Meet our Team: Dave Collins
This month’s edition of CMAC’s 'Meet our Team' series celebrates PhD Researcher Dave Collins, who is based at the University of Leeds.
Originally from Woking, Surrey, and now a PhD Researcher at the University of Leeds, Dave Collins has been an integral part of the CMAC team since October 2021. After completing his A-levels in Chemistry, Physics, Maths, and History at St John Baptist Sixth Form, Dave moved to Bath in 2017 to pursue his MChem. During this time, Dave worked part-time as an age-restricted mystery shopper.
During the third year of his degree, Dave had the opportunity to undertake an industrial placement with the Materials Characterisation Team at Pfizer in Sandwich, Kent. Upon returning to Bath, he began his Master’s project, investigating co-crystallisations between Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and excipient materials with Pollyanna Payne and Chick Wilson.
Following the completion of his MChem, Dave moved to Leeds to begin his PhD with CMAC. In this role, Dave collaborates with Anuradha Pallipurath and Sven Schroeder to study pharmaceutical crystal surfaces in partnership with AstraZeneca. The primary goal of his current project is to develop a methodology for identifying crystal facets using angle-resolved Raman data for samples unsuitable for direct single-crystal X-ray measurements. This approach provides information on the orientation of chemically important functional groups relative to the crystal surface, offering insight into the impact this orientation has on the physicochemical properties of pharmaceutical materials.
Dave’s schedule varies depending on the instruments he has booked. Typically, in a week, he spends half a day collecting PXRD data, a day or two collecting Angular Resolved Polarised Raman data, and the rest of the time processing data or writing code to process Raman data.
One professional achievement he takes pride in is synthesizing a few novel co-crystals as part of his MChem. More importantly, he is proud of the progress made and the trajectory of his PhD project. Outside of working on his own project, Dave also serves as the lab captain for the Pallipurath group lab. In this role, he is responsible for the general operations of the lab, including restocking disposables, disposing of generated waste, and setting up and maintaining equipment. He said:
“Even though I’m not based in the University of Strathclyde, I really enjoy the community aspect of CMAC and the opportunities to meet a wide range of people from both academia and industry. Events such as the CMAC Open Days and the Summer School events are a great way to explore the other projects at CMAC and find new ways of approaching problems.”
Outside of CMAC, Dave coaches the Under 12s Leeds Hyde Park football team and has been doing so since moving to Leeds. Typically, his Saturday mornings are spent coaching at Hyde Park, with matches on Sunday mornings. Outside of that, the rest of the weekend is occupied with watching Arsenal and relaxing (which he emphasises are two very separate activities). He said:
“A personal achievement that comes to mind was with Leeds Hyde Park, driving an hour to play away at a team unbeaten after 8 games and coming back to win 3-1. The drive back was far more enjoyable than the drive out there.”
In his spare time, he enjoys watching films and sport channels, and playing games.
