On November 26, the Master's Ceremony for graduates in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy took place, where the theses with outstanding performance were awarded. Due to the Corona situation last year, this year's ceremony was for the graduating years 2020 and 2021 and took place as a hybrid event with the award winners, supervisors and company representatives on site and the other graduates in Zoom. A total of six graduates from the MSc Chemistry, MSc Food Chemistry and MSc Business Chemistry programs were honored for their outstanding master's theses. Maria Nero and Kathrin Kirchhoff were honored for their work on the MSc in Business Chemistry.

Ms. Nero's master's thesis focused on the impact of geographic location on company valuation in additive manufacturing. For this purpose, she examined financing rounds of 3D printing startups from the last 10 years, conducted interviews with venture capital experts from different locations such as the USA, China, Singapore, Israel, and Germany, and collected data from venture capital experts using a questionnaire. By analyzing the data, Ms. Nero was able to identify important geographic factors, such as the international connectivity of a city or the risk appetite of a population, and determine the extent of their influences on company valuation, particularly in the field of additive manufacturing.

Ms. Kirchhoff, on the other hand, developed application areas for a technique to analyze cell populations at the single-cell level in her master's thesis. In collaboration with a chemical company, Ms. Kirchhoff was able to explore applications in the laboratory that will contribute to improved development of therapies in oncology in the future. The potential of this application was also explored through a strategic analysis of the single cell analysis market. Ms. Kirchhoff used the knowledge gained about competitors, suppliers and customers to develop a corporate strategy.

The awards, each worth 1,000 euros, were donated by the Grosse-Hornke management consultancy (Münster). We congratulate Ms. Nero and Ms. Kirchhoff and wish them all the best for the future.

The picture shows award winner Maria Nero (3rd from left) and award winner Kathrin Kirchhoff (left) together with Silke Grosse-Hornke (right), Prof. Dr. Jens Leker (2nd from right) and Dean Prof. Dr. Joachim Jose (2nd from left).

On October 12, we had the pleasure of welcoming the founders Felix Baur, Patrick Müller and Ricardo Dornseifer to our course 'Strategic Analysis'. Our students gained insights into the development story of the very exciting app-based startups picky (building lasting relationships) and NightLive (nightlife on your smartphone). In addition, the founders shared their personal experiences during their entrepreneurship journey and gave unique insights behind the scenes of a startup creation.
We thank you so much for your time and look forward to hearing news about your journey.

What began in 2008 as a simple cooperation has developed into a deep, international friendship. The Institute of Business Administration at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy (IfbM) and the School of Economics and Management of Dalian University of Technology (DUT) have been enabling their students to gain international experience in China and Münster respectively, to broaden their horizons and explore new cultures for 12 years now.

We are very happy to report that this cooperation has reached a new peak: The exchange programme between WWU Münster and DUT will be supported by the "Sino-European Scholarship Program" of the Chinese Ministry of Education in the coming semesters.

All exchange students from Münster who are in their Master's programme will not only receive free accommodation in a two-bed room, but also a monthly support of ￥3000 (approx. 380€) for their stay at DUT. This support is available each semester to 6 students who stay at DUT for at least 90 days and are European citizens.

Shihui Tang, Deputy Director of International Cooperation and Accreditation at DUT's School of Economics and Management commented on the new events as follows:
"[...] Thanks to this program, students gained more opportunities for their future careers and benefited from cross-cultural educational experience. [...] We sincerely hope the cooperation between DUT and WWU will be even more fruitful and last as long as our friendship."

Professor Michael Quante, Prorector for International Affairs and Transfer at WWU Münster, is also delighted with this new development (translated):
"We are very happy about this cooperation, which will open up new horizons and perspectives for the students. Internationalisation must take place at the level of personal exchange and intercultural experience. Only in this way can we build a sustainable and long-term basis for trust and mutual understanding."

We are very much looking forward to collaborating in the years to come and would like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at DUT very much for their cooperation over the past years!

You can find more information about the Dalian exchange here.

Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most advanced electrochemical energy storage technology due to a favourable balance of performance and cost properties. Driven by forecasted growth of the electric vehicles market, the cell production capacity for this technology is continuously being scaled up. However, the demand for better performance, particularly higher energy densities and/or lower costs, has triggered research into post-lithium-ion technologies such as solid-state lithium metal, lithium–sulfur and lithium–air batteries as well as post-lithium technologies such as sodium-ion batteries. Currently, these technologies are being intensively studied with regard to material chemistry and cell design.

With their review, the research team around Dr. Fabian Duffner and Dr. Richard Schmuch expands the current state of knowledge in this field. Starting with a market outlook and an analysis of the technological differences, the manufacturing processes of these post-lithium-ion technologies are discussed. Then, the manufacturing compatibility of each technology with the lithium-ion production infrastructure is evaluated and the impact on processing costs is discussed.

