Since 2012, Evolve Ltd has contributed to the success of various academic and research programmes at the University through donations worth € 160,000. The equipment donated in 2012 was to the value of €70,500 while the second tranche in 2014 was worth €90,000. According to Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni, equipment donations are a key component of partnerships between industry and the various departments of the University of Malta.
The greatest gifts in life often do not come in shimmering wrapping. So when the university received the gift of equipment, the energy in the testing labs was palpable.
The Department of Chemistry in the Faculty of Chemistry first received a series of instruments – a Gas Chromatograph, a Particle Sizer and a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectophotometer (FTIR) – in 2012.
Researchers and post-graduate students doing their MSc in Chemistry have since been enabled to use the Gas Chromatograph in the Organic Photochemistry laboratory, while the FTIR has been utilised in the synthetic organic laboratoties.
Meanwhile, the Mastersizer, which is highly regarded as the premier laser diffraction particle size analysis instrument on the market for design, performance and software user experience, has been extensively used for studies in the optimisation of nanoparticle production processes.
Seeing the positive contribution of their donation, Evolve Ltd, a subsidiary of Attard & Co, then decided to gift three more pieces of instruments, this time to enhance and facilitate the academic programmes and research studies at the Faculty of Science but also at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
The donation in 2014 comprised of a Leica M620 F20 surgical microscope, another Gas Chromatograph, and a Polarimeter.
Te Leica surgical microscope, with its high technical specifications, has already made considerable difference in the Department of Physiology and Biochemistry for both teaching and research purposes, while the Gas Chromatograph and the Polarimeter are making a difference in studies at the Department of Chemistry.