After six months of planning, the day finally arrived on 23 May 2007. The first Senior Expert Chemists Technology Tour finally took place on 23 May 2007 at Industriepark Höchst in Frankfurt. The event was organised by Sanofi-Aventis, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies. The tour began in the historical exhibition at the East Gate with a look back at the roots of the former Hoechst, but above all at the progress that has been made at the Höchst site in recent years.
Today, more than 22,000 people work on the industrial site, far more than in the mid-1990s. And so the excursion to the listed Peter Behrens Building, once the basis of the Hoechst emblem bridge and tower, had the sole purpose of admiring the architectural secrets of this remarkable Bauhaus-style industrial building.
Afterwards we went to the heart of Sanofi-Aventis, a research building in the south of the industrial park that is protected to the highest safety standards. Here, laboratory and group managers explained the latest research trends as well as the daily routine. For example, it is now standard practice for chemists to characterise new substances fully automatically with an NMR and mass spectrum within a few hours. In view of the modern high technology, some participants found themselves making historical comparisons with their own work in the laboratory.
The explanations in protein crystallisation were also captivating. Today, biologists and chemists are able to analyse significantly more samples and start structure elucidation projects per year than just a few years ago. It came as a surprise to all those present that outsourcing is now also used here: microscope images of the crystallisation process are sent to China for analysis via data transfer.
After the lunch break in the casino, where the researchers from Sanofi-Aventis were available to talk to, the tour ended with a bus ride through the industrial park. The 4.6-square-kilometre park, with 72 km of roads, 57 km of railway tracks and around 90 companies now located there, is probably one of the most important chemical and pharmaceutical sites in Europe.
On behalf of all participants, we would like to thank Dr Uwe Gerlach, Dr Ulrich Wendt, Dr Martin Will, Dr Kai Bruns, graduate engineer Maik Fredersdorf and Dipl.-lng. Mathias Schaffrath, and above all our full-day guide, Dr Cäcilia Glück-Machholdt, who made this informative and entertaining day possible.
The series of excursions in the format of Technology Tours for Senior Expert Chemists is to be continued, also beyond the Rhine-Main region. We would like to thank the Senior Expert Chemists for their suggestions and planning assistance.
Contact: Dr Holger Bengs, GDCh, Tel. 069 7917 356
(From Nachr. Chem. 2007, 55, 920.)