Future close cooperation with Japan launched

A joint workshop between scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and the Janpanese Research Institute Tokyo Tech revealed many interfaces for an expansion of the scientific cooperation.

A 7-headed delegation of high-ranking scientists of renowned Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), among them the dean Prof. Yuji Wada, followed the invitation by Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Butt to a joint workshop at the end of February in Mainz. Butt is director and leader of the department physics at interfaces in the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P). “Worldwide cooperations with leading research institutes are very important for the work of our scientists“, explained Butt and continued: “It is our goal to use the knowledge gained through these collaborations to directly contribute to the development of new technologies.“

During the workshop leading scientists of both institutes presented research projects and indicated perspectives for joint research attempts in the area of nanotechnology and surface science. A common aim of the researchers in MPI-P and Tokyo Tech is to control the structural formation in soft matter to create new functions.

The MPIP-P and the department for material research and chemical technology (School of Material and Chemical Technology) of Tokyo Tech agreed as a result of the productive workshop on a future close cooperation.

The scientists in Mainz and Tokyo intend to study in joint projects which atomic and molecular processes occur at solid-liquid interfaces and how these processes effect both phases. One question is whether new knowledge to the understanding of the origin of life can be gained by investigations in interfaces: How did the first molecules replicate themselves?