Puraffinity appoints new chief technology officer

Puraffinity, which develops precision technologies to remove toxic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water, has appointed Jessica Middlemiss as its chief technology officer.

Middlemiss joins Puraffinity from Matter, the UK startup that develops technology to remove micro-scale pollution from water. Prior to Matter, she was head of plastics technology at Sartorius and spent ten years at Dyson including two years as head of operations for The Dyson Institute, Dyson’s in-house undergraduate degree-apprenticeship programme.

“Jessica has a really broad technical and business network across both industry and academia which is valuable to us,” said Puraffinity co-founder Henrik Hagemann. “Jessica brings relevant start-up experience from her time at Matter, leading a large team of scientists at Sartorius and held a variety of engineering and management positions at Dyson. We are delighted to have her join us.”

“I believe I have the combination of technical understanding and people skills which will help Puraffinity flourish,” said Middlemiss.  “I have built my career on an ability to bring together exceptional technical people to work on clear and targeted challenges as a team. I know how to get people motivated and focussed on a common goal that delivers commercially for the organisation.”

Middlemiss has a Masters in materials science and engineering from Imperial College London and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining (IOM3).