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Chemistry for tomorrow's materials
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At the launch ceremony for the International Year of Chemistry at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on January 27 and 28, 2011, Thierry Le Hénaff, Chairman and CEO of Arkema, spoke on the theme of Materials Chemistry.
He recalled that "for over 300 years the science of chemistry has been at the heart of our countries’ development, that it is also a modern and innovative industry resolutely looking to the future, and that without any doubt it will be a key player of the 21st century".
“Chemistry is the mother of all industries. It brings solutions to the other industrial sectors and it’s thanks to chemistry that technological breakthroughs are possible in these sectors. Chemistry clothes, cures, protects, transports, houses, feeds. Chemistry is a key element of the world’s economy.”
Thierry Le Hénaff also stressed the fact that "today chemistry is facing its destiny: to take up the formidable challenge of sustainable development”.
"Filtering solar radiation, finding other ways of producing energy, replacing metal or glass, purifying water, saving crude oil… from small steps in progress to ground-breaking technologies, the chemical industry, at the center of these technical challenges, is absolutely essential in developing the solutions and the materials of tomorrow," he continued, before spelling out the choice made by Arkema to "focus, very early on, its long-term technological endeavours around four innovation areas entirely directed at sustainable development; water treatment, renewable energies, high performance materials, and biosourced chemistry ".
