Technology that changes lives starts with the people around it

The semiconductor industry likes to say that its technology changes lives. I have spent the past five years making sure that, around our European sites, the people closest to us feel it first: children who have never met an engineer, families fleeing a war, teenagers who have been told that the sky is not for them.

For Ukraine: close to a quarter of a million euros

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, I was just starting at Applied Materials. Colleagues across Europe wanted to help, and they needed a way to do it together. We built a fundraising campaign for Save the Children Deutschland to support Ukrainian children and families. European employees gave €112,650, and with company matching the campaign reached €225,000, close to a quarter of a million euros, as recorded in the Applied Materials 2022 Sustainability Report.

It taught me something I have relied on ever since: in a crisis, people do not need persuading to care. They need a clear story, a simple way to act, and proof that their contribution counts.

Girls in STEM: meeting the materials that build the future

With Greenlight for Girls (g4g), we bring girls aged 10 to 15 into hands-on science days where they meet women engineers and discover what materials science really looks like. In October 2025 we ran a science day in Grenoble with the Mayor of Bernin and Le Grésivaudan, documented in a short film. Applied’s FY25 grants fund four g4g STEM workshops for 150 girls in Europe.

Télémaque: mentoring that opens doors

Télémaque pairs young people from priority-education schools with two mentors, one from their school and one from a company, for several years. Applied Materials engineers in Grenoble mentor students through the programme. To show what that relationship can do, we took eight young women paragliding with Duck Parapente and filmed their first flight. “Des Ailes Pour Toutes”, wings for everyone, won two Telly Awards in 2026, in CSR and Social Impact. Watch the film.

Fight Against Hunger

Every year Applied Materials employees around the world raise millions for food banks through the Fight Against Hunger campaign. In Europe, I help mobilise colleagues in Germany and France, so that a global campaign feels local.

Why it belongs on a research website

Communication for social impact is where I learned the difference between saying and doing. A sustainability report can describe a programme; only the people in it can tell you whether it worked. That distinction, between what is disclosed and what is practised, is at the heart of my research on AI governance.