4.02.2008 - 02:30pm ET

(CSRwire) PITTSBURGH - April 2, 2008 - Bayer Corporation, the health care, nutrition and innovative materials company, and its philanthropic arm, the Bayer USA Foundation, will be honored, respectively, by the National Science Board and the Council on Foundations for their long-standing support of science education and science literacy at two separate ceremonies in Washington, D.C., in May.

The National Science Board will present Bayer with the 2008 Public Service Award on Tuesday, May 6, at a black-tie dinner and formal ceremony at the U.S. State Department.

The day prior to that, Monday, May 5, the Bayer USA Foundation will receive the Council on Foundations' 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Award for Excellence in Communications during a three-day summit hosted by the council in National Harbor, Md.

In bestowing the award, the National Science Board is recognizing Bayer for its long-standing and exemplary commitment to science public outreach, science education and science policy. In particular, the National Science Board cites "the important work of Bayer's Making Science Make Sense(R) program, through which thousands of students gain exposure to experiential science learning."

Making Science Make Sense, established in 1995, is Bayer's company-wide initiative that advances science literacy across the United States through hands-on, inquiry-based science learning, employee volunteerism and public education. It is one of more than 300 corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that Bayer supports around the world.

With the 2008 Wilmer Shields Rich Award for Excellence in Communications, the Council on Foundations is recognizing Bayer's strategic alignment of the Bayer USA Foundation's grant making activities with the mission of the corporate Making Science Make Sense program. Specifically, Bayer and Bayer USA Foundation's innovative initiatives designed to build a more diverse science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline and workforce are being honored.

"We at Bayer are truly honored to receive these two very prestigious awards for work we consider to be not only critical for the future competitiveness of the United States, but also deeply embedded into our corporate social responsibility DNA," said Dr. Attila Molnar, President and CEO, Bayer Corporation. "In citing Making Science Make Sense, both the National Science Board and the Council on Foundations are honoring the work and commitment of Bayer's more than 1,000 employees who volunteer their time and talents to ignite student interest in science and bring it alive in classrooms around the country. Their dedication is a mark of pride and honor for Bayer."

“As education is one of the primary mission goals of the National Science Foundation, the Board is particularly pleased to recognize Bayer Corporation for the important work of its Making Science Make Sense® program, through which thousands of students gain exposure to experiential science learning,” said NSB Chairman Steven Beering.

These two new awards are the latest in a number of national awards that have been given to Bayer for Making Science Make Sense. In January 2006 at a White House ceremony, Bayer received the Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership, the first chemistry company to receive this presidential corporate citizenship award. In 2000, President William Jefferson Clinton bestowed the President’s Service Award to Bayer, again at a ceremony held at the White House.

About Making Science Make Sense (MSMS)

Bayer's commitment to MSMS began more than 40 years ago when Bayer volunteers began helping teachers teach and students learn science the way scientists do – by doing it. Today, 12 Bayer sites across the country operate local MSMS programs, which engage more than 1,000 Bayer employee-volunteers who work to foster science literacy and student interest in science.

In addition, in many of these local site communities, Bayer is spearheading science education reform in partnership with school districts, other businesses, government and education organizations. Together, these partners work to implement Standards-based, inquiry-centered curricula and provide teachers with ongoing professional development in science content and pedagogy. In Pennsylvania, Governor Edward G. Rendell has adopted the Bayer-spearheaded science education reform program known as ASSET into his statewide "Science: It's Elementary" initiative.

"As a science-based company whose vitality and viability depend on a well-trained, well-educated workforce, we have long been committed to helping improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, education in the United States. But our involvement also stems from something much larger than our own concerns," explained Dr. Molnar. "It is something that is embodied in Bayer's mission of “Science for a Better Life," a mission which holds as one of its key tenets that corporate social responsibility must benefit humankind and society at all levels."

Thus, MSMS not only helps educate the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians, it equips all students with the skills acquired from a high quality, hands-on science education, such as critical thinking, creativity and adapting to change, skills that in today's scientific and technological world are essential to any career one chooses.

