Page 17 - CEMS Summer 2022 Newsletter

GIVING MATTERS
PPG invests in future leaders with safety in mind
Gift from Fortune 500 company supports recruitment, polymer research, and lab safety.
PPG, a global leader and supplier of paints, coatings, and specialty materials with headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, recently continued its support of graduate students in the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering (CSE).
Its latest gift of $50,000 to the Industrial Partnership
for Research in Interfacial and Materials Engineering (IPRIME) on the Twin Cities campus follows $100,000 in funding for graduate student fellowships and activities
in the Department of Chemistry (CHEM) and Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science (CEMS). PPG and both departments share a goal of recruiting and retaining diverse students, and building a pipeline of talent into PPG’s workforce.
“PPG’s gift is a longtime investment in students,” said David Blank, head of the chemistry department. “Our partnership with PPG came about—and has grown— because of an overlap in scientific interest and a focus on diversity.”
PPG was founded in 1883 as the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. In the 1990s, it developed photochromic lenses that automatically darken in sunlight and block harmful UV rays. Its TRANSITIONS® lenses are today the eye care industry’s most recommended photochromic lenses.
In time, PPG became an innovator of paint and coating technology—and has been a U of M IPRIME member since 2017. The University of Minnesota is renowned for its strengths in polymer science, interdisciplinary research, and training some of the best polymer chemists to enter the industry. PPG has supported and participated in various IPRIME programs, on topics such as microstructured polymers and nanostructural materials and processes.
“We are grateful for the funds from PPG,” said CEMS graduate student Aristotelis Zografos.
Zografos leads the UMN POLY/PMSE group affiliated with the American Chemical Society’s Division of Polymer Chemistry (POLY) and the Division of Polymeric
Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE). His group was one of two student organizations to benefit from PPG’s generosity. The Joint Safety Team, focused
on improving the culture of safety in the University’s chemical laboratories, is the other.
“The funding is critical for a number of reasons,” Zografos explained. “Primarily, we are using it for hosting research-focused seminars with speakers from either academia or industry. These events usually draw 40-plus graduate students, postdocs, and faculty from the CEMS and chemistry departments. We also organize meetings with the speaker that promote collaborations, inspire ideas, and open the door to future opportunities for our graduate students and postdocs. Our usual attendance is 20-plus for these other events.”
A Far-Reaching Impact
The impact of PPG’s gift to the College of Science and Engineering goes beyond campus—and the current crop of researchers and leaders in training.
“The gift means that we get to not only maintain but grow our researcher-led initiative to develop a mindful and integrated safety culture at the University of Minnesota,” said Taysir Bader, a co-president of the Joint Safety Team. “It also means that our safety initiatives
are not hampered by financial aspects, which gives us the freedom to find creative solutions to train the new generations of chemists and chemical engineers with proper lab safety principles.” continued on page 18
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