New Students Have Arrived

Over the past two days, we have welcomed over 30 new students to the Paper Engineering and Bioprocess Engineering programs at SUNY-ESF.  Over the course of our department-specific orientation that started Monday, we have had the opportunity to meet the new students and their parents Monday evening over a dinner of Dinosaur B-B-Q and pictures from our recent trip to China.  After dinner, the parents left and the students began their introduction to the industry and the educational programs, as well as the information for the tours the next day.

Dinosaur B-B-Q in the Moon Library Conference Room.

 

Over the next two days, we visited three industrial sites and a forest harvesting operation.  Our first stop was the Procter and Gamble mill in Mahoopany, PA, where we were hosted by Nicole Garrisi, a graduate of the paper engineering program at ESF.  At this site, we saw their water handling and papermaking operations.  The students were quite impressed with the large one-ton roll of bathroom tissue.  Due to security, pictures were not allowed in many of the facilities.

Incoming class in front of the P&G mill.

On Tuesday, we visited the Rock-Tenn Solvay paper mill (formerly known as Solvaypaperboard).  This mill is only three miles from campus, and is involved in our senior design class.  Peter Tantalo, Director of Human Resources, was our host.  At Solvay, we learned about recycling, making linerboard and corrugating medium, water use at the mill, and the wastewater treatment at the mill. 

  Dr. Jose Iribarne (a graduate of our department) discussing environmental issues with the new students.

The incoming class in front of Rock-Tenn in Solvay.

The final stop on our industrial tour was the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Baldwinsville, NY, where our host was Adon Allen, Jr.  Here, the students learned about fermentation processes, the same processes that are used to convert wood (and corn) into fuel ethanol.  The processes have been using essentially the same yeast strain for the past 75 years to produce Budweiser and other products.  DNA analysis is often used to confirm that mutations have not occurred by comparing the yeast to bottles of beer that have been stored for 75 years.

Mr. Adon Allen describing the biological and industrial processes used to produce Budweiser and other products at the Baldwinsville plant.

The students (and the faculty and staff) are excited about starting another academic year at SUNY-ESF.