MSMS reaches millions more American citizens through its unique national advocacy program led by Dr. Mae C. Jemison, chemical engineer, physician, STEM educator and the nation’s first African-American female astronaut. Program components include the MSMS Experiment Guides for parents and children; the MSMS Audio Series, featuring two-minute sound bite science classes about everyday science topics; and the annual Bayer Facts of Science Education surveys, which gauge the public’s opinion on the state of science education in the United States, as well as their support for reform and their recognition of the roles that science and science literacy play in everyday life.

Recently, Bayer, through MSMS, has launched a series of initiatives that address the dual issues of diversity and underrepresentation of women and minorities in STEM fields. Bayer’s goal with these initiatives is to galvanize STEM industry and organization support of exemplary education programs.

For example, Bayer has sponsored national and regional STEM education diversity forums featuring K-12 STEM education programs that have a proven track record of helping girls and minority students succeed and achieve in these subjects. Bayer also has published and made widely available two new resource guides – Bridging the Diversity Gap in Science and Engineering: Introducing STEM Industries to K-12 Best Practice Programs - Highlights Report and Planting the Seeds for a Diverse U.S. STEM Pipeline: A Compendium of Best Practice K-12 STEM Education Programs. These companion reports provide business leaders and others with information about best practice K-12 STEM education programs and practical advice for how they can support and/or replicate such programs in their local communities.

For more information about MSMS or to subscribe to the MSMS e-News Update, please visit www.BayerUS.com/msms.

About the National Science Board's Public Service Award

The National Science Board (NSB) is the 24-member policy-making body of the National Science Foundation (NSF) that advises the president and Congress on matters of U.S. science and engineering. Each year, the NSB presents the Public Service Award to individuals or organizations which, through public service activities in science and technology, have made an outstanding "contribution toward the welfare of mankind and the nation."

The National Science Board Public Service Award was established in 1996 to recognize individuals and organizations which have significantly contributed to increasing public understanding of science and engineering. These individuals and organizations have contributed to scientific discovery and its communication to the public, promoted the engagement of scientists and engineers in public outreach and scientific literacy, aided in the development of broad science and engineering policy, influenced and encouraged the next generation of scientists and engineers, and fostered awareness of science and engineering among broad segments of the population.

About the Council on Foundation's Wilmer Shields Rich Awards

Sponsored by the Council on Foundations, the Wilmer Shields Rich Awards for Excellence in Communications is an annual awards program that recognizes effective communications efforts to increase public awareness of foundations and corporate giving programs. The awards, which originated in 1984, showcase the ways foundations and corporate giving programs use communications strategies and techniques to advance their grant making goals. Awards are given in Gold, Silver and Bronze categories.

Wilmer Shields Rich, executive director of the National Council on Community Foundations (now the Council on Foundations) from 1957 to 1968, was an early champion of public accountability by charitable foundations in both their resources and activities. The awards program, named after the Council's first executive director, also seeks to educate the field of organized philanthropy about creative and strategic communications.

About Bayer USA Foundation

The Bayer USA Foundation is an endowed 501(c)(3) entity and is the primary source of Bayer Corporation’s philanthropy in the United States. With a programmatic focus on the environment and sustainability; education and workforce development; arts and culture; and health and human services, the Foundation creates and supports partnerships that improve communities in which Bayer employees live and work, as well as society at large.

About Bayer Corporation

Bayer Corporation, headquartered in Pittsburgh, is a subsidiary of Bayer AG, an international health care, nutrition and innovative materials group based in Leverkusen, Germany. In North America, Bayer had 2007 net sales of 8.1 billion euros and employed 16,800 at year end. Bayer's three subgroups, Bayer HealthCare, Bayer CropScience and Bayer MaterialScience, improve people’s lives through a broad range of essential products that help diagnose, prevent and treat diseases; protect crops and enhance yields; and advance automobile safety and durability.

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