Sara Pourjafar

• Taught General Chemistry course, providing instruction to up to 45 undergraduate students.
• Used variety of learning modalities and support materials to facilitate learning process and accentuate presentations.
• Engaged students with insightful and compelling classroom discussion of topics relevant to coursework to boost student learning and retention.
• Organized, prepared and revised Chemistry course material and applied technological options for online and course-related software.
• Developed creative and effective teaching methods for course content to capture students attention.

• Developed integrated systems and processes for collaboration across the Pharmaceutical Development (PD)/Commercial interface.
• Led assessments on new products, issuing formal technical reports and adding to key development milestones review forums.
• Incorporated process feedback into development strategy through attendance of key projects weekly technical meetings with PD.
• Expanded project knowledge through 1-1 sessions with lead researchers in PD, shadowing of lab work and pilot plant campaigns, stakeholder in the design of experiments etc.
• Assisted the PD group with technology selection, process development and optimization.
• Evaluated process gaps prior to validation and partner with PD to prioritize execution plan. Ownership of generation of continuous improvement ideas post validation, which support reduction of residual risks and overall cost of goods.
• Led facility fit assessments during technology transfer of new client manufacturing processes.
• Led the assessment of client manufacturing requirements against internal capabilities to identify any equipment or facility gaps.
• Technical review documentation supporting tech transfer and production and provide technical support.
• Provided SME support for equipment related investigations and support to facilities to address any adverse equipment events.
• Monitored and analyzed transferred process performance and troubleshoot technical difficulties as requested by management.
• Led Six Sigma projects to streamline processes.
• Modified production processes to reduce non-conforming material occurrences.

• Performed complex troubleshooting and assisted in leading initiatives to solve challenging scientific problems with assays or instrumentation.
• Trained new employees on areas of technical expertise and compliance issues relevant to lab setting.
• Simultaneously managed several complex projects, meeting all pertinent milestones.
• Read literature related to scientific area of expertise to remain current in knowledge.
• Authored over 10 technical documents outlining research processes, procedures and findings.
• Devised statistical models, algorithms and software systems to better serve research needs.
• Led Technology Transfer activities including: fit-to-plant, process risk analysis, managed technical relationship between sending and receiving organizations, campaign monitoring and support, performed analysis and interpretation, and investigation support.
• Served as Drug Substance process Workstream Lead for both clinical and commercial projects at FMC.
• Led lab-scale experiments to support process improvement projects and/or resolve manufacturing deviations.
• Data extraction through programming with Python in SIMCA workspace.
• Mathematical model development to correlate the process variables to analytical results where the process modeling is independent from the previous campaigns process behavior.
• Created an upstream process dashboard in PI Vision to facilitate the process monitoring for production process leads and MS&T teams.

The MS&T Engineer III supports GMP manufacturing operations as a project leader in transfer and start-up of clinical drug substance and drug product. The MS&T Engineer is actively engaged in the translation of client and Catalent process development information for implementation of cGMP processes. As the MS&T Engineer, I served as a subject matter expert (SME) for biologic Upstream/Downstream Processes.

• Partnered with GMP manufacturing and process development teams as the MS&T project lead & SME in the following areas: cell culture, purification and/or fill & finish processes
• Served as team leader for a $3 Million process and product investigation and authored investigation reports. Processed data mining and analysis resulted in major findings.
• Authored tech transfer documents, master production records and SOPs to support GMP manufacturing projects
• Collected and assessed process data for external (client) and internal review
• Assisted with training GMP Manufacturing staff on Client processes
• Evaluated and recommended equipment for client projects
• Liaised with distributors to supply goods and build strong and fruitful business relationships.

Grace is a major manufacturer of catalysts for refineries worldwide. As a quality engineer, I was involved in researching the paths to improve the quality of our products which is best compatible with customer’s different types of reactors (HDM, HDS, HDN, etc.)

• Contributed to root cause analysis to determine core reason for failures and errors.
• Developed an image processing code in MATLAB to reduce the process variability using online-streaming camera.
• Quality monitoring, analysis and control (response charts, sampling plans, GLIMS templates, quality release, CAR's, ISO, customer audits, etc). Ensures that the plant meets GMP and ISO requirements and incorporated these standards into daily work.
• Maintained compliance with industry standards and regulatory compliance during managed projects.
• Interacted closely with production engineers to interpret process results and correlate them to product test results,.
• Recommended & implemented corrective action for optimum plant quality performance (yield, quality, CPK/Ppk, cost, etc) and applied Six Sigma and Lean methodologies to improve processes.
• Developed and implemented process flow improvement and standardization projects.
• Proposed development and testing improvements to positively impact usability, function and performance.

