CCC 2019: Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher was invited as key note speaker at the Dutch Carbohydrate Competence Center’s symposium in Zwolle, the Netherlands

The Dutch Carbohydrate Competence Center CCC celebrated its ‘bronze’ jubilee of 12.5 years, and at the same time thanked Prof. Lubbert Dijkhuizen from Groningen University who is about to step down as its Head upon his retirement. Prof. Henk Schols from Wageningen University, one of his two successors, had invited Prof. Moerschbacher as one of two key note speakers. He used this opportunity to thank Prof. Fons Voragen, the former and founding Head of CCC, for being his inspiring role model during almost his entire career. Prof. Voragen - and, as it turned out during the symposium, Prof. Dijkhuizen as well - had been a real pioneer in conducting fundamental research in such a way that it was financially supported by industry. He was one of only two globally leading scientists (along with Prof. Peter Albersheim from the Complex Carbohydrate Centre CCC in the US) who revealed the structure of one of the most complex polysaccharides known, the pectins in plant cell walls, as well as the equally complex enzymatic machinery which plant pathogens have evolved for their degradation. And this work was largely paid for by the apple juice industry who wanted the pectins in their juice degraded just so that the cell wall fragments produced would generate turbidity without settling down at the bottom of the bottle. So yes, research can be both curiosity-driven and application-driven! One can perform top-quality research and at the same time solve practical problems. The whole idea of CCC is built on this strategy: perform world-class research and let it be co-financed by industry. And it works! And the doctoral candidates involved in these projects not only have a world-class network of research institutes at their fingertips during two regular annual symposia. More than 50 of the 150+ participants in Zwolle came from industry - ideal conditions for building a career. This is true excellence!