© Rainer Sohlbank

The Adolphe Merkle Institute (AMI) is an interdisciplinary center of competence in soft nano- and materials science at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). AMI strives to be a leader in fundamental and application-oriented interdisciplinary research on soft nanoscience. In recent years, the Institute has also established itself as an internationally recognized leader in the field of “bio-inspired materials”, notably by initiating and leading a National Competence Center in Research. The Institute is the result of a unique and successful private-public partnership. In late 2007, Fribourg entrepreneur Adolphe Merkle, then 83 years old, set up the Adolphe Merkle Foundation and donated CHF 100 million to support the University of Fribourg. One of the conditions of his donation, the most generous of its kind ever made in Switzerland at the time, was the creation of the Institute with the canton’s (state) financial backing. Since its launch in late 2008, AMI has steadily increased in size, with currently around 100 people from over 20 countries working at the Institute. AMI’s four complementary chairs (Polymer Chemistry and Materials, BioNanomaterials, Soft Matter Physics, and BioPhysics), along with a junior group (Macromolecular Chemistry), are staffed by leading researchers in their field. (Source)