Additional information about the leaders of the Forest Bioproducts Division is provided here:
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Meet the Division Leaders | |
Oct. 2007 Update: In 2007, after six years of service as Chair and 13 years of service as a Division leader, Dr. Chris Verrill stepped down as Chair. Many thanks to Dr. Verrill for dedicated service for so many years! The Vice Chair, Jeff Lindsay, is now serving as Chair. We also recently added Dr. Shri Ramaswamy as Vice Chair and Dr. Amar Mohanty as Director. In 2010, we added Dr. Junyong Zhu as Secretary. We also have the following Directors: Dr. B. V. Ramarao, Dr. Lei Kerr, and Dr. Yulin Deng. Biographical information is given bleow.
Additional information about the leaders of the Forest Bioproducts Division is provided here:
Sridharan (Shri) Ramaswamy
Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering
University of Minnesota
2004 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, Mn 55108
Tel: (612) 624 8797, Fax: (612) 625 6286
E-mail:
Dr. Sridharan (Shri) Ramaswamy is Professor and Head of the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN. From 2003 to 2006 he was Professor and Head of the Department of Bio-based Products (formerly Wood and Paper Science). He was Associate Professor from October 1995 to June 2003, also at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul. He has taught many undergraduate and graduate level courses in Paper Science and Engineering. His research emphasis has been in transport processes in porous media and papermaking process development.
Prior to joining the University, Shri was a Senior Project Leader at Scott Paper Company (Philadelphia, PA), 1994-1995, working with papermaking processes research and development with special emphasis on vacuum de-watering and through air drying. Prior to that he was a Senior Research Engineer at Hercules Inc. (Wilmington, DE), where he worked from 1990 to 1993 pursuing applications technology development in paper chemicals with a special emphasis on compression strength, alkaline sizing, wet strength and dry strength.
He has a Ph.D. in Paper Science and Engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, 1990. Other degrees include M.S. Chemical Engineering, Syracuse University, 1988; M.S. Paper Science and Engineering, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, 1986; a Diploma in Pulp and Paper Technology, University of Roorkee, Roorkee, India, 1981; and B.S. Physics, University of Madras, Madras, India, 1979.
Amar K. Mohanty
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, School of Packaging
Michigan State University
130 Packaging Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1223
Phone Number: 517-355-3603
Fax Number: 517-353-8999
Email:
http://www.packaging.msu.edu/Mohanty.php
http://www.msu.edu/~mohantya/
Dr. Amar Kumar Mohanty is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Packaging, Michigan State University. Recently, he has accepted the position of Professor and Premier's Research Chair in Biomaterials and Transportation and will be the Director of a new Bioproducts Discovery and Development Center at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He earned his Master's degree in Chemistry with gold medal and the Ph.D. in Chemistry with emphasis on polymers and natural fibers from the Utkal University. He has more than 200 publications to his credit, including 134 peer-reviewed journal papers, 3 book chapters and 5 US Patents. Dr. Mohanty is an accomplished researcher and was the holder of the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship in Technical University of Berlin, Germany and received the Andrew Chase Forest Products Division Award for 2006 from the Forest Products Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Dr. Mohanty's principal research is focused on biobased materials, nanotechnology, renewable resource-based materials, natural fiber composites, biodegradable and biobased polymers, nanoblends, nanocomposites, and value-added materials from the byproducts of biofuel industries. He was the lead editor of a book Natural Fibers, Biopolymers and Biocomposites published by Taylor & Francis CRC Press in 2005. Dr. Mohanty is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy.
Dr. Mohanty has been one of the Division's most active organizers of technical sessions for the past several years, bringing a wide variety of exceptional talent to our sessions at the Annual Meeting. This year he will be chairing three sessions. His vision in programming bio-based materials sessions since 2002 and his many efforts to promote bio-based themes were recognized last year when AIChE presented him the Andrew Chase Forest Products Division Award.
B. V. Ramarao, Professor
Paper and Bioprocess Engineering Dept.
SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry
310 Walters Hall
Phone: (315) 470-6513
Fax: (315) 470-6593
E-mail:
Dr. B.V. Ramarao is a Professor in the Paper and Bioprocess Engineering Dept. at SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, Syracuse. He is Associate Director of the Empire State Paper Research Institute since 2003. He has served as Acting Chair in the Faculty of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering, SUNY College of Env. Science & Forestry, 1999-2000. He has been on the SUNY faculty since 1986, and was Senior Fellow, Dept. of Chem. Eng., National Univ. of Singapore, 1995-1996.
Ram has a Ph. D. in Chem. Eng. from Clarkson University (Potsdam NY 1986). He has been active in AIChE for many years and has been serving in the Forest Products Division as Programming Chair since 2005 and will continue in 2007. He has been an active participant in AIChE Annual Meetings and in the Forest Products Division business meeting, and has served as a session chair at the Annual Meeting three times.
He is a member of the National Working Group on Nanotechnology in the Forest Products Industry (sponsored by TAPPI) and other industry groups. He has 47 peer-reviewed publications and one patent.
His research interests include fluid particle separations, consolidation and dewatering of pulp suspensions, colloidal and surface phenomena, transport and thermodynamics of moisture in paper and other cellulosic materials.
