2008 Joachim Award Winner

Keith Van Scotter is the 15th recipient of the prestigious Herman Lewis Joachim Award for Excellence in Management, which will be presented to him on October 16, 2008 at the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation’s Director’s dinner. The Joachim award is given annually to an executive whose career and achievements have been outstanding in the pulp, paper and allied industries. It is given both as a tribute to Dr. Joachim and a means of providing significant role models to young people entering the paper industry.

Mr. Van Scotter is the President and CEO of Lincoln Paper, a single mill operation that is the leading manufacturer of specialty napkin parent rolls and uncoated free-sheet printing papers. The company was formed out of bankruptcy in 2004 and with Mr. Van Scotter’s guidance has performed as an industry leader.

Mr. Van Scotter also plans to speak with the Paper and Bioprocess Engineering Students at the Student Forum at the Syracuse University Pack Room at 5 pm on October 15. Dinner will be served and all are welcome. Call Linda Fagan at 315-470-6592 for details.

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.

Recruiting in the Adirondacks

Mr. Ray Appleby (Manager, Pilot Operations) and myself made the trip to Warrensburg for the fourth year in a row to recruit at the DEC camps that are held there each summer.  The camps consist of high school students aged 15-17 from all around New York State.  A total of eight weeks of camps are held with each group of 50 students at camp for a week.  We will be presenting at two camps this year.

The camps are held at the Pack Demonstration Forest, one of the properties owned by SUNY-ESF.  The college leases the camp facilities to the DEC for the summer in order to hold the camps.

We gave a presentation called "Engineering, Physics, and Chemistry:  The Secrets of Money," which discusses the various techniques of papermaking, chemistry, and printing used in producing our currency to prevent counterfeiting.  The presentation also provides information about the college and particularly the programs in Paper and Bioprocess Engineering while entertaining the students with a variety of demonstrations of chemistry, engineering, and physics (Yes, we do set off a small explosion).  We leave the students with material about our programs and college. 

 

 

 

 

We are feel this to be an effective recruiting tool as we are able to reach high school students all over the state at one time and have had students visit ESF as a result of this presentation.

New Students for Fall

This fall, we will be welcoming 33 new undergraduate students (as of today) to the Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering at SUNY-ESF.  This represents the largest incoming class of new students over the past ten years. 

Eleven of the new students are enrolled in the Paper Engineering program, which is accredited by Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.  This program prepares students with a chemical engineering curriculum that is focused primarily on the paper and allied industries.  However, previous graduates of the program have also gone on to work in other industries.  Of the eleven students entering, nine are freshman and two are transfer students, with all of them coming from New York State.

Twenty-two students are enrolled in the Bioprocess Engineering program, which is our new program that started in 2006.  This program, which can be described as "chemical engineering without the petroleum," is focused on process and product engineering from sustainable resources and using ecologically-sound technology.  Nineteen freshman and three transfer students will be entering the program, with two of them coming from outside of New York State.

The entering freshman come highly qualified, with an average SAT score (verbal + math) of 1160 and a high school average of 90.0.  These scores mirror almost exactly the entire freshman class at SUNY-ESF.  The average SAT score of college-bound students that took the SAT in 2007 was 1017 (www.collegeboard.com) indicating that the students entering our programs (and ESF) are ready for college.   The five transfer students entering the programs had an average GPA of 3.44 at their previous institution.

We are looking forwarding to welcoming these new students in the fall.

Class of 1958

Our program in paper engineering has been in existence since 1920, making it the longest-running paper engineering program in the United States.   It was our recent pleasure to welcome back the Paper Science and Engineering Class of 1958 as they returned to SUNY ESF to celebrate their 50th Reunion. Many activities were available for their participation and we are grateful they were able to tour Walter’s Hall with many sharing their remembrances of their student days. Mr. George Treier mentioned recalling when his company (Xerox) donated the small paper machine.  Thank you to Xerox for their gift to Walter’s Hall and to the students who have benefit ed from their generosity.

R to L: G. Hunt, C. Hunt, R. Dykes, G. Treier, H. Parker, H. Gore

Returned to Syracuse

After 24 hours of traveling and three plane flights, we have returned to Syracuse and home.  Timothy is staying a bit longer to visit Hong Kong and Alan flew directly home to Boston.  The only remaining task is to readjust for the time difference, since China is exactly 12 hours ahead of the Eastern United States.  As I am typing this on Friday morning, my body is telling me that it is late evening and time for bed. 

With our return, the story of our international experience to China for the Department of Paper and Bioprocess Engineering comes to a close.  However, the blog will continue with other news and events in the department.  Please stop by occasionally to see what is happening in the department.

Our Final Day in Beijing (and China)

Our trip is nearly coming to an end; early tomorrow morning we head to the Beijing Airport for our flights back to the United States (except for Timothy, who is going on to Hong Kong for a few days).  While Dr. Liu and I visited the Beijing University of Forestry, the students had a free day which they spent exploring on their own and doing some last minute shopping. 

The final challenge of the trip will be to repack the bags with all the souvenirs and gifts that have been purchased.  It has been an incredible trip for the students and the faculty advisors alike.  We wish to thank all the people that helped us along the way to make this trip possible and unforgettable.

This final set of pictures are from the streets of Beijing.  It is  quite amazing what can be transported on a bicycle other than just people (and sometimes it is just people).

  (A cartload of stuff)

(A baby on the back)

(A boy in a car seat)

(A large sign???)

(A girlfriend and shopping bags)

 

The parks are often gathering places for the young and the old alike.  This gentleman is flying a kite on a 50 ft wide boulevard between two busy streets. 

 

Chinese chess is another popular game in the parks along with simply going for a walk.

For our final dinner, we gathered at a restaurant for a dinner of Beijing Duck, and of course several other dishes.  Here we are for our final China picture in front of the restaurant.

Most of us will be arriving in Syracuse on Thursday evening at 8:23 pm, flying our of Beijing and through Tokyo and Detroit.  Alan is flying directly to Boston while Timothy is going to Hong Kong for a few days before returning to the United States.  While we enjoyed our time in China, many of us are looking forward to our return.