Professor Jerry Heng
Background
Professor Jerry Heng is Professor in Particle Technology and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, and Editor-in-Chief of Chemical Engineering Research and Design. His research connects molecular-scale understanding with the engineering of medicines and advanced materials. A graduate of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Heng completed his PhD at Imperial in 2006, joined its academic staff in 2007 and became Professor in 2020. His work explores how surfaces and interfaces influence crystallisation, powder behaviour and pharmaceutical manufacturing, with a particular interest in protein crystallisation and the control of material properties. His 2026 research spans high-resolution crystal structures of pharmaceutical peptides, physics-informed machine learning for crystallisation, light-responsive functional crystals and lower-impact nanoparticle processing. Collaborations involving Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca connect this work with industrial challenges, from understanding complex molecules to developing predictive manufacturing models when experimental data are limited. Professor Heng received the McBain Medal in 2020 for contributions to colloid and interface science and the Royal Academy of Engineering–ExxonMobil Teaching Excellence Award in 2013. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Higher Education Academy. His career brings together research, education and editorial leadership, translating the science of how materials form into better ways of making them.
Research Interests
Approaches to Control Nucleation and Crystallisation of Small Molecules, Biocrystallisation as a Downstream Separation Step, Surface Properties in Processability and Manufacturability, Surface Energy Heterogeneity