Colorado's Hach Foundation donates $33 million grant to American Chemical Society to support high school chemistry teaching

Contact: Charmayne Marsh 202-872-4445 c_marsh@acs.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Colorado's Hach Foundation donates $33 million grant to American Chemical Society to support high school chemistry teaching The American Chemical Society (ACS) has received a gift of approximately $33 million from the Hach Scientific Foundation to support high school chemistry teaching.

The Hach Scientific Foundation is located in Fort Collins and the company's corporate offices are in Loveland where it is a subsidiary of the Danaher Corporation. The agreement signed by Kathryn Hach-Darrow, cofounder and chair of the Hach Scientific Foundation, and Madeleine Jacobs, ACS Executive Director and CEO, transfers the foundation’s funds and assets to the ACS. The Hachs chose the ACS because, according to Hach-Darrow, it “represents permanence and stability, and it truly embraces chemistry on a national level.”

Jacobs says the foundation’s programs are a natural fit with the Society, complementing what ACS has been doing in high school chemistry, but not duplicating any existing programs. ACS will continue the Hach Scientific Foundation’s support of a scholarship program for undergraduate chemistry majors interested in a career teaching chemistry, a scholarship program for chemists who have a degree and who want to pursue careers teaching chemistry, and outreach grants to chemistry teachers. “We are truly honored to have the confidence of the Hach family in carrying out the vision of Clifford and Kathryn,” Jacobs adds. “At a time when science and technology training couldn’t be more important to our nation and the world, the Hach gift will help ACS showcase the promise of chemistry to young people and educators.”

In honor of the gift, the ACS headquarters building will be renamed the Clifford & Kathryn Hach Building of the American Chemical Society in a special ceremony later this year. Clifford Hach founded the Hach Scientific Foundation in the early 1980s to financially support chemistry students and as a way to help others share his passion. The American Chemical Society the world’s largest scientific society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.