To maintain its competitive advantage and global market share, Novozymes continuously brings new innovation to the market. Every year Novozymes launches 6-8 new products and while some are improvements on existing technology, others are radical new concepts. Many of these concepts originate in the Research & Development department’s Innovation Office which acts as the first step in Novozymes’ business development.
As Head of The Innovation Office Dr. Thomas Schäfer oversees these activities. He is also in charge of Novozymes’ research in Microbial Biotechnology. Here, his task is to develop Novozymes’ technology platform within living microbial systems for a wide range of applications such as industrial cleaning products, waste water treatment systems and biofertilizers for agriculture.
Thomas Schäfer started in Novozymes in 1994 and has worked in a number of positions in research and development as well as business since then. He has a special expertise in renewable chemicals. Thomas Schäfer holds a Diploma in Microbiology from Universität Marburg, a PhD in Microbiology from Freie Universtät in Berlin and worked as Assistant Professor at the Freie Universtät Berlin.
The award ceremony will be held on June 11th in Hamburg during the congress “IBN 2013 | Novel Developments in Industrial Biotechnology – Challenges and Opportunities“.
The annual award was initiated in 2010 by the association IBN e.V. and honours researchers, industry representatives and politicians for special achievements in the field of industrial biotechnology. The previous award winners are Professor Gerhard Gotschalk, University of Göttingen, Dr. Holger Zinke, BRAIN AG and Professor Dr. Wiltrud Treffenfeldt, DOW Europe GmbH, Horgen, Switzerland. The prizewinner receives a sculpture by the Hamburg artist Yves Rasch.
The associaton IBN e.V., which was founded in 2005, links north German businesses and research institutes to position the region as an outstanding biotech location and, in cooperation with other national players, to promote the goal of a sustainable bioeconomy. Targets are to encourage basic and applied research in industrial biotechnology and related areas as well as to link scientific, business and funding policy activities at regional, national and European levels. Thematic IBN expert groups have already given rise to two successful clusters supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), BIOCATALYSIS2021 and BIOREFINERY2021. The association is also open to partners operating throughout Germany in this field.
BioCon Valley Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e.V. is founding member of IBN e.V.
CONTACT
Karin Meyer-Pannwitt
Industrial Biotechnology North (IBN e.V.)
c/o TuTech Innovation GmbH
Harburger Schlossstrasse 6-12, 21079 Hamburg
Telefon: +49 40 76629-6344
mobile: +49 179 10 72711
E-Mail: ibnord@tutech.de
www.ibnord.de
www.ibnord.de/ibn2013/