Company Profile
UL Research Institutes
Company Overview
UL Research Institutes:
At UL Research Institutes (ULRI), we expand the boundaries of safety science to create a more secure and sustainable world. For more than a century, we have studied the unintended consequences of innovation, designed solutions to mitigate risk and shared our findings with academia, scientists, manufacturers, and policymakers across industries. We identify critical safety and sustainability issues, asking the tough questions because we believe a safer world begins with knowledge.
Build a safer, more secure, and sustainable future with us. Join us and work with our teams who conduct the research required to produce that knowledge and put into practice.
Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI)
UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) advances fire safety knowledge to address the world’s unresolved fire safety risks and emerging dangers. As part of UL Research Institutes, we are committed to sharing our fire safety insights with everyone to advance UL’s public safety mission of providing safe living and working environments for people everywhere. Through advanced fire science, rigorous research, extensive outreach, and education in collaboration with our international network of partners, we share with stakeholders the information, tools, and resources that enable them to make better, more fire-safe decisions that ultimately save lives and property. To learn more, visit FSRI.org.
Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI):
The Chemical Insights Research Institute (CIRI) contributes to the protection of public health and well-being by conducting scientific research. Our research and initiatives let people around the world know what chemicals are in the air we breathe and how they affect human health and the planet. We share our research and knowledge through information and application tools with leaders in the scientific, business, and policy communities to raise awareness of human health risks stemming from emerging technologies. To learn more, visit: chemicalinsights.org/
Electrochemical Safety Research Institute:
The Electrochemical Safety Research Institute (ESRI) investigates the safety and performance limits of energy technologies. Through our discovery-driven research, we innovate, test, model, and lay the foundation for electrochemical energy storage that is both safe and reliable. Our scientific research helps everyone in the energy storage and battery value chain — from cell and battery manufacturers, suppliers, and original equipment manufacturers to recyclers, shippers, and consumers — understand and thereby help minimize the various safety risks associated with batteries in various applications, including electric vehicles and renewable energy storage systems.
Collaborating with a wide variety of partners to help meet the world’s energy safety needs, we disseminate information by convening a diverse group of stakeholders at events such as global battery summits and webinars to find data-driven solutions to new and emerging energy storage risks.
Digital Safety Research Institute:
The Digital Safety Research Institute (DSRI) addresses unresolved safety risks and emerging dangers in the world’s digital ecosystem. We aim to help protect people from unwanted access to personal devices and privacy, algorithm, and disinformation threats by working to create a new digital safety ecosystem.
DSRI is committed to sharing digital safety insights, collaborating with key stakeholders, and offering extensive outreach and education to help support safer digital environments for people everywhere.
Materials Discovery Research Institute:
The Materials Discovery Research Institute (MDRI) works to develop and deploy new materials with the potential to address current global safety challenges. Pursuing materials that will help produce transformational safety breakthroughs, MDRI harnesses the power of advanced computing and high-throughput experimental methods to create innovative materials that will produce resilience for a sustainable future and protect individual and societal health.
We focus on today’s critical challenges, working to create new and better materials that will support renewable energy and environmental sustainability. Among our top priorities is research into materials capable of carbon capture and energy storage, with an eye toward reducing the adverse impacts of humanity’s reliance upon fossil fuel resources and enabling a transition to renewable energy sources.
Above all, our research builds on our commitment to a safer, more sustainable future.
IREE:
The Institute for Research Experiences and Education (IREE) cultivates the next generation of safety scientists through a mix of unique educational programs, academic partnerships, and research and standards development experiences. We translate the findings of our research institutes into compelling educational materials, bringing to life scientific concepts using contemporary best education practices to create learning opportunities for a wide variety of secondary through postgraduate students. Our academic collaborations and support for the next generation of safety scientists likewise reach across the educational spectrum, including partnerships that reach out to students who are underrepresented in STEM fields.
Through all of our programs, we aim to unlock the diverse perspectives that are essential for solving the world’s most pressing safety and sustainability issues.
