Love Gases? Air Liquide Does Too!

A Recap of the SWE Information Event

March 19, 2025 

By Namrata Pradeep 

How often do you think about the role of gases in your life? 

Besides the air you breathe and or stream of steam that you might occasionally notice along Spruce Street, you might not think of them as much as you should. 

From the life-saving oxygen sustaining patients in the Penn Hospital to the semiconductors that power your computer, Air Liquide is providing gases that build the world as we know it. Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend an Info Session hosted by Penn SWE, alongside peers from other disciplines like Chemical, Mechanical, Bioengineering, and Computer Science. 

First, we heard from the Director of Human Resources, Monique A. Cleveland, who shared a little bit about the reach of the company, which employs 66,000 employees worldwide! Based in the Delaware office, where Penn Engineering students have interned, she talked about the supportive, flexible, and dynamic work culture at Aire Liquid, where one always gets to keep learning. She highlighted how Penn Engineers can contribute to the Research & Development, Advanced Technologies, and Innovation & Technology departments!

For example, one project and priority of Air Liquide that really spoke to me is the Advanced Technology department’s recovery of valuable gases from landfills. The department manufactures hollow-fiber nanomembranes, which are then deployed in landfills across Wisconsin to Louisiana. Given the amount of waste we produce daily, we really need to figure out what to do with all of it. 

Their Innovation Campus in Delaware works on other projects, like developing ways to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to mitigate global warming and fine-tuning ways to create atomic-scale layers of deposited gases to etch onto semiconductors to drastically improve their performance. Their R&D teams produce over 366 patent applications daily (roughly one per day), coming from top scientists in Paris, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Tokyo, and yes, Delaware!

I was also amazed to see the sort of roles engineers could fit into at Air Liquid. Speakers Shilu Fu and Wenxi Xu shared with us their experience at Air Liquide doing vastly different things – Wenxi is a data scientist who creates models to predict whether clients will remain with Air Liquide, while Shilu works in the lab to develop the nanomembrane technology. Monique also spoke about how engineers can be found across sales, law, patent, and IT departments simply due to the wealth of their technical knowledge. 

Overall, it was an insightful evening hearing talented female scientists and leaders talk about their projects, with both a chipotle and internship opportunities being graciously plugged to us. If any of this sounds exciting to you, I would recommend visiting their website to learn more!