The Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering at Sofia University in collaboration with the European Chemical Society and the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, successfully organized the Formula XII conference, held from 15 to 18 June 2025 at Hotel Millennium, Sofia, Bulgaria.

This international scientific summit brought together 180 participants from 24 countries across five continents. The program featured a rich blend of academic and industrial contributions, including 6 plenary lectures, 5 keynote talks, a special memorial lecture in honor of Prof. Gordon J. T. Tiddy, 48 regular oral presentations, and 67 poster presentations.

Formula XII provided a unique platform for researchers and professionals from both academia and industry to connect and exchange knowledge in the field of formulation science. Approximately 70% of attendees were from academic institutions, while the remaining 30% represented more than 35 companies from the industrial sector.

The conference received a strong support from its sponsors: Unilever (gold sponsor), L’Oreal (silver sponsor) and Evonik, Altana, Arxada and LabPrim (bronze sponsors). In addition, ten exhibitors showcased state-of-the-art equipment and technologies relevant to formulation science. These included: Shimadzu, Xenocs, ACM2, Chromtek, Microtrac, Speclz, Krüss, Zeiss, Aquachim, and Elta’90.

As a highlight of the event, four prizes sponsored by the Formulation Science and Technology Interest Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry were awarded in honor of Professor Gordon J. T. Tiddy. The award winners are:

• FSTG Early-Career Oral Award at Formula: Arturo Winters, ETH Zurich, Switzerland for his presentation titled: “Calcium-induced cross-linking for the mechanical stabilization of vegan polysaccharide-based candies”. Read more about this study in the original paper: A. Winters, V. Ianniello, Phys. Fluids 37 033139 (2025).
• FSTG Poster Awards at Formula:
  • 1^st Prize: Jose M. Franco, Pro2TecS, Universidad de Huelva, Spain for his poster titled: “Atomistic layer deposition of TiO₂ on electrospun lignin/cellulose acetate butyrate nanofibers to obtain multifunctional ingredients for semi-solid bio-based lubricants^­”.
  • 2^nd Prize: Hristina Mirtcheva, DCPE, Sofia University, Bulgaria for her poster titled: “Food-drug interactions: Effects of meal type and drug physicochemical properties”.
  • 3^rd Prize: Smaragda-Maria Argyri, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden & INRAE, University Lille, CNRS, France for her poster titled: “A data-driven app roach to contact-free surface tension measurements with acoustic levitation”. Read more about this study in the original papers: Argyri er al., J. Sci.: Adv. Mater. Devices 9 100720 (2024) and Argyri et al., J. Colloid Interface Sci. 640, 637-646 (2023).