Management Board Members

Professor Andrew Livingston

Andrew Livingston, FREng, FIChemE, Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London has published 220+ papers in refereed journals, obtained 15 patents, and graduated 53 PhD students since 1990. He has an h-index (web of science) of 37. He is currently PI on EPSRC PLATFORM grant EP/J014974; and he holds several funded projects with companies including BP, Lanxess, Evonik, GSK, and Novartis-MIT. He was elected FREng in 2006, and became the Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial in 2008. The AGL Group comprises some 15 post-docs and PhD students, with expertise in membrane fabrication, characterisation, modelling and simulation, and in applications of membrane technology to chemical processes. The group was an early leader in the field of Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN), being the first to develop post-formation chemical crosslinking of membranes to stabilise them in strong organic solvents, and discovering methods to tune their molecular weight cut-off. This was followed by the first thin film composites by interfacial polymerisation for OSN in strong aprotic solvents. The most recent advances include thin film nanocomposites employing Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs), and the first poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) OSN membranes, with excellent stability in harsh conditions (organic bases in DMF at 80-90oC). AGL contributions to the UK’s competitiveness include founding a spin-out company, Membrane Extraction Technology Ltd. (MET). MET licensed the technology for cross-linked polymer membranes from Imperial College developed through EPSRC funded research. Under AGLs leadership MET developed the equipment and proprietary processes for membrane and membrane module manufacture, including preparation of polymer solutions, casting and then drying membranes, and spiral module rolling. MET began a period of rapid growth, and was acquired under favourable terms on 1 March 2010 by Evonik Industries AG. Evonik have since set up a new manufacturing facility in West London, and the UK is now the global leader in manufacture of solvent stable membranes. AGL was awarded the Junior Moulton Medal of the IChemE in 1993, led a team which won the Cremer and Warner Medal of the IChemE in 1997, and was awarded the Silver. 

Click here for Professor Livingston's group website.