tunnell, Robertet Flavors USA, Orion Pharma, Glatt Air Technologies, Alion Science, Medtronic, Estee Lauder, Colorcon, Leidos, Astra Zeneca, Dr. Reddy, Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, Egalet, Hisun, Infinitus.
•    Expert Witness, Carlson & Caspers LLP, Winston & Strawn LLP, Frommer, Lawrence & Haug LLP, Paul Hastings LLP, Budd Larner LLP, Knobbe Martens LLP, Holland and Knight LLP, McCarthy-Tetrault LLP (Canada); Goodwin Procter LLP; Greenburg & Traurig LLP, Fitzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto LLP; Hunton & Williams LLP, Lowenstein & Sanders LLP; Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP, Kenyon & Kenyon LLP, Leydig, Voit & Mayer LLP, Morrison and Foerster LLP, Latham & Watkins LLP, Stene, Kessler, Goldtein and Fox LLP, Aitken& Klee LLP; Fish and Richardson LLP; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

 

Education

•    Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, Thesis: "Non-Linearity, Chaos, and Self-Similarity: Effects of Mixing, Aggregation, Reaction, and Breakup on Structure Formation." (Advisor: Prof. Julio M. Ottino), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1991
•    B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Mar del Plata, Argentina, 1985

 

Research Interests

•    Continuous manufacturing, Pharmaceutical product and process design, Pharmaceutical product performance characterization and optimization, Drug delivery, Pharmaceutical process modeling and simulation, Blending of powders, Material properties of powders, liquids, and suspensions.
•    My professional career has focused on developing and applying systematic engineering methodologies for the design and optimization of pharmaceutical products and processes. My work has included the study of many manufacturing methods, including liquid mixing, powder blending, granulation, tableting, and coating. In the last 15 years, my focus gradually shifted to continuous processes. I started a research consortium on this topic in 2002 and expanded it in 2006 when the NSF ERC on Structured Organic Particulate Systems was funded. As director of this large center, I had an opportunity to learn how to manage a large research enterprise across multiple institutions and supported by many companies. The ERC succeeded in demonstrating the advantages of continuous manufacturing, which in the last five years has become a priority at the FDA, BARDA, and the pharmaceutical industry. During this same period, we initiated a major Advanced Manufacturing partnership with Janssen pharmaceuticals, leading to the development of a continuous process for the anti-HIV medication Prezista, which was the first conversion from batch to continuous approved by FDA in April 2016. More recently, we launched an Advanced Manufacturing partnership with GSK
•    Overall, through my work in pharmaceutical manufacturing, I have authored over 300 publications, with half of those related to continuous processes. This work also enabled me to assemble a very strong team of colleagues, post docs, and students, and to develop a very strong infrastructure dedicated to materials characterization, process development, and product testing.