Rubber Excellence Partnership with DIK and Qingdao University

A Rubber Excellence Partnership was announced by representatives of LANXESS, the German Institute of Rubber Technology DIK (Deutsches Institut für Kautschuktechnologie e.V.) of Hanover, Germany, and Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China, at the LANXESS Green Rubber Day in Beijing on December 2, 2011. It aims to further improve the opportunities for high-performance rubber through international exchanges involving the best talents. Among other things, the initiative promotes academic exchange between China and Germany and research into important rubber-related topics. This agreement sees specialty chemicals company LANXESS continuing its commitment to first-class training to support the sustainable development of one of the most important materials of the future.

“For a number of years now, LANXESS and the growth market of China have enjoyed far more than merely a mutually beneficial business relationship,” said Prof. Claus Wrana, head of Polymer Analytics at LANXESS’ Technical Rubber Products business unit in Leverkusen. “Since 2009, we've been collaborating very closely with Qingdao University of Science and Technology, QUST, which is one of the world leaders in rubber expertise and whose work is on a par with first-class European training facilities such as the DIK.” The highlights of the partnership so far include courses by LANXESS experts such as Prof. Wrana and Prof. Werner Obrecht at QUST and the presentation of a LANXESS Student Rubber Award to particularly outstanding students.

“This well-established collaboration is now being expanded, among other things by now also including the DIK in the network,” says Wrana. As part of the Rubber Excellence Partnership, major synthetic rubber manufacturer LANXESS is now providing financial and specialist support each year for one or more Master's theses and a dissertation project at the Chinese partner university. A major part of the support is the academic exchange. Doctoral students who are recipients of the award can spend one of the sponsored years in Germany. Local academic support will be provided by LANXESS experts in close collaboration with the DIK.

“We'll naturally be continuing the presentation of the Student Rubber Award,” says Wrana. “We'll be presenting two students with the award every year in the future. And of course we'll also be continuing our teaching commitments on the Rubber Technology Master’s program at our Chinese partner university. These remain key elements in our efforts to ensure an outstanding partnership with our colleagues on one of the world's most exciting synthetic rubber markets and help us harness the know-how of extremely well-trained scientists to develop our products further.”