Industry Looks To Academia

European chemical giants DSM and Degussa have both launched new projects that build on relationships with academia.

Taking a page from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, Netherlands-based DSM has created a scientific advisory board, to be chaired by E. W. (Bert) Meijer, a distinguished university professor of molecular sciences at Eindhoven University of Technology. Other board members will be appointed later.

Meijer's early career included a stint as head of the new materials department at DSM Research, with a focus on dendrimers. He brings expertise in organic and supramolecular chemistry, which earned him this year's American Chemical Society Award in Polymer Chemistry.

Meanwhile, Germany's Degussa is joining with compatriot firms Volkswagen and Chemetall to fund a professorship of applied materials sciences for energy storage at Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster. Degussa's expertise in membrane technology and Chemetall's know-how in lithium and organometallic chemistry will underpin academic research in large-scale lithium-ion batteries. The program is scheduled to run for five years with funding of close to $3 million.

Although the partners say the professorship is unparalleled in Europe, the concept of an industry-sponsored professorial chair is not completely new in Europe.

In 2003, Wacker Chemie announced plans to endow a chair in macromolecular silicon chemistry at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilians University. However, CEO Peter-Alexander Wacker later disclosed that the plan fell through because of what he termed the inflexibility of the German university system.