During an announcement made at the Carbon 2016 conference held at Penn State, Mike Murray, Chief Technology Officer at Morgan Advanced Materials, revealed that the new Center of Excellence would be located in Innovation Park at Penn State, placing it in close proximity to the university’s top talent and facilities. Over the course of three years, Morgan is expected to make a multi-million pound investment aimed at establishing a truly world-class research facility. Once operational, the center is expected to continue to create a range of highly-skilled research posts over the next few years.

The partnership with Penn State will combine resources and experience from both sides, creating a synergy that will enable significant progress in the development of carbon materials for a range of sectors and applications. The Center of Excellence, which will be the third of its kind for Morgan globally and the first in North America, will play a vital role in the further development of Morgan’s core competencies in the areas of materials and application engineering. Over the longer term, the findings generated by the center will support Morgan in its mission to deliver world class materials science solutions that meet the engineering challenges of customers worldwide, safely and efficiently.

Mike Murray explained: “For us, the decision to work with Penn State was a natural one. As a world leader in carbon-related research, Penn State has an unrivalled reputation for innovation in its field, which we believe will add real value for our customers. The partnership will help accelerate our development of new products and capabilities, enabling us to continue to meet the future needs of our customers more quickly, efficiently and comprehensively.”