Meet our Team: Martin Ward

In this month's edition of our "Meet our Team" series, we are delighted to highlight Martin Ward, CMAC's Solid State Instrument Research Scientist.

Martin, originally from Tranent, East Lothian, has always had a fascination with science and engineering. During high school, he found enjoyment in his Maths and Chemistry classes, which influenced his decision to pursue a Chemistry degree at the University of Edinburgh. 

While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Martin was actively involved in a captivating project focused on chiral conglomerate crystallisation. He was fascinated by the complexity of such 'simple' systems and, more generally, how little was known about crystal formation. It was here that he realised he wanted to contribute to the understanding of crystal nucleation and why it occurs.   

Since then, everything Martin has been involved in has centred around crystals. His PhD focused on laser-induced nucleation, which is a technique that allows us to zap samples with a laser to cause crystals to form, and his postdoc applied laser nucleation methods to a pharmaceutical material in flow. He then worked as a solid form screening scientist at Pharma CRO, and later returned to academia to work on a high-pressure crystallography and crystallisation at a high-pressure project.  

With over six years of experience as a PDRA at CMAC, he has recently been promoted to Solid State Instrument Research Scientist. He said:  

“The main focus of my job is to plan and deliver the solid-state chemistry and solid form screening projects that come through CMAC. Part of this also includes the development of new capabilities within CMAC for work in this area, such as new solid form screening methods and solid-state analysis capabilities. This is something I am very excited to develop.” 

In his current role, Martin’s daily responsibilities vary from checking instruments, running samples, performing data analysis, giving training, and meeting with companies and partners to discuss ongoing projects.  

“My favourite thing about working at CMAC is having access to the wide range of solid-state chemistry instrumentation. This lets me get stuck into the science behind observations we make, and allows me the opportunity to deliver projects, regardless of what analysis is required to figure out a problem.” 

Martin's team is working on pharmaceutical solid form screening to determine how many different solid forms may be possible for the material of interest, which is a major goal at CMAC. The ultimate objective of this project is to develop predictive tools that enable the digital assessment of an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and provide an accurate estimation of how many solid forms can be expected from the target API. Martin is delighted to participate in this project, as it will be a major development in this area.  

He currently resides in the western part of Edinburgh with his wife and three daughters, aged 6, 4, and 9 months. On weekends, he enjoys spending time with his family and fishing on the River Clyde, Tweed or Annan, or in the Borders. His hobbies include video gaming and fly fishing, and some TV shows he recommends are Ted Lasso, Yellowstone, and Last of Us.  

Martin with his wife, Adele, and their two daughters, Rowan and Honor.

Martin getting ready to go fishing at the River Tay.

Martin and his daughter, Rowan.