Dow's Leadership Gift Launches Major Process Safety Education Initiative

Thanks to collaboration with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), an unwavering emphasis on chemical and process safety by The Dow Chemical Company will now be part of the curriculum for undergraduate chemical engineering students in the U.S.

Safety is core to everything we do at Dow, and we consider it a priority and a responsibility to educate new generations of chemical engineers on the role of safety in their everyday work environment.

- Peter Holicki, Dow

Dow and AIChE announced today a program to better prepare chemical engineering graduates for the workforce. The global Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative will concentrate on upgrading curriculum materials, increasing faculty competence in process safety, and conducting process safety “boot camps” for undergraduates at universities.

In announcing the gift, June Wispelwey, executive director of the AIChE thanked Dow for its generosity and foresight in boosting the initiative, which will be run by AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS). “This is just the latest—and largest—example of Dow’s commitment to advancing the safety of the chemical enterprise and the expertise of chemical engineers,” she said.

Peter Holicki, senior vice president of Manufacturing & Engineering and Environment, Health & Safety Operations, said the company sees a clear link between the new safety initiative and its own business and sustainability goals. “Safety is core to everything we do at Dow, and we consider it a priority and a responsibility to educate new generations of chemical engineers on the role of safety in their everyday work environment,” said Holicki. “This new partnership with AIChE allows us to share our values about the vital importance of safe operation, and do so in a long-term, sustainable way,” he added.

Read the full press release.