In conversations with President Jutta Günther and Director of Finance and Administration Frauke Meyer, Senator Björn Fecker and State Councilor Martin Hagen experienced the University of Bremen as a place of teaching, learning, and research. With more than 3,500 employees and over 18,000 students, the university is an important employer and training center for future professionals. With its strong research, alliances, and successful technology transfer, the university is an engine of innovation for the entire region.
Senator Björn Fecker and State Councilor Martin Hagen pledged university leadership the Senate’s full support in the University of Bremen’s ongoing development.
As part of their tour of the campus, they visited the Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology (UFT) as well as the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering - IWT.
Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology (UFT)
Senator Fecker was particularly interested in the work at the Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology (UFT), where Professor Sven Kerzenmacher, head of the UFT as well as co-head of the Joachim Herz Foundation’s innovate! Center, explained in one of the experiment halls how pharmaceutical residues in wastewater can be identified and removed. Since water treatment plants can only partially filter these out, researchers are now investigating how fungal cultures can be used to help. Two additional approaches use plastic or electrochemical processes. The team’s work on sustainable feed for aquaculture was also presented.
This project is a part of the MaTeNa innovate! Center (Materials - Technologies - Sustainability), for which the Joachim Herz Foundation (JHS) has provided a total of 30 million euros in funding.
Faculty of Production Engineering / IWT
Bremen’s Finance Senator was also impressed with the second station of his University of Bremen campus tour. In the halls and workshops of IWT and the Faculty of Production Engineering – Mechanical Engineering & Process Engineering, Björn Fecker had Professor Lutz Mädler share the spectrum of topics within Materials Science with him.
In single-droplet experiments, only special sustainable experiments on materials development are performed, which only require very small amounts of materials and energy. In generic model experiments, larger, more extensive processes can be demonstrated on much smaller scales. This capability is unique worldwide.
Another project involves the atomization of molten metal. This produces metal powders that can later be used for 3D printing. These highly complex processes have been developed over the course of decades at the university, which has established its standing in this area as a worldwide leader.
