Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Ulrich Buller

Professor Ulrich Buller studied chemistry at the University of Muenster, Westphalia and at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen followed by doctorate studies in the Department of Technical Chemistry and Petrochemistry at RWTH Aachen. He was a research associate in the raw-materials project management section of the fusion research institute Kernforschungsanlage Jülich GmbH until he became an executive employee in the central administrative staff of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Professor Buller was concurrently in 1991-1992 in charge of establishing a permanent office in Brussels to represent the interests of the Fraunhofer Institutes vis-à-vis the institutions of the European Union, in 1997 - 1999 the acting Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Teltow-Seehof, in 1999-2006 the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in Potsdam-Golm, and in 2005-2006 the Chairman of the Fraunhofer Materials and Components Alliance. Since June 2006 he has been a Member of the Executive Board of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, department Research Planning, and since January 2007 Honorary professor of Chemical Engineering at University of Potsdam.

Professor Buller is a Member of the Brandenburg State University Council, a Member of the Governing Board of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing BAM, a Member of the Advisory Council of the Environmental Technology Cluster 'Umwelttechnologien NRW', a Member of the 'Council for Technology Rhineland Palatinade', a Member of the Presidial Board of the German Institute for Standardization (Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. – DIN), and the Chairman of the Forum Electromobility (Forum Elektromobilität e.V.).

Presentation

Meeting challenges – creating markets

To create a platform for meeting the challenges of the future, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft has set up the internal “Markets Beyond Tomorrow” program. It focuses on identifying the problems that need to be addressed and what people expect from the research work involved. Here, too, Fraunhofer lets itself be guided by the needs of society: People need health, energy, communication, a healthy environment, mobility and security. In numerous projects, Fraunhofer is delivering the building blocks for solving future issues. Starting from the global social challenges that have to be faced, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft examined its portfolio across all of its institutes in a process that identified five future issues which can be expected to create growth markets requiring considerable research. Fraunhofer intends to offer integrated solutions for these Markets Beyond Tomorrow and aims to be the technology leader on the German and European research landscape.

 Meeting challenges – creating markets