Politecnico di Milano and HAWK in Göttingen consolidate scientific collaboration
The Health Campus Göttingen, a collaboration between HAWK and the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), recently hosted the 10th “Plasma for Life” partnership meeting. The event brought together researchers and experts from various disciplines and also provided a good insight into European plasma research. Prof Dr Gianluca Valentini, Professor of Physics from Milan, spoke about his work in optics and photonics.
His keynote speech also highlighted the special partnership between the Faculty of Engineering and Health and the Politecnico di Milano, with Dr Alessia Candeo, also from the Politecnico di Milano, having already addressed the event in Göttingen last year.
Shortly after the meeting, Milan scientist and research fellow Anna Pecorari visited the Laboratory for Analytical Measurement Technology at the HAWK faculty. Together with HAWK Professor Christoph Gerhard, she is investigating the plasma polishing of laser-generated microlenses made of quartz glass, in which high-precision measurements play a key role.
“This research work is highly relevant for the development of miniaturised systems for medical diagnostics and bioanalytics. Our collaboration brings together highly diverging yet complementary expertise and has already delivered promising results,” says Gerhard, adding that planning is already underway for Anna Pecorari’s next trip to Göttingen.
However, the partnership between HAWK and the Politecnico di Milano is not limited to research. Students were working on research projects in Göttingen as early as 2023. Matteo Colombo and Filippo Fosatti looked at the plasma-induced degradation of nutrients in food, which is of scientific interest but also relevant to industry.
In late autumn 2023, students Emanuele Locati and Davide Notaro investigated the characterisation of glass surfaces and wrote their final theses on that subject. Prof Dr Gerhard, who is also a visiting professor in Milan, again played a key role in supervising their work. Gerhard and his Italian colleagues conduct research on food analysis and the characterisation of surfaces.
The academic exchange flows in the other direction as well, though. EU programmes such as LaserlabEurope have funded student research visits, partly as a result of the partnership: two trips to Milan enabled Laura Engelhardt from the HAWK faculty in Göttingen, for example, to gain practical research and laboratory experience during her Bachelor’s degree.
The partnership between the two universities is notable not only for its ongoing research collaboration, but also for promoting intercultural exchange among students. This creates added value for both groups: the students gain insight into international scientific networks and the universities benefit from the innovative talent of their young, up-and-coming scientists. “Collaboration will be expanded even further in future, through continued exchanges and joint research projects; it will also be extended to include international technology transfer,” Prof Gerhard concludes. The next group of students from the Politecnico di Milano are scheduled to visit HAWK in Göttingen in the 2025 summer semester as part of the existing ERASMUS agreement.
