Thomas joined the University of Leeds in 2026, where he works on the Reconfigurable, Robotic & Responsive Reactors for Processes through Intensified Development (R4PID) programme, developing automated, digitally enabled and intensified technologies for faster and more sustainable pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. Thomas completed his PhD at CMAC, University of Strathclyde, where he combined automated experimentation with machine-learning-based experimental planning for small scale crystallisation and particle engineering. Following his PhD, he joined Pfizer as an API Crystallization Senior Scientist, applying model-driven approaches to industrial crystallisation process development, before returning to CMAC as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and subsequently Project Scientist, where his work expanded into self-driving scale-up crystallisation platforms and automated reconfigurable end-to-end pharmaceutical manufacturing. His research interests span self-driving laboratories, pharmaceutical drug substance process design, model-based design of experiments, and the human and community aspects of laboratory automation.