News and updates
We say farewell to Qasim…
Dr Qasim Rafiq, EPSRC E-TERM Landscape Fellow, will be leaving the EPSRC Centre in February to take up a Lectureship position in Industrial Biotechnology at Aston University. Qasim will be supporting the development of a new research centre which will integrate Aston’s School of Life & Health Sciences, School of Engineering and emerging Medical School. Separately, he will be initiating an activity closely aligned with the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI).
Qasim joined Loughborough University from University College London as part of the first cohort of the CDT in Regenerative Medicine and was awarded the E-TERM Fellowship upon completion of his PhD. Qasim’s research has focussed on the development of scalable systems for the manufacture of human mesenchymal stem cells and during his time at Loughborough, has 5+ research articles and numerous oral presentation and poster awards.
Although Qasim is leaving, he will be maintaining close connections with Loughborough University and will be co-supervising a PhD student with Dr Elizabeth Ratcliffe and which will involve a collaboration with Aston University.
He said, “The CDT and E-TERM Fellowship programmes have been career-defining opportunities and I am indebted to the support of all within the Centre for Biological Engineering, and more broadly, the EPSRC Centre. It is with a heavy heart that I opt to leave, however I look forward to the exciting new challenge presented to me at Aston where I will be building on the existing research expertise and have been tasked with helping develop a new research centre which will combine medics, engineers and life-scientists. I will be keeping in close contact with the Centre and would certainly be keen to establish collaboration with Centre colleagues in the future.”
Dr Qasim Rafiq can continue to be contacted via his Loughborough email address or alternatively via his Aston email address .
We’ve also had a few other recent leavers upon successful completion of their PhDs:
• Dr David Smith, Biomedical Engineer at Progenitor Cell Therapy, New York, US
• Dr Husnah Hussein, Post-doctoral Researcher in human stem cell bioprocessing at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
• Dr Tim Morris, Process Engineer at Advanced Medical Solutions, Cheshire, UK