Giovanni Lopez Burgos was born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico and raised in Barranquitas. As a child he enjoyed playing baseball, but due to an arm injury he stopped playing at the age of 15. Still, his love for sports continued and he kept playing basketball as a hobby. His other hobbies include gaming, hiking and river cliff jumps. Ever since he was a child, Giovanni enjoyed science topics, he was always curious about how things worked, for this reason he decided to pursue a science degree. He studied as an undergraduate at UPR-Arecibo where he graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Industrial Chemical Processes Program. Then joined the Crystallization Design Institute as a graduate student from the Medical Sciences campus in the Industrial Pharmacy program.
Giovanni has been part of PREM since the summer of 2019, when he decided to do research during this time. His role in the project includes studies about the crystallization of crystalline active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and how polymorphism affects them. Through his work, he studies the molecular mobility of these small organic molecules. His research is about the crystallization from melt of APIs and how different substrates can affect the kinetics of the crystallization process (nucleation and growth). His goals are to publish his findings and contribute to the pharmaceutical industry regarding continuous manufacturing specifically to 3D printing of pharmaceuticals.Last year he presented a poster in AIChE 2019 Annual Meeting at Orlando, FL and in MRS Fall Meeting 2019 at Boston, MA where he saw snow for the first time (fun fact). Other experiences include the outreach activities (open house, STEM motivation for kids) as part of the MSRC.
“The work environment in the Molecular Sciences Research Center (MSRC) is very good, I love it as sometimes you can share ideas or even materials with other scientists within the building. The building has excellent facilities and very good instrumentation.” – Geovannni Lopez Burgos
