Kikkoman Gives Million-Dollar Grant To UW-Milwaukee

The Walworth-based soy sauce-maker Kikkoman has announced a million-dollar grant for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The grant is to advance the study of safe and sustainable drinking water.

Kikkoman says its origins in Japan trace back three centuries, but it opened its first North American manufacturing plant 40 years ago in Wisconsin. Part of the reason it located where it did was the availability of clean water. Kikkoman Mitsuo Someya says the company is hoping this gift will help preserve that resource.

“The safety and availability of drinking water is of vital importance here in Wisconsin and around the world.”

The one-million dollar gift to UW-Milwaukee will go toward a laboratory to study safe and sustainable drinking water. It will be located at the School of Freshwater Sciences where UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Michael Lovell says it will help a growing college.

“We want the school to be a driving force in ensuring that Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin will be a world water hub, along with Singapore and Stockholm, Sweden.”

UW-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences is already getting ready to open a new $53-million building. Lovell says its current facility can accommodate 40 students. The new facility will hold 200 students.