BASF hosts global faculty workshop to advance process safety education

WYANDOTTE, MI, August 3, 2018 – BASF recently welcomed 26 faculty from higher education institutions across the globe for a three-day workshop at its manufacturing facility in Wyandotte. The event was designed in collaboration with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE) Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) to provide educators the tools to integrate process safety into their curricula and prepare students for careers in the chemical engineering industry.

“The workshop was a valuable opportunity for BASF to coordinate with engineering faculty to further emphasize the importance of process safety education and management,” said Gregg Kiihne, BASF Director of Process Safety. “Process safety is an increasingly critical aspect of chemical engineering.”

The workshop covered topics that included creating a safety culture, behavior-based safety, hazard identification and risk management, and technical discipline. BASF employees and CCPS staff shared best practices and industry case studies to inspire conversation and demonstrate how process safety can be shared in an educational environment.

“Everyone who teaches chemical engineering should attend this workshop,” said H. Scott Fogler, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Vennema Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, and noted author of primary textbooks used by chemical engineering faculty across the United States. “It will help them learn the basic principles of chemical plant safety and how to incorporate them into every core chemical engineering course.”

The process safety faculty workshop is one component of AIChE’s larger “Doing a World of Good” campaign. As a Founders Circle sponsor of the “Doing a World of Good” campaign, BASF will help underwrite the expansion of AIChE’s Undergraduate Process Safety Learning Initiative. This initiative fosters the safe and ethical practice of chemical engineering, and kicks-off new inclusion programs to expand partnerships with industry, academia, and professional associations that engage under-represented groups in the engineering workforce.

“This really motivates me to tell my students how important safety is all the time,” said Helen Durand, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University. “The workshop was amazing and it changed how I think of, and how I will teach process safety.”

For press photos, please click on the following links:
https://www.basf.com/press-photos/us/en/photos/2018/08/08-03-18_BASFpssafety1.jpg
Suggested caption: Sven Wagner, Manager, Safety Engineering at BASF Wyandotte, and faculty look at a safety process during a tour of one of the laboratories on site.

https://www.basf.com/press-photos/us/en/photos/2018/08/08-03-18_BASFpssafety2.jpg
Suggested caption: BASF team members welcomed 26 faculty from across the globe to help teach students about process safety.

About BASF

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 18,200 employees in North America, and had sales of $17.9 billion in 2017. 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 more than 115,000 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 €64.5 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at www.basf.com.

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.

P-US-18-084