Welcome to the Beaker Society's 2017 Committee

The Beaker Society is the postgraduate society at The UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering and each year a new committee is appointed. We are very pleased to welcome Alex Olivares Molina, Vincent Wiegmann, Greta Jasulaityte, Arman Amini, Akash Pandya and Mauricio Martin Bufajer to their new roles and are grateful to them for taking time to tell us about their new roles.

Alex (far left), Vice-President

I studied an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology Engineer at UdeC, Chile. Here in UCL I'm developing a framework to optimise the cascading extraction processes in a macroalgae-based biorefinery using novel technologies in order to improve the biomass usage and yield. In the new Beaker society my role is Vice-President. 

Vincent (left, back), Treasurer

My EngD project explores the optimisation and scale translation of a cell culture process using a new microbioreactor. Previously, I studied bioprocess engineering at the University of Braunschweig in Germany and worked at the biotech company Glycotope in Berlin for my masters project. I am excited to take on the role as treasurer of Beakers and am looking forward to all the fun events we have planned.

Greta (centre), Secretary

I did my BSc in Biotechnology at the University of Manchester followed by a year in Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies working on downstream processing. This led to doing an EngD in Biochemical Engineering here at UCL, where I'm also working on downstream processes, specifically chromatography.

Arman (2nd from right), Event Organiser

I did my undergrad degree in Biomedical Sciences and my MSc in Biochemical Engineering both at UCL. This is my sixth year at UCL and currently I am doing my PhD with Farlan on designing a platform for CAR-T Bioprocessing.

Akash (right), Social Media Secretary

I studied the MSc in Biochemical Engineering. I’m a first year PhD, researching protein-excipient interactions in liquid biopharmaceutical formulations. 

Mau (front), President

I studied an undergraduate degree in Biotechnology Engineer in Mexico and a Master in Science in Biochemical Engineering at UCL. I am currently researching non-column chromatography separation processes increase productivity. As the president of Beakers and I’ll be looking forward on working with all of you

What are you looking forward to?

We’ve enjoyed event that have been arranged by the previous Beakers committee, but we’re planning more to foster integration between the individual teams here in The Department of Biochemical Engineering - we find that people on different floors in Bernard Katz don’t know enough about what each other’s groups are up to. We aim to unite the department more through the things we organise.

What are the next things we can expect?

We’re trying to get a cricket match up for Thursday (get in touch with Mau to find out more). We’re going to be organising a BBQ, the Halloween pub crawl has become a regular fixture and we’ll be starting to plan that soon, freshers’ week is something we’re really looking forward to. We’d like to have something in the diary to take place between Jan and Feb because there’s not much going on at that time of the year and we need to have something to look forward to.

Best of luck to everyone and thanks for your time!