The detailed results on the status quo of battery cell production have been published by Dr. Fabian Duffner and Dr. Richard Schmuch together with Prof. Dr. Jens Tübke, Forschungsfertigung Batteriezelle FFB, Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, Münster, Prof. Dr. Jens Leker, Institute for Business Management in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, and Prof. Dr. Martin Winter, MEET Battery Research Center and Helmholtz Institute Münster on 28.01.2021 in the journal Nature Energy.

At this year's Master's graduate party on November 30, Stella Buchmann received the prize for the best thesis in the field of business chemistry. The Münster-based management consultancy Grosse-Hornke Privat Consult also sponsored this year's €1000 prize for outstanding achievements.
Ms. Buchmann investigated how the profit margin of an end product in the petrochemical value chain can be optimized for raw materials in view of unpredictable price developments. She developed models for production optimization and tested their effectiveness with the help of computer-aided simulations. In the course of her investigations Ms. Buchmann found out that an adjustment of the sales price was less effective than the flexible purchase of intermediate products via supply contracts, which can be varied.
The picture shows the award winner Stella Buchmann (2nd from right) together with company representative Silke Grosse-Hornke (2nd from left), Prof. Dr. Jens Leker (right) and Dean Prof. Hans-Ulrich Humpf (left).
 

This week, the University of Münster also called for a climate strike week. Since the topic of sustainability fits perfectly into the context of today's corporate strategies, we took up the topic of circular economy in the lecture "Strategic Analysis" on November 26th. The lecture dealt with the European waste hierarchy, business model innovations and how digitalisation helps to manage complexity. We were very pleased about the active participation and discussion on the students' side.
 

On 15th November 2019 the meanwhile traditional Chemtrepreneur Challenge of CREAVIS took place for the third time in Marl. In a one-day workshop, our business chemists developed, supported by experienced Evonik project managers, ideas on CREAVIS's current fields of innovation: additive manufacturing, membranes and care.

We congratulate our five business chemists Lilliana Basis, Luca Cochet, Sinem Sevim, Christian Winkler and Katrin Schillikowski, who convinced the jury led by Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) Ulrich Küsthardt with their "Dentakick" business idea. Dentakick is a chewy candy that combines dental hygiene to go with a vitamin kick and creates a long-lasting feeling of freshness. The five winners have the chance to apply for the student development program "Evonik Perspectives".

Our business chemists said that the Chemtrepreneur Challenge was a wonderful opportunity to apply the expertise acquired in the lectures! We are already looking forward to the next exciting challenge in 2020 and would like to take this opportunity to thank the Evonik team for a great day!
https://careers.evonik.com/de/human-chemistry/?tag=Creavis

On 13th November 2019 we had the pleasure to welcome Mr. Michael Bröskamp from the Tier Mobility GmbH as a guest speaker in our lecture "Grundlagen von Forschung, Technologie und Innovation" (GFTI). The students of business chemistry, pharmaceutical sciences and business administration gained a comprehensive insight into the business model of the trans-European e-scooter rental company as part of the guest lecture. Furthermore, Mr. Bröskamp described his exciting career path from his studies in business chemistry through his employment at Evonik Industries AG to his current position at Tier. In this context, he focused in particular on the differences in the everyday working life between start-ups and corporates. After the lecture, the students had the opportunity to discuss unanswered questions with Mr. Bröskamp. Various topics such as Tier's long-term strategy and differentiation from other e-scooter providers as well as its sustainability goals were covered.
We would like to thank Mr. Bröskamp for his informative presentation and look forward to the future of Tier Mobility GmbH.
 

Niklas Tauch, from "wissen leben" (November 2019):
"Hardly anyone requests further explanations when someone talks about studying economics or chemistry. The situation is different when I tell someone about my Master's program in Business Chemistry. But it's quite simple: After we've learned the basics of chemistry or a similar subject in our bachelor's degree, business chemistry deals with the basics of business administration. We also specialize in two chemistry modules of our choice. In this way, we learn to reflect on questions and tasks from both points of view and to combine them ideally. Being able to "do both" is an advantage for one's future career, especially for tasks at interfaces such as the marketing of chemical products or the management of research, technology and innovation. Particularly valuable are the practical seminars by Prof. Dr. Jens Leker and all the workshops by well-known chemical companies such as BASF or Procter & Gamble. Such large companies are particularly suitable for entering a career as an industrial chemist. During my internship abroad in Amsterdam, I noticed that I was interested in both: Business administration and chemistry. Anyone who also finds this combination of subjects exciting will make the right choice by studying business chemistry. We even have an association - 'Wirtschaftschemiker der Universität Münster' - in which we establish and maintain contact between students and alumni."

