On January 19, 2010, RIKEN President Ryoji Noyori, Advanced Science Institute(ASI) Director Kohei Tamao, and Max Planck Gesellshaft (MPG) President Peter Gruss signed a Memorandum of Understanding for research collaboration, starting with the establishment of a joint center for systems chemical biology research to be jointly managed by RIKEN ASI and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology. This is the first collaborative endeavor of this kind between RIKEN and MPG.
On the same January 19, 2010, a General Agreement on Academic Research Cooperation and Exchanges was also signed by President Noyori and Technical University of Munich (TUM) President Wolfgang Herrmann. RIKEN and TUM already have many years of collaboration in accelerator science. The new agreement will broaden this cooperation to include such areas as chemistry, the life sciences, and engineering.
Wolfgang Herrmann (left, President, TUM) and Ryoji Noyori (right, President, RIKEN)