MechE Seminar: Learn from the past, prepare for the future: Towards cost-effective, sustainable, and resilient supply chains
Event details
| Date | 11.02.2026 |
| Hour | 09:00 › 10:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Miriam Sarkis, Texas A&M Energy Institute, Texas A&M University |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract: Resilience and sustainability are becoming growing priorities across industrial sectors. As disruptions become the new normal in manufacturing supply chains and energy systems, there emerges a need to develop proactive and reactive strategies to manage future uncertainties that impact service continuity and lead to economic losses and environmental damage. In this space, process systems engineering opens opportunities to elucidate critical trade-offs between cost, sustainability and resilience-enhancing solutions, thus supporting more informed, fact-based decision-making. In this lecture, case studies from the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry are illustrated, with a focus on emerging challenges related to the market boom of next-generation therapeutics, pandemic preparedness and pressures to improve sustainability. To this end, computer-aided modelling and optimization tools are presented, integrating techno-economic analysis, life cycle assessment, and uncertainty quantification, to generate candidate system designs and quantify metrics such as scalability, reliability, cost, and footprint.
Biography: Dr. Miriam Sarkis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Texas A&M Energy Institute, working on computer-aided modelling and optimization tools for resilient energy systems supply chains. She obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2024 from Imperial College London, at the Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering, where she worked on pharmaceutical supply chain optimization to support resilient and sustainable planning for next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. Miriam is the recipient of the 2024 Dudley Newitt Prize for Theoretical/Computational Excellence and Presentation for her PhD thesis, awarded to a thesis of exceptional merit by the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. Her scientific contributions to date have been recognized through 14 journal and peer-reviewed conference publications. Since 2024, Miriam has been serving as reviewer and session chair at the Annual Meeting of the Americal Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) within the Computing and Systems Division.
Biography: Dr. Miriam Sarkis is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Texas A&M Energy Institute, working on computer-aided modelling and optimization tools for resilient energy systems supply chains. She obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2024 from Imperial College London, at the Sargent Centre for Process Systems Engineering, where she worked on pharmaceutical supply chain optimization to support resilient and sustainable planning for next-generation vaccines and therapeutics. Miriam is the recipient of the 2024 Dudley Newitt Prize for Theoretical/Computational Excellence and Presentation for her PhD thesis, awarded to a thesis of exceptional merit by the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. Her scientific contributions to date have been recognized through 14 journal and peer-reviewed conference publications. Since 2024, Miriam has been serving as reviewer and session chair at the Annual Meeting of the Americal Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) within the Computing and Systems Division.
Practical information
- General public
- Free