Hamburg, November 28, 2018 – Today, at the NIVEA manufacturer Beiersdorf AG
this year’s status meeting of the Research Association for Photonics in Life
Sciences supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) took place. More than 165
participants from research and industry as well as representatives from the
BMBF discussed the current state of projects presented.
A high-tech branch has
long since developed around the medium of light. Over 130,000 people now work
in the photonics industry in Germany. “The BMBF supports innovative projects in
all areas of photonics. But, the focus is on application-oriented work with the
goal of bringing scientific results into practice. Researchers highly welcome
this approach”, says Prof. Dr. Jürgen Popp, director of the well-known Leibniz Institute
of Photonic Technology in Jena and this year’s winner of the
Kaiser-Friedrich-Research Award as well as the Berthold Leibinger Innovation
Award. “This is especially valid for the area of ‘Photonics in the Life
Sciences,’ in which processes for medicine, environmental analytics and food
safety are examined and developed,” Popp adds.
The Hamburg skin care
company Beiersdorf invests in its own top-class basic research and cooperates
with renowned research facilities as part of the BMBF research association – including
in the area of photonics. “Currently we are conducting an association project
supported by the BMBF for the development of mobile image sensors for skin
diagnostics and are working with four partners,” says Dr. Horst Wenck, Head of
Front-End Innovation at Beiersdorf. “Beyond this association research our
international research network consists of over 500 partnerships with
universities, research centers and startups. Numerous innovations in both
products and technologies have already come out of this work.”