SERMACS 2009 Regional Awards

Dr. Carlos J. López is this year’s recipient of the ACS Southeastern Regional Industrial Innovators Award.  Carlos was born and raised in the San Juan (PR). He completed his doctorate degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico. His Ph.D. work mainly focused on novel enantio- and stereoselective conversions of carbofunctionalized Silicon and Tin compounds. Dr. Lopez proceeded to complete a postdoctoral fellowship assignment in Medicinal Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD). There, he worked on the design and synthesis of functionalized isothiocyanate analogs of sulforaphane (anticarcinogenic agent isolated from broccoli and other cruciphers) for activity as inducer of detoxification enzymes.  He also employed new chromatographic techniques in the isolation of various components from extracts of the medicinal neem tree for possible activity against malaria.  Additionally, Carlos performed low temperature NMR studies on high order organocuprates. He was also involved in the experimental design for Vitamin D3 analogs.

 

In 1995, Carlos joined Pfizer as a process development scientist, where he pioneered on industry applications for NIR, implementing one at a commercial manufacturing level for the determination of water in solvent recovery operations.  Carlos then, moved to Bristol-Myers Squibb 1998 as Leader Research Investigator. As manager of the R&D group, he was responsible for evaluating new synthetic routes and technically supporting the API manufacturing.  He went to acquire more responsibilities as Sr. Development Manager, including overseeing the construction of new laboratories, acquisition of technical equipment and overall budget management.  In 2002, Carlos was appointed as MT Director for Barceloneta and Humacao, providing full technical support to manufacturing. He applied new analytical techniques such as Online MS to enhance yield and cycle time. He led the study of crystallization optimization through NIR, Raman and Lasentec. One of the most illustrative examples of the manufacturing operations optimization was the invention of the “DEP” (diethyl phosphite) process. This work provided better quality by transforming an impurity into the desired intermediate, hence, augmenting the yield and corresponding commercial capacity. This represents the first process invented, developed, validated, implemented and patented within a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Puerto Rico.