Launch of BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard University

29 Apr '08

4 min read

While based at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), this highly interdisciplinary initiative will benefit from having strong ties with students, departments and schools throughout the University. In addition, relationships with other research groups at universities, such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as with technology transfer and other companies in New England, have already been established.

“We welcome the opportunity to work in cooperation with one of the world's most respected and prolific universities,” said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF and Executive Research Director. “Together, we are the right team to harness the innovative potential of new technologies and translate them into commercial successes, while at the same time providing solutions to global challenges.”

“This type of progressive research association with a major industrial leader is a new model for Harvard, and one we hope to emulate and repeat,” said Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Dean,SEAS, John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong Professor, and Professor of Physics. ”There is tremendous value in this initiative, as it will not only strengthen education and research, but also explore solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems in an effort to better society."

The two-day Symposium on Biofilms at the Norton's Woods Conference Center at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge, has brought together leading experts in microbiology, chemistry, physics and materials science, to share their knowledge about the life of biofilms and their interaction with surfaces. George Whitesides, Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor, and Co-director of the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard University, delivered the keynote speech at the symposium.

The study of biofilms and their interaction with surfaces has gained worldwide interest as microbial biofilms on surfaces cause billions of dollars in losses each year in equipment damage, product contamination, and energy losses. More importantly, biofilms also cause medical infections, resulting in adverse and detrimental affect to human life.

In addition to Whitesides, BASF's Dr. Jens Rieger, Scientific Director of Polymer Research, and Harvard's David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, are directing the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard University and establishing a broad research network of faculty and students to generate new innovations relevant to society's needs.

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