With more than 2,000 employees and eight facilities in St. Louis, MilliporeSigma, the U.S. and Canada Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, is committed to inspiring the STEM talent of the future. To help increase interest in STEM for students across St. Louis, MilliporeSigma enhanced its Curiosity Cube, which resides at the company’s Laclede facility, with an updated look and new lessons, and hosted an unveiling ceremony with local students.

Pictures of three future scientists, who are children of MilliporeSigma employees, adorn the Curiosity Cube’s exterior. Margarett Wolf, St. Louis employee and parent of a child featured on the Curiosity Cube, is proud to see her daughter as one of the faces of the Cube. As Margarett stated during the ceremony, “It’s hard to be what you can’t see. Letting other kids know that anyone can be a scientist can help push more people from a diverse background into these careers.”

The unveiling was part of Camp Leaders of Color (LOC), a half-day summer camp comprised of children or grandchildren of employees organized by the company’s LOC resource group. During the event, campers stepped inside the Curiosity Cube and learned about sustainability through the lens of the lifecycle of a t-shirt from MilliporeSigma scientists who led the experiments.

Jeffrey Whitford, Vice President of Sustainability and Social Business Innovation, shared similar sentiments about the importance of representation in filling tomorrow’s STEM jobs in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch op-ed. “We need to do a better job at making sure students see themselves as scientists now and in the future. If we can do this, we can drive more students into the STEM workforce pipeline to fill tomorrow’s jobs and solve tomorrow’s problems.” Continue reading Jeffrey’s thoughts on the need to expand the educational pipeline to STEM careers in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

To learn more about the Curiosity Cube mobile science lab and view the 2024 tour schedule, visit TheCuriosityCube.com and follow the Curiosity Cube on Instagram @curiositycube_milliporesigma.

MilliporeSigma

MilliporeSigma

We holistically integrate sustainability throughout our own operations and across suppliers, reducing the impact of scientific research globally and exceeding customer expectations.

The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has more than 26,000 employees and more than 55 total manufacturing and testing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products focused on scientific discovery, biomanufacturing and testing services. Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a leading science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and electronics.  

Around 62,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From providing products and services that accelerate drug development and manufacturing as well as discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2024, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 21.2 billion in 65 countries.

The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, operate as MilliporeSigma in life science, EMD Serono in healthcare and EMD Electronics in electronics. Since its founding in 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. For more information about Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, visit www.emdgroup.com.

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