Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. of Tokyo and UC Santa Barbara today announced that they are extending their materials research and education alliance for a new term of four years, beginning Sept. 1. Under the terms of the renewal agreement, Mitsubishi Chemical, the largest chemical company in Japan, will invest nearly $6 million at UCSB over the next four years.
The Mitsubishi Chemical Center for Advanced Materials (MC-CAM) at UCSB was established in 2001. Over its first eight years, MC-CAM produced 85 publications and 60 disclosed inventions. The center has also been very efficient in its technology generation: its cost per patent is $300,000, significantly below the averages of $500K for technology companies and $2.4M for research universities, according to the company.
Directed by Glenn Fredrickson, a professor of chemical engineering and materials, MC-CAM is affiliated with UCSB's College of Engineering and its Materials Research Laboratory, a national center supported by the National Science Foundation. The UCSB center maintains a portfolio of research projects that are selected and shaped by a steering committee of 10 members (five from each partner) from proposals submitted by UCSB researchers and scientists from Mitsubishi Chemical.
"Our partnership with Mitsubishi Chemical, under the visionary leadership of Glenn Fredrickson, is a wonderful example of a very successful and enduring relationship between industry and academia. It’s been very beneficial for both of us and for the entire world," says UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang. “It’s been a model university-industry collaboration and, most notably, one that spans the Pacific. We are grateful to have this relationship reaffirmed by the extension of support for another four years.”
The University of California owns inventions developed by university employees that derive from the research funded by Mitsubishi Chemical, and the company has first option for exclusive licenses to use the technology. The center's current areas of primary focus are functional, high value materials for solid-state lighting, advanced plastics and elastomers, organic solar cells, and information and energy storage devices.
For more information, visit: http://engineering.ucsb.edu.
