Jim Litster is Emeritus Professor of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering within the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Sheffield and Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. At Sheffield, he was Head of Department from 2016-2021 and Interim Vice President and Head of Faculty of Engineering from 2021-2023. Prior to this, he spent 8.5 years as Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy at Purdue University. From 1987 to 2007, he spent 20 years in academic positions at The University of Queensland including Head of Chemical Engineering and Head of School of Engineering.

Dr Jim Litster is a world leader in particle technology research and is particularly recognized for his work on wet granulation. In the last 10 years he has helped to move granulation processes from a 'black art' to quantitative engineering. His research outcomes are now widely used in engineering practice in industry and have led to new approaches to scaling up solids dosage form manufacturing used by most of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. He is also an innovator in engineering education, contributing to the introduction of new approaches in chemical engineering education in Australia.