WESEL/DUISBURG, Germany – ALTANA AG continues to back research and innovation with a new conference on innovation, held Nov. 5-6, 2008, in Duisburg, Germany. For the first time since the repositioning of the group, with its concentration on the specialty chemicals business, about 100 of ALTANA’s top scientists and development engineers came for the first ALTANA Innovation Conference. They discussed technical and economical developments and trends, exchanged experiences and developed specialty chemicals products for the future. Among the topics discussed were new functional surfaces, polymer electronics, nanotechnology and the application of biotechnological processes in specialty chemistry. ALTANA plans to host the conference on an annual basis.