China (Mainland)
Network for Asian Open Research (NAO)
NAO Family Day – “Connect to Innovate”
The 5th NAO Family Day took place on April 13th, 2016 at BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Shanghai). The event brought NAO professors and students from leading universities from Greater China, Japan and South Korea, and BASF scientists together. This diverse team from academia and industry exchanged the latest project status and further discussed ideas of industry-relevant research. NAO Family Day is part of BASF’s open innovation concept, which aims to strengthen the relationship between top academia from Asia and BASF.
On The Day
The day started with the warm welcome from Dr. Piyada Charoensirisomboon, Vice President Research Shanghai and Dr. Sébastien Garnier, Senior Manager Scouting and Open Research Center Asia Pacific & Research Care Materials, who emphasized the importance of innovation through collaboration. Afterwards, Prof. Xiangming Kong from Tsinghua University gave insight into his latest research on “Organic Cement Chemistry”, which generated intensive discussions on the interaction between polymers and cement in construction applications. Prof. Takaya Terashima from Kyoto University presented his achievements on “Functional Polymers via Living Radical Polymerization”.
In the afternoon the NAO students presented updates on their ongoing collaboration projects, and actively discussed the scientific approaches and further possible project plans. The combination of the diverse expertise within the NAO family and the openness of its members led to news ideas for the NAO collaborations and behind.
Best Presentation Award
As a tradition, the NAO student with the most convincing presentation gets the best presenter award. This is to set an incentive to challenge the NAO students to improve themselves and give their best. This year, the winner goes to Dr. Huanhuan Gao from Fudan University, who convinced the audience with great interaction and passion during the presentation.
Another highlight of the day was a visit to the BASF Design Center Asia Pacific. The professors and students had the great opportunity to discover a broad portfolio of BASF products and their applications areas.
Connect to NAO
We would like to thank all participants for this successful day and fruitful discussions.
If you would like to connect to NAO, please contact us at yuexia.feng@basf.com or hannah.cao@basf.com.