Henkel recognises Dr. Kristin Ganske’s outstanding research with “Laundry & Home Care Research Award 2016”

Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum (left), Head of Global Research and Development in the Laundry & Home Care business unit, and Dr. Michael Dreja, Head of Global Research at Laundry & Home Care, present the Laundry & Home Care Research Award 2016 to Dr. Kristin Ganske.

Düsseldorf, 26-Sep-2016 — /EuropaWire/ — Yesterday, on September 22, Henkel presented the “Laundry & Home Care Research Award 2016” to Dr. Kristin Ganske for her outstanding research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The award comes with a 3,000-euro grant. For her thesis, Ganske worked on new synthesis routes for bio-based polymers, which could lead to better stain removal on textiles.

The 31-year-old doctoral candidate in chemistry used cellulose to synthesize so-called cellulose carbamates, which have strong film-forming properties. By choosing cellulose, she opted for the most common organic compound on earth. “The new polymer is not just much more resource-conserving, but also biodegradable,” says Ganske. In the past, these products were partly obtained from non-renewable petrochemical raw materials.

“Dr. Ganske’s work has shown that there are new synthetic approaches to obtaining functional bio-based polymers, which can improve laundry detergents’ washing performance. Her findings are an important building block for the development of more efficient and more resource-conserving detergents,” says Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, Head of Global Research and Development in the Laundry & Home Care business unit.

This was the seventh time that the Laundry & Home Care business unit presented the award. “As a company with its own research activities, supporting the next generation of scientists is very important to us,” says Müller-Kirschbaum. “That’s because scientific excellence is the basis for technical innovation.” At the award ceremony, Ganske presented her research findings to representatives of Henkel’s Research and Development and to the Laundry & Home Care business unit’s Technology Advisory Board – a committee of leading scientists in the fields relevant to the development of detergents and cleaning agents. In particular, Henkel cooperates with these scientists to research and assess new trends.

MEDIA CONTACT

Hanna Philipps
Henkel
Corporate Media Relations
Headquarters, Düsseldorf/Germany
+49-211-797-3626
press@henkel.com

Rabea Möllers
Henkel
Corporate Media Relations
Headquarters, Düsseldorf/Germany
+49-211-797-6976
press@henkel.com

SOURCE: Henkel AG & Co. KGaA