Lei Kerr is an assistant professor of Paper and Chemical Engineering at Miami University, Oxford, OH. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Wuhan Institute of Chemical Technology, Wuhan, China in 1997. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from University of Florida, Gainesville, FL in May, 2004. She joined Miami University in August, 2004. Her background is in photovoltaics, with research interests in flexible solar cells, nanostructured materials and paper coating. Her role in the FPD division since the 2005 Annual Meeting has been to prepare the program guide for annual AICHE meeting. Lei also wishes to help the Division cover broader research areas such as printing electronics which use paper as substrate, and will be adding such topics to the guides she prepare for the Annual Meeting.
Yulin Deng is an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. Yulin received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry from the Manchester University UK.
Dr. Deng has been an active member of AIChE since joining in 2003, participating in Annual Meetings and attending Forest Product Leadership events. He served as session chair for Renewable Materials at the 2004 Annual Meeting, as session chair for Nanotechnology in Forest Products at the 2005 Annual Meeting, and as the session chair of Properties and Design of Biobased Products at the 2006 Annual Meeting. Dr. Deng is interested in further serving the Division by eventually taking on the Program Chair position.
His research interests include nanomaterials and composites, hydrogels, drug delivery, polymer synthesis and characterization, fiber modification, and paper recycling.
Dr. Deng has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and over 50 conference paper, and holds 2 patents. Among his honors are the Certificate of Excellence from IPST at Georgia Tech, Certificate of Excellence (Jan, 2005), the Teacher of the Year Award at IPST (2003), the IPST President Award for Research, 1999, and the Sichuan Province Technology and Innovation Award, 1986. Dr. Deng is also a member of the International Board for Progress in Paper Recycling.
Dr. Junyong Zhu joined the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), Madison, Wisconsin, in February, 2003 as a Project Leader and later as the Scientific Team Leader to lead a group of scientists and supporting staff engaging research in fiber and chemical sciences related to wood fiber and cellulosic ethanol production. Currently, he also holds an adjunct Professorship at the Dept. of Biological Systems Engineering of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Before his appointment at the Forest Products Laboratory, Dr. Zhu was a faculty member at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST, now Part of Georgia Institute of Technology), Atlanta, GA, for about 10 years, where he was an Assistant Professor first and promoted to Associate Professor in 1999. He advised more than a dozen of graduate students to successful completion of their doctorate and masters degrees. He also directed about a dozen post doctoral research fellows and international visiting scholars.
Dr. Zhu research expertise is the area of woody biomass processing for fiber, biofuel, and chemicals, fiber resources and properties. Currently, his research is focused on biomass pretreatment for biochemical conversion, nanoscale phenomena and activities associated with enzyme access to lignocellulose, feedstock and substrate characterization, fiber and nano-cellulose production.
He is a Technical Editor of TAPPI Journal, member of the Editorial Board for BioResources, J. Biobased Materials and Bioenergy. He has published about 100 referred articles and delivered about 100 presentations at various national and international conferences. He is also a co-inventor of 10 inventions. Dr. Zhu has served on many scientific panels. In 2006, he was invited by the Canadian Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) as an international expert for the Site Visiting and Review Panel of a Collaborative Research and Development program. Currently, he is a panel member of the State of Wisconsin Research Forum for the Focus on Energy Environmental and Economic Research and Development Program.
Dr. Zhu received his Ph.D in Engineering from the University of California, Irvine, in 1991.
Jeffrey D. Lindsay
Director of Solution Development
Innovation Edge
1526 South Commercial Street, Suite#200
Neenah, WI 54956
Email:
Jeff is the lead author of a book on innovation and business strategy, Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate Success, published by John Wiley and Sons, 2009, with co-authors Cheryl Perlins and Mukund Karanjikar. Jeff became Vice Chair while serving as Corporate Patent Strategist and Senior Research Fellow at Kimberly-Clark. In August 2007, Jeff left K-C and joined Innovation Edge, a management consulting firm that helps inventors bring their products to market and helps companies strengthen their innovation systems and pipeline. Jeff is a registered US patent agent since 1997, and has been active in many aspects of patent strategy and intellectual asset activities. His research efforts at K-C have resulted in over 100 US patents. His R&D efforts at K-C have covered RFID technology, chemical modification of fibers, improved tissue manufacturing, activated carbon fabrics, and a variety of new product concepts. Jeff founded the Intellectual Property Chapter at K-C, a community of practice that brings inventors, managment, and Legal together for training, networking, and various initiatives. He also served as Chair of the Research Fellows organization at K-C, as well as a patent facilitator for various groups. Prior to joining K-C in 1994, Jeff spent seven years at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology first as an Assistant Professor and then as Associate Professor in 1992. Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University, 1986, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.
Jeff was formerly a Director of the Division for several years and received a "Director of the Year" award. He has been serving as the Webmaster of the Division's Website (http://www.forest-products.org) for the past six years. He has chaired several Forest Products sessions in the past ten years and attended a majority of the Annual meetings.
Jeff blogs at InnovationFatigue.com and SharpIP.com.
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Curator: Jeff Lindsay, Contact: Created: Feb. 5, 2010; Last Updated: Feb. 5, 2010. URL: "http://www.forest-products.org/leader-bios.html" |