IChemE Pharma SIG honours Jennifer Aitken’s legacy at London memorial seminar

ICHEME’s Pharma Special Interest Group (SIG) paid tribute to “dedicated” chemical engineer Jennifer Aitken at a seminar in London last week. Aitken died suddenly from Covid complications in 2023.

The event was hosted at design consultancy Bryden Wood and was organised by the company’s technical director Adrian La Porta, a Pharma SIG committee member and former chair who was close friends with Aitken.

The seminar began with a memorial from Jennifer’s father Bill, who spoke about her childhood growing up in Edinburgh, and her avid love of skiing which took the family to the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands most winters. Bill recounted her many childhood triumphs, including winning multiple silver medals at British junior skiing championships in the 1980s, as well as achieving Grade 8 on the cello.

Bill went on to speak about Jennifer’s engineering career, highlighting her passion for process safety. He recalled her trademark directness when evaluating the safety of colleagues’ designs, quoting her blunt warning: “If you do it like that, it’s going to explode when you switch it on.”

Bill was accompanied to the event by Jennifer’s mother, aunt, uncle and cousin. His tribute was followed by a talk from Lisa Hall CBE, a professor of analytical biotechnology and former head of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. Hall’s presentation, titled Diagnostics Without Borders, explored her research into expanding access to diagnostic testing in the global south.

Jennifer, whose career focused on pharmaceutical engineering, was widely regarded by colleagues and friends as a “dedicated chemical engineer”. Her strong commitment to mentoring younger engineers was recognised posthumously with IChemE’s Ambassador Prize last year. Concluding her talk, Hall said she was “always struck [by] how the emerging chemical engineers would just be enthralled by her and excited by her”.

Hall’s presentation was followed by John Dyson, professor of human enterprise at the University of Birmingham, who spoke on enhancing “design to value” in engineering projects. The afternoon concluded with workshops targeted at early career pharma engineers.