Company History
A 130-year Legacy of Safety
UL Research Institutes is one of three powerful UL organizations known as the UL enterprise which evolved from the historic Underwriters Laboratories organization founded in 1894. For more than 130 years, we’ve been guided by the mission: working for a safer world.
The World’s Fair Sparks an Idea
Underwriters Laboratories was born from the electrical safety inspection work carried out by our founder at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Our founder, William Henry Merrill Jr., a young electrical engineer, inspected many novel and unproven electrical installations that posed serious risks of shock and fire. The fair ran without a major electrical fire and helped demonstrate to the world that alternating current could be utilized safely. Today alternating current is still the basis of our modern power grid.
An Independent Laboratory Testing for Public Safety
Merrill’s work at the fair also proved the benefits of electrical safety testing. The fair was a watershed moment in the electrical age. About 160,000 bulbs illuminated the fairgrounds at night and the latest applications of electrical power were presented to the world. But who would assure the public that these electrical devices were safe?
With modest support from two regional fire insurance underwriters’ organizations, two employees, and $350 of equipment, Merrill started a small independent testing laboratory above a fire patrol station. On March 24, 1894, he conducted the first test of his Underwriters’ Electrical Bureau and the laboratory that grew to become UL was born.
UL: The Symbol of Safety
Merrill soon joined forces with a fellow engineer, William C. Robinson, working on automatic fire sprinkler research. Expanding beyond electrical safety to include fire suppression, and other public safety concerns, and quickly gaining recognition for their scientific rigorous testing and impartiality, the laboratory incorporated as Underwriters’ Laboratories in 1901.
Today, the initials of this organization, UL, placed in a circle, form a certification mark that is one of the most recognized symbols of safety around the world.
More Than a Testing Lab – A Pioneer of Safety Research
More than a testing laboratory however, UL also became a respected force in public safety standardization and safety science research. As early as 1910, UL partnered with organizations such as the Factory Mutuals, National Bureau of Standards (NBS), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) in a landmark study of the fire resistance of building columns, published in 1919. The Standard Time Temperature Curve for fire tests from this study is still in use today.
Research for Public Good
In 1937, UL formed a research division charged with investigating problems of general, rather than proprietary interests, and charged with conducting research and special investigations aligned with the organization’s mission.
The first issues of UL’s “Bulletins of Research” series were also published at this time and freely distributed to interested parties. This early commitment to open-access research remains one of UL Research Institutes’ values today.
Our Safety Research Powers the Future
Throughout the years, UL research ranging from smoke characterization studies, air and water quality research, and lithium-ion battery research continues to advance our mission and provide opportunities for creating a safer world.
https://ul.org/about/our-history/
Benefits
What you’ll experience working at UL Research Institutes: We have pursued our mission of working for a safer, more secure, and sustainable world for nearly 130 years, embedding conscientious stewardship into everything we do.
• People: Our people make us special. You’ll work with a diverse team of experts respected for their independence and transparency and build a network, because our approach is collaborative. We collaborate across disciplines, organizations, and geographies to build the global scientific response that today’s global challenges require.
• Interesting work: Every day is different for us here. We see what’s on the horizon and use our expertise to build the foundations of a safer future. You’ll have the opportunity to push the boundaries of human understanding as part of a team working to advance the public good.
• Grow and achieve: We learn, work, and grow together through targeted development, reward, and recognition programs.
• Values. Four core values guide our work: collaboration, respect, integrity, and beneficence. By living our values, we inspire the trust essential to fulfilling our mission and foster the partnerships that enable us to pursue a beneficent future in which we all can thrive.
• Total Rewards: All employees at UL Research Institutes are eligible for bonus compensation. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans and a generous 401k matching structure of up to 5% of eligible pay. Moreover, we invest an additional 4% into your retirement saving fund after your first year of continuous employment. Depending on your role, you may be able to discuss flexible working arrangements with your manager. We also provide employees with paid time off, including vacation, holiday, sick, and volunteer days.
Positions Available
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