Covestro is among the leading suppliers of premium polymers. Our materials and application solutions materials and application solutions are found in nearly every area of modern life. Innovation and sustainability are the driving forces behind the continuous development of our products, processes and facilities.  

In line with its purpose– To make the world a brighter place – Covestro is working on sustainable solutions to the greatest challenges of our age, such as climate change, resource depletion, population growth and urbanization. The company serves these global trends and the associated major industries, such as the automotive, construction, wood processing and furniture, sports and leisure, and electrical and electronics industries.

About 1200 of Covestro's 17,200 employees work in three global innovation centers: Shanghai/China, Leverkusen/Germany and Pittsburgh/United States developing new ideas for applications using high-tech plastics, foams and coatings. In 2019, Covestro spent about 266 million € on research and development, corresponding to roughly two percent of total sales.

Dr. Dirk J. Dijkstra received his PhD degree in 1988 from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands after working on entanglements and cross-links in UHMWPE. Then he started at the physics department of the central research of the Bayer AG in Leverkusen in Germany, working on material properties and fracture mechanics of thermoplastics. Since 1999 he is head of the rheology group first at the central research of Bayer, then Bayer Material Science and now since 2016 Covestro. His main research interests include the polymer physics and rheology, especially of polycarbonates and polyurethanes for adhesives and coatings.

Dr. Verena Goldbach joined Covestro in 2018 after receiving her PhD degree from the University of Konstanz, Germany. During her PhD she investigated the catalytic conversion of renewable resources such as unsaturated fatty acids from plant oils to linear, difunctional building blocks for polyesters and polyamides. She is working in Innovation at Covestro as an R&D manager in the department New Technologies. She is scouting for technologies and partnerships in the field of sustainable chemistry, bio-based monomers and recycling technologies. 

Covestro Deutschland AG - Kaiser-Wilhelm-Allee 60, 51373 Leverkusen, Germany