• Performed complex troubleshooting and assisted in leading initiatives to solve challenging scientific problems with assays or instrumentation.
• Conducted moderately complex analysis to support process development.
• Simultaneously managed several complex projects, meeting all pertinent milestones.
• Performed concurrent design and manufacturing engineering and other functions to reduce time required to bring product to market.
• Completed a feasibility study on acid reclamation process which which resulted in $1.2M cost reduction per year on sulfuric acid.
• Managed a multimillion-dollar project on developing a new recipe for tubular positive paste for motive power batteries
• Designed and modeled a drying chamber using Ansys Fluent that eliminates the formation of dead-zones in terms of air circulation.
• Improved efficiency and effectiveness of performance and management of processes across departments.
• Conducted experiments in laboratory environment for product development purposes.
• Presented technologies, research advancements and industry updates to domestic and global agencies and companies.

• Used behavior modeling and specialized teaching techniques to share and reinforce social skills.
• Mentored students through office hours and one-on-one communication.
• Worked with teachers in evaluating student progress, needs and gains.
• Taught Advanced transport phenomena and unit operations in chemical engineering college-level courses for over 100 students.
• Maximized receptive learning by educating students using hands-on instructional techniques.
• Maintained atmosphere of academic learning and advancement to facilitate learning and development of critical thinking skills.
• Provided relevant and timely feedback on student assignments.

Dissertation topic: An Investigation of the Thermal Degradation of Lignin

The goal of this research is to explore non-biological lignin decomposition reactions with the end goal of identifying reaction conditions under which potential fuel and chemical intermediates that could be commercially generated.

• Designed and fabricated a turbulent flow reactor that allows very short (ca. one second residence times) reaction times.
• Synthesized commercially available alumina and silica/alumina catalyst with selected transition metals (Mo, Ni, Cu, etc).
• Increased process yields 5-8% and reduced labor costs greatly by developing continuous cracking reactor technology to replace highly inefficient batch reactor technology.
  • Reduced catalyst cost 99% and increased yields 3-4% by developing an inexpensive substitute catalyst (base metals) to replace a high-cost platinum catalyst for biomass degradation, which was otherwise cost-prohibitive to commercialization.
• Designed and developed PID controlling systems using LabVIEW.
• Computed complex statistical analyses and interpreted data using Minitab and Python.
• Supported and supervised students in NSF research programs from brainstorming areas for potential research through publishing papers on completed projects.

Thesis topic: Design and fabrication of nanofiltration membrane for biological waste treatment.

• Fabricated polymeric membranes in both spiral wound and flat-sheet configurations for purification of biochemical waste.
• Identified physical characterizations of polymeric membranes (XPS, FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, etc.)
• Designed and developed spiral wound membrane modules.
• Drafted process design documentation including heat & mass balances and process flow diagrams.
• Developed data driven solutions to problems, using technical problem-solving skills and engineering methods such as statistical process control, DOE, Taguchi/robust engineering methodologies and engineering analysis tools.

• Developed dynamic model (MATLAB, Ansys, COMSOL) of the spring-driven autoinjector to predict the injection force of reusable autoinjectors (multiple dosage administration) while calculating the variables and parameters that affect the dosage accuracy.
• Operable auto-injector design for under non-ideal blood stream condition (with focus on administration of adrenaline under hypotensive condition). In such conditions the true absorption of adrenaline during anaphylaxis is unknown and therefore, the dosage administration needs to be thoroughly assessed.
• Design a multifunctional neural interfacing system to deliver drugs through auto-injectors. Basically, the administration of drug will be independent from scheduled time frames and depends on the physiological condition of the patient and skin signal responses.
• Design a robotic arm for “Glioblastoma resection device”. Glioblastoma is a fast growing and aggressive brain tumor with no cure. The maximal safe resection is the only option to increase the life expectancy of the patient and minimize the side effects. My design is a multi-path micro-needle that minimize the number of needle entry points through non-straight branch-forming needle. The key development part is to design an electro-transmitter that bypasses motor neurons.