An Unusual Childhood Hero Led Jennifer Lowe to Albemarle

April 7, 2025

This is part of a series featuring Albemarle experts who lead the world in transforming essential resources into critical ingredients for powering everyday life. 

Some kids want to be rock stars, athletes or movie stars. Not Jennifer Lowe.  

Her grandmother was a chemist, her aunt is a chemical engineer, her father is a computer programmer and her mother is a microbiologist.  

“My childhood hero was Marie Curie,” she says, referencing the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. “Now I’m fascinated with materials characterization and polymers.” 

Lowe studied chemical engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana and earned her Ph.D. in materials chemistry at the University of Minnesota. She now works at Albemarle’s Process Development Center (PDC) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, leading a team that helps customers use flame retardants in products, such as electronics, vehicles and construction materials.  

“In academia, you might have really amazing ideas that are a long way from ever getting used,” she says. “Now I understand how industry uses science and engineering to go from an idea for something really cool to an actual product on the shelf.”

Lowe joined Albemarle as an applications and customer technical service director, because she wanted to work with polymers at a company that’s an industry leader. Her team contributes to the development of brominated flame retardants (BFRs), including SAYTEX ALERO^TM. It’s a recyclable flame retardant for a range of applications – such as wire and cable, electronics, molded parts and building panels – that can help prevent the start of fires and slow the rate of heat release when they do occur.  

“It has broader applications than earlier generations of polymeric flame retardants, and we’re working with our customers on further innovations,” Lowe says. “I feel like I’m doing something worthwhile, not only now but also for future generations.”