On 10th-11th October 2019 the Institute of Business Chemistry participated in the International Workshop on Innovation and Production Management in the Process Industries at the Mälardalen University, in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The objective of the workshop was to bridge the industry-academy interface and to find a cross-disciplinary research agenda for the process industries. With around 40 participants from 8 countries, the workshop provided a great platform for sharing interesting ongoing work from companies and researchers in the process industries.
The workshop offered following 6 plenary and key-note academy and industry presentations, covering different sectors of process industries:
- Prof. Dr. Thomas Friedli, Strategic management of global manufacturing networks.
- Dr. Peter Wallin, Digitization in the Swedish process industry – trends, challenges and actions.
- Dr. Rachid Gamal, Business process management – the Nestlé way.
- Dr. Stephan Von Delft, Business model innovation in the process industries: recent trends and future research.
- Magnus Edin, SunPine – A bio-refinery built on innovation from different aspects.
- Prof. Dr. Paulo Figueiredo, Levels, sources, and outcomes of technological capability accumulation in latecomer process-intensive industries: evidence from Brazil.
Furthermore, the track presentations included three works from our institute:
- Magdalena Kohut, Start-ups as an indicator of early market convergence.
- Dr. Lukas Aaldering, Supporting management decisions in the process industries with data-driven intelligence.
- Thorsten Bergmann, How digital tools make circular economy operational in industrial areas: the example of BE CIRCLE.
At the workshop day 2, five round table discussions were conducted on the below selected topics for identifying future research directions for the innovation and production management topic in the process industries.
 

On Wednesday, 19 December, the German Minister of Education and Research, Anja Karliczek, paid visits to the MEET Battery Research Center at the University of Münster and to the Helmholtz-Institute in Münster (HI MS), a branch of the Forschungszentrum Jülich. During her visit, the Minister was informed of current projects being undertaken at both locations. She also held discussions on future developments in the field of knowledge transfer with representatives of the two institutes, as well as with the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Rectorate of Münster University. Prof. Leker represented the Institute for Business Management in Chemistry and Pharmacy with its own research focus on battery research.

At this year’s master graduation ceremony on November 23, 2018, Niels Gerhard received the award for the best thesis in the department of business chemistry. The prize, endowed with 1000€, was sponsored for the seventh consecutive year by the Münster-based consulting firm Grosse-Hornke Privat Consult and is awarded for outstanding achievements.

In his master thesis in collaboration with Evonik Industries AG, Niels Gerhard examined how the purchasing organization of a chemical company can position itself to be prepared for constant change in the market environment. To this end, he identified characteristics of agile organizations, drafted specific requirement scenarios, and discussed options for action with experts from academia and industry. He used his findings to discover areas for chemical purchasing improvement and derive steps to achieve said improvement.

The picture shows the award winner Niels Gerhard (2nd from right) together with company representative Ms. Silke Grosse-Hornke, Prof. Dr. Jens Leker (right), and Dean Prof. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Humpf (left).

As the topic of new working methods is becoming increasingly important in the course of digitalization, we were pleased to welcome Senacor on 12 October with a workshop on agile methods in software development. Our students and employees of the chair got an insight into the SCRUM method and informed themselves about the role and possibilities of consultants in the IT sector.

The doctoral seminar “Chemical Industry of the future: Theory meets practice – Practice meets theory” took place on the 24th and 25th September 2018 at the Provadis Hochschule (Prof. Utikal) in cooperation with the University of Muenster, the Journal of Business Chemistry (JoBC) and the Association of Chemistry and Business (VCW).

The opening speech was held by Jürgen Vormann, managing director of Infraserv Höchst, providing a short outlook on future challenges of an industrial park operator. Additionally, interesting keynote speeches were given about new work methods illustrated by the new ideation lab of Infraserv Höchst, the latest European circular economy laws and initiatives (Tobias Schäfer, VCI), intrapreneurship (Björn Krix, Infraserv Höchst & Prof. Wolfgang Rams, Provadis Hochschule) and growth paths of the chemical industry (Prof. Dr. Klaus Griesar, head of the department “Science Relations” at Merck and president of VCW).

The seminar was completed by the Clariant Innovation Center and a moderated bus tour through the industrial park Höchst with Prof. Thomas Bayer (Provadis Hochschule).
 

As part of the lecture series Fundamentals of Internal and External Accounting in the Master's program in Business Chemistry, Dr. Gerrit Böhm - Member of the Board of Volkswohl Bund Versicherungen Dortmund - gives the students exciting practical insights into the working methods of an insurance company. The focus of the lecture was on the management of an insurance company on the basis of selected market scenarios. After the lecture, the students used the opportunity to ask for one or the other career tip in a relaxed atmosphere.