Adam McCudden is a Chartered Chemist and a Senior Scientist in AstraZeneca’s Pharmaceutical Technology and Development Group. Previously he has held positions in a range of research, development and technical roles for AstraZeneca, Eli-Lilly and Apollo Scientific. Through these roles, he has gained experience with most analytical techniques, but has specialised in the use of HPLC/UHPLC, NMR and Karl Fischer. Working in all stages of pharmaceutical R&D, from early lead identification to commercial life cycle management, stood him in good stead to lead the analytical R&D on the fastest pharmaceutical development programme in history. His current areas of focus are pharmaceutical product security (anti-counterfeiting) and leading or facilitating process understanding studies and investigations using statistical techniques and toolkits such as Six-sigma, Britest.

Adam has been active is science promotion and engagement for over a decade through a range of groups including RSC, SCI, Science Grrl, Pint of Science and Manchester Science Week. In 2013, Adam established a blog and consultancy concern (Manchester Pyromaniacs). Born of his love of cookery and whisky it aims is to improve science visibility and literacy within the food and drinks industry. Through the RSC, Adam has been actively involved in the Early Careers Network, NW Industrial Forum and the RSC Manchester Local Section and joined the NW Region Analytical Division Committee in 2017.