Paul Gray

Background

About Paul Gray

Paul is a Senior Scientist and Team Lead at Solid State Pharma Inc.(SSPI) where he focuses on investigating solid-state properties of pharmaceutical APIs, including polymorphism, co-crystal formation, and particle engineering. His specialty is developing robust crystallization processes that are have been adapted to multi-kilogram plant-scale batches at several leading pharmaceutical companies. He has also recently adopted a more leadership-oriented role and currently has one employee who he supervises directly in day-to-day research and project management aspects, and has been a past member of the Occupational Health and Safety team at SSPI. Paul completed his PhD in 2018 at the University of Victoria in the field of synthetic main-group chemistry, with a focus on highly-charged cations of Groups 13-15. Paul augmented this with two post-doctoral research fellowships examining redox non-innocent ligands for applications towards low-valent main group chemistry, iron-based non-aqueous redox flow batteries (RFBs), and preparing mixed-metal oxo-bridged complexes and exploiting their electronic modularity to coax reactivity with small molecules distinct from homometallic complexes. Currently, Paul is highly trained in organic and inorganic synthesis of air/moisture-sensitive compounds, as well as ligand design and complex multi-step reactions, resulting in a high degree of creativity that allows him to find imaginative solutions to a breadth of problems. His expertise in synthetic chemistry, solid-state science, and particle engineering lends itself well to the challenges faced in his role as a staff scientists in the pharmaceutical industry. He has extensive training in chemical instrumentation including NMR spectroscopy, powder and single-crystal X-ray analysis, bench-top and in-situ IR spectroscopy, electrochemistry, thermal analysis, gas and liquid chromatography and computational quantum chemical modelling. Additionally, he has many technical abilities including instrument maintenance, equipment assembly and troubleshooting, and complete laboratory setup and disassembly. In addition to laboratory skills, Paul has mentored teams of undergraduates and graduate students during the course of his training, and has always been passionate about ensuring that he listens to concerns of colleagues he has worked with. In this capacity, he has excelled in leadership and communication, and has been described as a great asset to any team he's been a part of.