- Home
- About Us
- Research Activities
- People
- Affiliate Companies
- Collegiate Partners
- Resources
- Publications
- Sustainable Polymers
- Broader Impacts
- Seed Funding
- Multimedia
- Secure Site
Center for Chemical Innovation
Center for Chemical Innovation
The Center for Sustainable Polymers (CSP) integrates sustainability issues that focus on the science and technology of polymeric materials into research, education, and public outreach initiatives. Members of the center concentrate their research efforts on harnessing the renewable, functional, degradable and non-toxic ingredients provided by Nature for tomorrow’s advanced plastics, foams, adhesives, elastomers, coatings and other macromolecular materials. To foster innovation the CSP partners with numerous companies that develop, implement, and advance technologies in the sustainable polymer industry. In addition to the research mission of the CSP, members also foster outreach activities to educate future scientists and the public about the science and technology of sustainability.
CSP Teacher Workshop
In late June the Center for Sustainable Polymers held its first Bioplastics Workshop for Teachers. Participants learned a new lab where high school students convert starch to plastic and test the properties of their samples. The workshop included participants from the Minneapolis/St. P aul metro area, Georgia, and New York.
Public Policy Roundtable: Green Chemistry
Together with partners from the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy, the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, and LifeScience Alley, the CSP co-hosted a roundtable for Minnesota State Commissioners and the Governor's Office to discuss potential public policy initiatives to support the bio-chemical industry on June 29th.
Join us at the upcoming Green Chemistry Forum event "The Business Case for Chemical Policy Reform"!
The CSP Annual Meeting was held April 18, 2013! Click here to see the agenda.
Check out these two exciting lectures coming up at the University of St. Thomas by Dr. Jay Keasling of UC Berkeley!
Click here to see the CSP Newsletter!
The Center for Sustainable Polymers is actively seeking applications to its 2013 Summer Research Experience. This is a 10-week intensive research opportunity open to non-University of Minnesota undergraduates. Applications due February 15, 2013! Apply Now!
Congratulations to CSP Principal Investigator William Tolman, who will become the new editor of Inorganic Chemistry effective January 2013. Read More
Congratulations to CSP Principal Investigator, Chris Macosko, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his research in polymer processing at the International Conference on Advanced Molding Technology and Materials Processing. Professor Macosko has advised over 100 PhD and MS students and published over 400 papers in his tenure at the University of Minnesota.
Chemical and Engineering News reports that during summer 2012 a significant group of small companies made the transition into biobased chemical production. Their story claims that by 2015 "the world will see more than 5 million metric tons per year of biobased chemical production." Read More
BASF, Cargill, and Novozymes announce a new partnership to commercialize a biological route to acrylic acid. Read More
Despite the challenges facing the bio-plastics indsutry, this article from Compounding World illustrates "Why Bioplastics are Here to Stay."
Consumers' concerns about the safety of traditional plastics remain prevalant in the minds of researchers and manufacturers as illustrated in this article.