Biodegradable Polymer Research Center
The Biodegradable Polymer Research Center is a partnership of industrial scientists, government laboratories and researchers. The center carries out exploratory and applied research on biodegradable polymers to support medical and environmental objectives. To realize this objective, the center has been organized to merge expertise in the production of biodegradable polymeric materials, organic transformations, plastics processing, materials characterization, biodegradation testing and biocompatibility. Center industrial and government scientists work closely with the director, post-doctoral scientists and graduate students for rapid transfer of information.
The Center provides leadership in stimulating biodegradable polymer science and technology within the international community through publications, presentations at meetings, founding and editing the Journal of Polymers and the Environment, organization of scientific meetings on biodegradable materials, and active participation in the Bio-Environmental Polymer Research Society and the American Standard Testing Methods (ASTM) subcommittee on environmentally degradable polymers.
Membership Fee
The membership fee is per year. Members participate in prioritizing research projects, receive frequent progress reports, attend formal center review meetings, and have access to results from all the of the centers funded core research projects. In addition, members decided on technology to be patented and have rights to these inventions. Members enter into a unique relationship with leading academic and industrial researchers engaged in biodegradable polymer research and, though these interactions, gain valuable insights into important new research directions and develop meaningful relationships that will be useful in advancing in-house programs. Members that wish to expand on Center core technology for specific applications have that opportunity through various licensing agreements and by establishing non-core proprietary projects. Moreover, members may choose to have their scientists spend a period of time in a center laboratory such at the Biodegradation Testing Lab. This provides a mechanism by which a member can rapidly transfer methods or technologies from the center to their company.
