Opportunity for deeper contact
Perstorp has a long tradition of accepting students to carry out their degree project at the company. This provides long-term recruitment opportunities and is also a good way of deepening the company’s contact with the universities. The aim is, in Sweden alone, to produce ten degree projects with links to Perstorp. Naturally, the same positive attitude toward this type of collaboration with universities also applies at Perstorp’s other locations worldwide.

Lund University acted as intermediary
Emma Söderhjelm, a fifth-year chemical engineering student at Uppsala University, came into contact with Perstorp via Lund University, which she had approached regarding a possible degree project. At around the same time, Neil Cruise, who works with the development of catalysts within Perstorp, also contacted the university to enquire about opportunities to study Perstorp’s catalysts in greater depth.

Lund University has the best electron microscopy equipment in Sweden. Professor Reine Wallenberg, who received Neil’s enquiry, saw the potential in introducing Neil to Emma. “We are working on a major project to gain a greater understanding of our catalysts in order to further develop the Perstorp Formox concept. This is necessary if we are to stay competitive. Part of this work involves performing microscopic studies and this is where our cooperation with Emma came in,” explains Neil.

For Emma, the degree project meant relatively few visits to Perstorp but all the more time spent in front of highly advanced electron microscopes. She used both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Much of her contact with Neil was by telephone and e-mail. Her work yielded results, and Emma is due shortly to present her findings to Uppsala and Lund universities and Perstorp.

Contributes to new ideas
“It is essential that we, as a company, view degree projects as a positive contribution to new ideas and that we actively seek students who are interested in cooperating with us,” says Mats Salomonsson, the Learning & Development manager responsible for contacts with universities. Most degree projects are within chemistry, although we recently had a student with a degree project in logistics. This is a resource for us and we have a responsibility as a company to show an interest in the education sector.

New job
Emma is now set to learn even more about catalysts after being offered a permanent position at Perstorp. She starts her new job in September!