BASF Corp. has formed a partnership with major universities on the West Coast to create a multidisciplinary research institute. The institute will focus on creating new inorganic materials. The California Research Alliance by BASF (CARA) will bring together BASF experts with researchers from the UC Berkeley, Stanford University and UCLA. The cooperation will create 10 postdoctoral positions and extends existing cooperations with those major research institutes.
“The West Coast area is an innovation landscape of high relevance,” said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, BASF board member and research executive director. “Using the creative spirit of this environment and pairing it with the broad expertise of BASF, UC Berkeley, Stanford and UCLA in the fields of bioscience and inorganic materials, we want to develop solutions beyond the borders of chemistry and biology.”
Research for inorganic materials is especially critical for the electronic industry. One of the challenges researchers face are shrinking feature sizes in electronic devices. This opens up opportunities for new materials and new manufacturing techniques. Another opportunity for contributions of material scientists in the areas of electronics or renewable energies, such as photovoltaics, is the design of new very small structures.
For more information, visit www.basf.com.