Dow Sponsors Sustainability Fellows

Dow Chemical has awarded the University of Michigan a $10 million grant as part of a six-year fellowship program aimed at fostering a multidisciplinary approach to sustainability. Dow and the university hope to attract 300 Dow Sustainability Fellows, including master’s, doctoral, and postdoctoral students from fields as diverse as chemistry, engineering, economics, public policy, and architecture. “They will be inspired to work together, as they would in the real world, to develop concrete solutions, actionable solutions on how we can all live cleaner, and actually greener, and sustainably on this precious planet of ours,” said Dow CEO Andrew N. Liveris before a gathering of the Detroit Economic Club on March 12. “The uniqueness of this program is that it is not rooted in one discipline or any single unit in the university,” noted University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman at the event. Last October, the company pledged $250 million over 10 years to support breakthrough chemical technologies at 11 major universities. Last month, Dow said it will donate $3.5 million to the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, to renovate the school’s undergraduate teaching labs and design a green-chemistry-based curriculum.