Empa and Japanese university establish center for energy research

(CONNECT) Empa and the Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR) of Japan's University of Tohoku will establish a joint research center in Dübendorf, the AIMR Joint Research Center. A corresponding agreement was signed on May 27 by AIMR Director Shin-ichi Orimo and Nathalie Casas, member of the Empa Directorate and Head of the Department of Energy, Mobility and Environment, according to an Empa press release.

The AIMR is setting up such Joint Research Centers in several countries to facilitate mutual exchange in multidisciplinary areas. Such centres already exist in the UK at the University of Cambridge, in the USA at the University of Chicago and at Tsinghua University in the Chinese capital Beijing. With the new Swiss facility, the AIMR aims to strengthen its links with continental Europe and expand international cooperation in energy research.

Accordingly, Empa will reportedly act as a liaison office for the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in southwest Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Both have complementary strengths in energy research. The aim is to promote joint research and academic exchange across the entire European continent with Empa as the basis. In addition, the University of Tohoku intends to use the AIMR as a central hub in the expansion of its research cluster for materials science in the future. ce/mm