Chair of Formulation Science

The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Biography

In 2024, David was appointed to the Chair in Formulation Science in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh where he works closely with the Edinburgh Complex Fluids Partnership and their industrial partners and collaborators. In addition, David co-supervises several PhD students working on topical formulations and skin barrier science in collaboration with colleagues in Physics, Engineering, and Dermatology, as well as industrial sponsors. David has been involved in biophysical studies of skin, membranes, hair, and mineralised tissue, as well as cosmetic and pharmaceutical topical formulation development for 25 years. He has worked in the US and UK for GSK, Unilever, International Specialty Products (now Ashland), TRI-Princeton, and Tioga Research. In addition to his industrial roles, David has held visiting academic positions at Rutgers University, Princeton University, and University College London, he is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati and an adjunct fellow of TRI-Princeton. David has served as an industrial advisor and sponsor to doctoral students at Stanford, Princeton, Vanderbilt, and Rutgers in the US and UCL, Imperial College, and the universities of Newcastle, Durham, Leeds, and Edinburgh in the UK. An inventor on several patents and the co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed papers, review articles and book chapters, David is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and was co-chair of the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on The Barrier Function of Mammalian Skin.