Forging Relationships
with Bayer MaterialScience, LLC
The Bayer Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is the U.S. subsidiary of the worldwide Bayer Group, an international health care, nutrition, and innovative materials company based in Germany. Penn State and Bayer Corporation share a long collaborative history, with Bayer’s support to the University totaling more than $2.4 million in gifts, plus more than $1.3 million in research contracts.
The Industrial Research Office (IRO) has been a key factor in developing a relationship with Bayer MaterialScience, LLC (BMS), a subgroup of Bayer Corporation. BMS offers a broad range of polycarbonates, coatings, thermoplastics, and polyurethanes used in a wide range of products for everyday life. Through a series of visits coordinated by the IRO, BMS was exposed to collaborative research possibilities, including the opportunity to work with Dr. Evangelos Manias of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State.
“Developing new technologies that improve the properties and performance of our products, like Makrolon® polycarbonate – one of our signature products – is always front and center at BMS,” explained Jim Mason, Director of Product Technology, Bayer MaterialScience. “For that very purpose, BMS has been engaged in nanotechnology research with Dr. Manias for the past several years. His expertise in polymer composites coupled with Penn State’s resources combine to provide an excellent research environment for Makrolon nanocomposites.”
Manias added, “The polycarbonate nanocomposites project was largely done rather collaboratively, with the fundamental research in our labs and, where necessary, scale-up and development in parallel in Bayer’s facilities. Beyond the complementarities in expertise, focus and approaches, which allowed both sides to engage in what they are best in doing, this collaborative modus operandi also allowed for a unique flexibility in quickly identifying dead-ends, challenges, and opportunities, which often redefined the initial scope of work.”
“For example,” Manias explained, “the scientific focus of the work shifted drastically more than a year within the project, when we discovered a striking materials behavior due to the nanoscale structure of the composite. The understanding and optimization of this behavior has led to a very high performance Makrolon nanocomposite material and a very impressive Ph.D. thesis.”
The initial success of this project led BMS to sign a master agreement to easily develop and manage multiple new research projects at Penn State. With the master agreement in place, the IRO used their formal RFP process to request proposals from University researchers, resulting in several awards and five current projects with BMS.
Gregory S. Babe, President and CEO, Bayer MaterialScience, said, “As an inventor company, we at Bayer recognize that innovation, in all its forms, offers the only true sustainable, competitive advantage we have. At the same time, in a globalizing economy, the old standard of ‘innovation from within’ no longer applies. Instead, the Open Innovation model, one of Bayer’s Overarching Goals, shifts the center of gravity beyond our company borders to the creation of new relationships with external partners. Our collaboration with Penn State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, which has at its core the development of new ideas that have the potential to create value, is deeply rooted in this concept.”
In addition to the research partnership with BMS, Penn State’s Office of Corporate Foundations and Relations has developed a strong relationship with the Bayer Foundation, an endowed 501(c)(3) entity and is the primary source of Bayer Corporation’s philanthropy in the United States. In September 2006, the Bayer Foundation presented Penn State with a $300,000 grant to fund the Bayer Graduate Fellowship in Materials Science as well as the Bayer International Internship Scholars.
“In today’s science and engineering marketplace, innovation is happening all around the world,” said Dr. Robert Kumpf, Chief Administrative Officer, Bayer MaterialScience. “Students who have international experience, in many cases, are one step closer to meeting the challenges and opportunities of a globalizing economy. To help give students that important edge, the Bayer Foundation has created the Bayer International Internship Scholars fund at Penn State. The fund is designed to help undergraduate students pursuing careers in materials science and engineering participate in the Materials Study Abroad program. With travel expenses and a partial stipend provided by the Bayer fund, these students study at host institutions in countries like England, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, deepening their knowledge base about the subjects, as well as the various cultures and peers they one day may be working with or competing against.”