Universities

WACKER attaches considerable importance to fostering young scientific talent and maintaining close contacts with universities. Our researchers are frequently invited to give presentations and guest lectures at universities, and university groups visit our sites for an inside look at work in an industrial corporation. WACKER offers students plant jobs and internships, as well as opportunities to write doctoral theses and papers for bachelor’s and master’s programs. In 2015 and 2016, we sponsored more than 330 final thesis projects and internships with students at over 60 universities internationally.

Wacker Chemie AG and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have maintained a close partnership in chemistry since 2006. We are sponsoring the Institute of Silicon Chemistry, funded by us and located on the Garching research campus near Munich, with a total of €8.5 million. In the past ten years, more than 46 research projects have been conducted here, resulting in ten patents and 44 scientific publications. Since the Institute was founded, we have also sponsored 55 scholarship holders.

WACKER is taking part in the German Federal Ministry of Education’s national scholarship program (“Deutschlandstipendium”). This program provides students with a monthly stipend of €300, half of which is contributed by the Federal Government and half by private donors (companies, individuals). In the reporting period, we awarded 13 such scholarships to students whose background presages great academic and career achievements.

Our US subsidiary, Wacker Chemical Corporation, entered into a partnership with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 2016. Limited initially to a period of five years, the joint enterprise aims to enhance the knowledge that bachelor’s degree students have of process safety issues. According to information from the AIChE, 72 percent of graduates of engineering programs have only a limited understanding of this field.

Dr. Alexander Filippou, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany, received the 2016 WACKER Award. The award was presented at the eighth European Silicon Days in Poznań, Poland. The Munich-based chemical group thereby recognizes Filippou’s groundbreaking work in the field of organosilicon chemistry. Filippou’s work is also important to industry, for example for developing catalysts or silicones with novel combinations of properties. The WACKER Silicone Award, which has a cash value of €10,000, ranks alongside the American Chemical Society’s Kipping Award as the most important international accolade in organosilicon chemistry.

Silicon
After oxygen, silicon is the most common element on the earth’s crust. In nature, it occurs without exception in the form of compounds, chiefly silicon dioxide and silicates. Silicon is obtained through energy-intensive reaction of quartz sand with carbon and is the most important raw material in the electronics industry.
Silicones
General term used to describe compounds of organic molecules and silicon. According to their areas of application, silicones can be classified as fluids, resins or rubber grades. Silicones are characterized by a myriad of outstanding properties. Typical areas of application include construction, the electrical and electronics industries, shipping and transportation, textiles and paper coatings.