Fully-Funded PhD (Doctoral Researcher) — Autonomous Space-Based Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Zero Gravity Works, together with the Politecnico di Milano (Department of Mechanical Engineering), is recruiting a doctoral researcher to help design the hardware that will let us manufacture pharmaceuticals in orbit.
We are a Milan-based deep-tech company working in the emerging field of in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing — a frontier being opened by pioneers such as Varda Space Industries (US) and BioOrbit (UK). Our focus is microgravity-driven crystallisation: in Low Earth Orbit, the absence of gravity-driven convection and sedimentation enables crystals of higher purity, uniformity and lattice quality than those grown on Earth, and access to drug polymorphs that are difficult or impossible to stabilise under terrestrial conditions, with potential benefits for solubility, bioavailability and shelf life. Our mission is to move this from isolated experiments to a repeatable, autonomous production capability.
This 3-year position sits at the centre of that effort. You will join Prof.



Francesco Braghin's Mechatronics and Robotics group and work in constant interaction with Prof. Braghin and directly with the CEO and CSO of Zero Gravity Works to design and engineer a compact, autonomous "black-box" microfactory that runs the full crystallisation cycle in orbit, from a ground demonstrator through to an orbital validator.
Responsibilities
- Review and build on the prior literature in microgravity crystallisation and pharmaceutical solid-state science to ground the design choices.
- Build high-fidelity CFD models of crystallisation in microgravity (capillarity, surface tension, thermal gradients, phase-interface effects) and develop a predictive Digital Twin of the process.
- Design and prototype the integrated fluidic platform: microfluidic manifolds, high-precision peristaltic pumping, thermally controlled crystallisation chambers, piezoelectric transducers for bubble and p

📌 Fully-Funded PhD — Mechanical Engineering for Orbital Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (Milano)
🏢 Zero Gravity Works
📍 Milano