Christopher Burcham

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Biography

Before joining the Illinois faculty in 2025, Dr. Christopher Burcham was an Executive Director in the Synthetic Molecule Design and Development (SMDD) Department at Eli Lilly & Company. At Lilly, Burcham led the Particle Engineering group in SMDD where he was responsible for the technical supervision and advancement of both crystallization and absorption enabling platforms. Burcham also chaired the Scientific Advisory Board and was responsible for the strategic direction and review of all external technology initiatives in SMDD. He also has served as a Scientific Team Leader, responsible for the technical oversight of drug substance and drug product development, including process and product development, regulatory registration, and technology transfer into Lilly Manufacturing for ReyVow, which is now on the market. Burcham was also involved in the development of several other products currently on the market. Burcham started his career at The Dow Chemical Company before making the move to Eli Lilly in 2002. During his time in industry, Burcham's career was centered in process development, working at the interface between formulated products and active ingredients, and was built on his educational foundations of fluid mechanics, transport and interfacial science. Throughout his professional career, he focused his research efforts on separations sciences, primarily in the discipline of crystallization and other particle formation technologies. Burcham received his Ph.D. from Princeton University (Saville, 1998) and his B.S. from the University of Illinois (1991), both in chemical engineering. He is a Fellow in the American Institute of Engineers. Burcham has been very involved in AIChE over the years, serving as Programming Chair, Director on the Executive Board and many times as Session Chair. He currently serves as Vice Chair for the Separations Division. In 2024, he received the AIChE Industrial Research and Development Institute Award. Among his other examples of industrial and academic partnership, he served as the Technical Committee Chair with the University of Strathclyde's Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallization Consortium and as Principal Advisor for multiple post-doctoral projects. He currently serves on the Programming Committee for the Association of Crystallization Technology. He holds three patents, has more than 50 peer reviewed publications, and has given over 100 external presentations.

Education

• Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical Engineering, 1998
• Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Master of Arts in Chemical Engineering, 1994
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, December 1991

Academic Positions

• Professor of the Practice, August 2025 – present Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
• Visiting Professor, July 2022 – July 2025 Department of Chemical and Process Engineering University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland

Other Professional Employment

• Research Assistant The University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 1989-1990
• Process Engineering Intern The Pillsbury Company, Minneapolis, MN 1990
• Teaching Assistant The University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 1990-1991
• Research Chemical Engineer Intern Mobil Research and Development Laboratory - Exploration and Production, Dallas, TX 1991
• Research Chemical Engineer Intern Mobil Research and Development Laboratory - Exploration and Production, Dallas, TX 1992
• Graduate Student Princeton University - Department of Chemica Engineering, Princeton, NJ 1992-1997
• Functional Specialist, The Dow Chemical Company - Corporate Research and Development, Midland, MI 1998 - 1999
• Research Engineer, The Dow Chemical Company/Dow AgroSciences - New Product Development, Indianapolis, IN, 1999 - 2000
• Senior Research Engineer, The Dow Chemical Company/Dow AgroSciences - New Product Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2000 - 2002
• Research Engineer, Eli Lilly and Company - Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2002 – 2003
• Senior Research Engineer, Eli Lilly and Company - Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2003 – 2007
• Associate Engineering Advisor, Eli Lilly and Company - Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2007 – 2010
• Engineering Advisor, Eli Lilly and Company - Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2010 – 2013
• Senior Engineering Advisor, Eli Lilly and Company - Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2013 – 2022
• Executive Director – Engineering, Eli Lilly and Company - Synthetic Molecule Design and Development, Indianapolis, IN, 2022 – 2025

Major Consulting Activities

• • NSF Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems, Particle Formation and Stabilization in Aqueous Media, 2006 – 2012.
• • Solid-State Pharmaceutical Cluster (SSPC) – University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, 2007 – 2013.
• • Synthesis and Solid-State Pharmaceutical Cluster (SSPC) – University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, 2013 – 2016.
• • Enabling Technologies Consortium – Crystallization Working Group, 2015 – present.
• Industrial Mentor
• • Nano-CEMMS (Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems) University of Illinois - Champaign, IL, 2003 – 2011.
• • High Shear Mixing Consortium, University of Maryland, 2007 – 2014
• o Collaboration between faculty at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of California – Santa Barbara.
• • Process Systems Engineering Consortium, 2006 – 2015.
• • Process Systems Enterprise, Limited – gFORMULATE, gCRYSTAL, gSOLIDS, Systems Based Pharma, 2011 – 2020
• • International Symposium on Industrial Crystallization – ISIC20 Scientific Review Committee Member, Dublin, Ireland, September 3-6, 2017.
• • Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallization (CMAC) – University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, 2016 – present; Technical Committee Chair, 2018 – present.
• • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Undergraduate Program External Advisory Committee – University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL. 2023 – present.
• • Chemical Engineering Professional Master’s Program – Advisory Panel, Purdue University, 2023 – present.
• • 8th International Conference on Population Balance Modeling (PBM2025), Scientific Committee, Purdue University, West LaFayette, IN, August 8-11, 2025.
• • Welch Center for Advanced Bioactive Materials Crystallization – President, Industrial Advisory Board, University of Houston, March 2025 – present.
• Industrial Advisory Board Member