Interview with Lino Dias, Vice President, Bayer AG, Monheim/Germany

1. What does “engineering a better life” mean?

The word “engineering” is a noun many times used as a verb, which incredibly reflects its dynamic and transformational meaning... The Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as “The application of science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of humankind”. In fact, one of the major drivers for engineers has always been improving people’s lives.
“Engineering a better life”, summarizes a large and multidisciplinary project where we combined the expertise in different areas of science and technology with social and economic sciences. The project proved efficient at generating sustainable businesses and continues improving lives of already more than a million smallholder farmers.

2. What is your forecast of the value of the pharmaceutical and chemical industry for the society?

Both pharmaceutical and chemical industries are economically very attractive trillion-euro businesses, at global scale, with future growth trends. Importantly, they also have a unique and fascinating power to allow addressing “global challenges” and meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This goes from clean water and sanitation (SDG 6) to good health and well-being (SDG 3) or to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture” (SDG 2), just to name a few. Their value to society goes therefore far beyond their business value. Working in these industries gives many people, including me, a fulfilling sense of purpose.

3. Which technologies will boost R&D in the coming years?

A search for solutions to address “Global Challenges” will become the North Star for R&D activities across the entire range of engineering fields. In that journey, I believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will be a major boost in R&D. AI is opening new opportunities, yet to be fully explored. It will not only allow much faster screenings and hypothesis testing (for example in identifying active ingredients for specific targets) but also reveal multidisciplinary correlations that will help scientists to come to new hypothesis, probably never considered before. In addition, several technologies, across the entire range of engineering fields, have significant transformational power. From water-saving technologies to smarter infrastructure and cities. From more environmentally friendly production processes to regenerative agriculture. Just to name a few examples. Engineering will continue improving people’s lives with ever increasing contributions to sustainability.

*The answers are my personal view and not a company statement

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