BASF sponsorship will advance AIChE's "Doing a World of Good" initiatives in safety education and workforce diversity
NEW YORK, NY, and FLORHAM PARK, NJ, January 18, 2018 — BASF today affirmed its ongoing commitment to safe chemical industry practices and education by funding two key priorities of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) “Doing a World of Good” campaign.
As a Founders Circle sponsor, BASF will help underwrite the expansion of AIChE’s Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative, which fosters the safe and ethical practice of chemical engineering, and kick-off new inclusion programs to expand partnerships with industry, academia, and professional associations that engage under-represented groups in the engineering workforce.
“Companies like BASF rely on manufacturing talent to remain competitive, which underscores the need for continued alignment between industry partners, the education system and the business community,” said Teressa Szelest, President, Market and Business Development North America for BASF. “Collaborating with AIChE allows us to further emphasize the importance of process safety education and management, encourage more STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) educational growth, and enhance our goals to create a diverse workforce that addresses challenges facing the chemical manufacturing industry.”
June Wispelwey, executive director of AIChE, thanked BASF for its generosity and foresight in seeing how these programs advance business, sustainability and inclusion goals, “The chemical engineering industry is a leader in welcoming, engaging, and retaining women and other underrepresented and under-served populations in the profession. However, there is still so much more we must accomplish for an inclusive STEM workforce.”
Similarly, Wispelwey said that AIChE has led the way in safety awareness and training through its Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), yet the Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative holds the key to assuring a safer, more sustainable chemical industry.
In 2018, BASF will coordinate with CCPS to develop safety and chemical engineering education modules, translated into several languages, as part of the Safety and Chemical Engineering Education (SAChE) Certificate Program — an e-learning curriculum which is available to AIChE’s 23,000 student members for free. Additionally, BASF will host a CCPS Faculty Process Safety Workshop at its manufacturing facility in Wyandotte, Michigan, in July, and sponsor a Student Process Safety Bootcamp at a university in the United States.
In addition to safety training, AIChE’s “Doing a World of Good” campaign focuses on educational programs that increase the participation of young women and underrepresented minorities in chemical engineering, expand partnerships with minority-serving educational institutions, and strengthen K-12 STEM outreach. More information can be found at www.doingaworldofgood.org.
Wispelwey also thanked BASF for its long-standing support for AIChE through its involvement in the Institute’s leadership, meeting programming and sponsorship, and a variety of earlier philanthropic activities.
About AIChE
AIChE is a professional society of more than 53,000 chemical engineers in 110 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.
About BASF
BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 17,500 employees in North America, and had sales of $16.2 billion in 2016. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.com.
At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The approximately 114,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of about €58 billion in 2016. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.