ExxonMobil’s longest-serving current employee, Barbara Beckmann, committed a $5 million estate gift to her alma mater, the University of Mississippi, to support high-quality higher education for future generations. With this gift, the University plans to call for the Department of Engineering to bear her name. For nearly six decades, Beckmann has been a trailblazer for women in STEM as the first female to graduate from the School of Engineering at Ole Miss in 1961. In 2021, she celebrated her 60th anniversary working at ExxonMobil. The Barbara Kerr Beckmann Department of Chemical Engineering Endowment will provide monetary resources to support quality teaching, research, and financial assistance for future generations of engineers. ■ umfoundation.com/beckmann

This article was originally published in June 2024.