CCRI recognized for its role in creating a pipeline for Chemical Technology employees

September 19, 2022 

The Community College of Rhode Island has been recognized by Milford, MA-based Analytical Laboratory instrument and software company Waters Corporation for playing "a key role in the past several decades helping us find talented employees through” its Chemical Technology (Chem Tech) program.

CCRI and Chemical Technology professor Wayne Suits will be honored during a joint ceremony Monday, September 26 at Waters’ manufacturing facility in Taunton, MA, in which the company will also announce it has achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, a points-based program predicated on meaningful sustainability features in a facility.

“Waters is just one of the great companies where Chem Tech graduates are placed,” Suits said. “We’re extremely proud of all of our graduates who’ve gone on to achieve great success in this industry.”

CCRI's Chemical Technology program is a four semester, career-oriented program in which students are trained as chemical laboratory technicians. The program is structured to develop fundamentals of chemistry with emphasis on laboratory applications and techniques, which is achieved through hands-on laboratory experience in the college's chemistry laboratories using state-of- the art instrumentation.

According to the college, job placement within the first six months of graduation is nearly 100 percent with Chem Tech graduates earning positions at Waters, Narragansett Bay Commission, Shire Pharmaceuticals, and Amgen Inc., among others.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Suits and his Chem Tech students conducted an independent study using a Perkin Elmer Gas Chromatograph to run tests own various store-bought hand sanitizers after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began recalling similar products from the shelves due to potential methanol contamination. Suits has also led efforts between CCRI and other universities and laboratories on the synthetization of experimental drugs used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

Waters Corporation is the world's leading specialty measurement company focused on improving human health and well-being through the application of high-value analytical technologies and industry leading scientific expertise. The company’s Taunton facility is now the only publicly-recognized LEED-certified Chemical Manufacturing Plant in Massachusetts and one of only a handful in the United States.

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