Heidelberg University Opens Workplace And Laboratory Building For Engineering Sciences

CEREMONY FOR OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF BUILDING FOR MOLECULAR SYSTEMS ENGINEERING TAKES PLACE ON 17 APRIL
A new workplace and laboratory building for the engineering sciences at Heidelberg University is about to be officially opened. Host at the ceremony on 17 April 2023 is the Mannheim and Heidelberg office of the state assets and construction company Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg. The new building for molecular systems engineering, and the nearby materials sciences building, together form the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials (IMSEAM). As part of the new Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Ruperto Carola scientists at IMSEAM pursue research on novel molecular-level materials and technologies at the Im Neuenheimer Feld campus.

With an area of approximately 620 square metres, the building for molecular systems engineering has been designed to contain not only offices but, above all, closely interlocking laboratories for physics, molecular and cell biology, and chemistry. The cost of the new building, totalling a good 9.3 million euros, was completely covered from Heidelberg University funds. The multi-storey building adjoins not only material sciences – the building for Advanced Materials research was opened in 2017 – but also the European Institute for Neuromorphic Computing (EINC), which was inaugurated last autumn.

Interdisciplinary research in this innovative field is a central component of the flagship initiative Engineering Molecular Systems, which was established in the context of the Excellence Strategy. Naturally and synthetically manufactured molecular components are “built into” systems in order to create molecular machines and technologies with new functionalities and application potential, including in the life sciences. “A central goal of the flagship initiative is to translate the research findings into medicine and to boost transfer into technological and industrial applications,” says Prof. Dr Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Heidelberg University.

Marco Grübbel, director of the Mannheim and Heidelberg office of the assets and construction company Vermögen and Bau Baden-Württemberg, will open the ceremony to officially inaugurate the new building. Following the Rector’s words of welcome, Prof. Dr Christine Selhuber-Unkel from the Faculty of Engineering Sciences will present the research at the Institute for Molecular Systems Engineering and Advanced Materials, of which she is the founding director. The final speaker will be Prof. Dr Eckart Würzner, Lord Mayor of Heidelberg. After the symbolic handing over of the key, those present can join a tour to look around the new building.