Gillian Barnes Thomson

I joined Heriot-Watt as a Lecturer in Chemical Engineering in September 1997, following a year working as a Post-doctoral Research Associate. I am a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and hold Chartered Chemist and Scientist designations. I am also an Associate Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. Research interests focus on the application of computer simulation to investigate crystallisation, solid-state and surface processes in engineering applications. Fields of application have included pharmaceutical materials processing, oilfield-scale applications, and dyes and pigments.

I graduated with a degree in Pure and Applied Chemistry in 1992 from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, during which time I undertook an industrial placement at Hannah Research Institute (Ayr, Scotland), investigating the effect of processing conditions on the whitening power of dairy formulated emulsions for tea/coffee, sponsored by the Klix Division of the Mars Group. I then accepted a PhD studentship, sponsored by DuPont (Wilmington, USA), to work at Strathclyde with Prof. Kevin Roberts, in collaboration with Keele University (Dr. Robert A. Jackson). The resultant PhD thesis, "Predicting the Solid-state and Surface Properties of a range of Alkali Salts containing Molecular Anions" was awarded in 1997.