PPG invests in future leaders with safety in mind
Above: A social event hosted by the POLY/PMSE student group in early fall 2021. PPG support allows the graduate students to host research-focused seminars, as well as networking and technical workshops.
Gift from Fortune 500 company supports recruitment, polymer research, and lab safety
February 7, 2022
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 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 eyecare industry’s most recommended photochromic lenses.
In time, PPG became an innovator of paint and coating technology—and becoming 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 processess.
“We are grateful for the funds from PPG,” said CSE 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.”
The Joint Safety Team, or JST as its commonly referred, was formed about a decade ago when research safety in academia became a growing concern and focus for universities across the United States.
In fact, the term “Minnesota Model” was coined after its work. The Joint Safety Team, led by graduate student and postdoctoral associate laboratory safety officers in CHEM and CEMS, published “Student Involvement in Improving the Culture of Safety in the Academic Laboratories” in 2013. The Journal of Chemical Education article described how the team played a key role in improving the culture and practice of safety in both departments, and made safety in research labs an integral part of life in the college.
PPG funds enable the group to continue organizing biannual peer-led evaluations of laboratory safety, hosting bimonthly events on a variety of safety topics, and posting safety-related content around the CHEM and CEMS buildings.
“With the help of grants like these we can maintain our leadership role in the realm of bottom-up lab safety,” Bader said.
“It gives us legitimacy as an organization and validates our safety approach, he added. It also helps fund our new initiative—called Community Connections—to pass along what we have learned about academic safety to primarily undergraduate institutions and high schools.”
Also on the horizon for the Joint Safety Team, with PPG support, is the potential establishment of an accredited safety workshop for high school teachers.
“We hope our efforts will enable future chemists to start thinking about laboratory safety at a younger age, thus making them better future scientists,” said Brady Bresnahan, the team’s other co-president.
“Just as the JST was the first organization of its kind in the country, and has since led the formation of around 20 more laboratory safety teams following its model,” Bresnahan added, “our new Community Connections safety committee is the first of its kind—and we hope it will lead to similar future growth at other universities.”
Learn more about the student groups on the POLY/PMSE website and the Joint Safety Team website.
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