Key updates: I was not able to recruit a dedicated PhD student, hence we are now on gap year. This issue was addressed in January 2020 and a PhD student Vishal Shinde was recruited. He graduated from Leicester in 2018 with an MSC with Distinction. He is expected to start in 2-3 months time after getting his visa.
Complementary to the project, I will be hosting a visiting PhD student from China (Ruochen Sun) from September 2020 for a period of 1 year, subject to approval of his China Scholarship Council application for funding. He will perform molecular dynamics simulations to analyse the interaction of mannitol and ibuprofen with iron. This is not related to the IFPRI project, but it could provide relevant insight.
A detailed planning for the following year will be prepared 1 month after the start of the PhD project. Also, I am planning an open workshop with participation of all academics and industrialists who are actively researching the problem of sticking at the present time of who have recently completed projects. This workshop will be planned 2-3 months after the start of the PhD project.