With the awarding of this year's Chemistry Sponsorship Prize, the Unternehmerschaft Chemie Niederrhein has once again demonstrated how successful knowledge transfer between business and research works. This is the 24th time that it has awarded the 1,500 euro prize, once again distinguishing a particularly innovative and practical thesis from the Faculty of Chemistry at The Hochschule Niederrhein.
As human CO2 emissions are driving climate change, this year's prizewinner Adrian Faller looked at a promising solution offered by nature as part of his master's thesis: Microorganisms that can utilize CO2 and related substances, such as formic acid. Faller investigated the growth and lactic acid production in a genetically modified E. coli strain that occurs naturally in the human intestine in its original form. This strain uses a metabolic pathway inspired by nature to efficiently utilize CO2 and formic acid. "The prizewinner is thus making a promising contribution towards a more sustainable future," said Ralf Schwartz, Chairman of Unternehmerschaft Chemie Niederrhein at this year's award ceremony at The Hochschule Niederrhein in Krefeld.
Kirsten Wittke-Lemm, Managing Director of Unternehmerschaft Chemie Niederrhein, is also impressed by the work and is looking forward to many more university graduates taking part in the competition in the future. "The Unternehmerschaft Chemie Niederrhein awards the prize every year for work with a particularly high practical relevance. It is important that the research results can be quickly implemented in the practical application of local companies."
