Kenneth Sims
Advanced Materials and Energetics
Lead Materials Scientist. Battelle
Kenneth Sims Jr., PhD, is a biomedical engineer and materials scientist who specializes in polymer nanoparticle drug delivery with over 15 years of academic, biotechnology, and industry experience. Ken is a co-founding member of Battelle Memorial Institute’s Non-Viral Gene Delivery team and has served as the polymer synthesis and characterization lead as well as a steering committee member for this initiative for the past five years. In this role, he leads the technical and operational efforts to design, synthesize, purify, and characterize novel polymer nanoparticles for use in a variety of research and development applications. Ken invented the concept of Battelle’s HIT SCAN High-Throughput Synthesis, Characterization, and Assessment of Nanoparticles design, build, test, learn platform as part of the Battelle Innovation Gathering (BIG) “Shark Tank” program in 2020. Ken also serves as the PI for a grant funded by the Gilbert Family Foundation, and he provides consulting expertise to client projects involving drug delivery, formulation science, and medical devices. Prior to joining Battelle, Ken worked at Merck & Co., Inc. as a sterile process and technology engineer leading and supporting a range of commercial projects and processes spanning the late stages of vaccine manufacturing and distribution, eventually rising to the formulation and filling subject matter expert role for two FDA-approved products. Ken holds a PhD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Translational Biomedical Science, a MS in Molecular Medicine from the Drexel University College of Medicine, and a BS in Bioengineering from Lehigh University.