The department consists of two research groups. The main subject of the first (Analytical chemistry) is chemometrics, the application of mathematical and statistical methods to chemical data. This includes both fundamental and more applied work. The fundamental work involves for instance the development of more robust neural networks, variable selection in conjunction with partial least squares or wavelet signal processing that can be applied to sets of spectra instead of to single spectra. The applications, often carried out in collaboration with consortium of industries, such as Glaxo-Wellcome, Novartis, Unilever and Shell to name only a few, concern the online analysis of processes, algorithms for autonomic recognition of excipients with near infra red data, multivariate calibration methods for the determination of octane numbers or the content of active substances in pharmaceuticals, purity analysis of pharmaceuticals, experimental design to speed up the upscaling of granulation processes, schemes for comparing and validating two analysis methods, etc. Additionally, separation methods in pharmaceutical analysis are studied. For instance, a knowledge based method for the selection and optimisation of separation methods for chiral drugs is developed. The second research group concerns Pharmaceutical technology: the subject is the development of different pharmaceutical forms and the investigation of the important parameters involved using optimisation techniques (tableting, sustained release, coating, liposomes, dissolution, chemical stability).