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Canadian graduate students come together during EXFOR and PAPTAC annual meeting

The Canadian Pulp and Paper Graduate Student Seminars, co-sponsored by PAPIER (the Canadian Pulp and Paper Network for Innovation and Research) and the PAPTAC (Pulp and Paper Technical Association of …

The Canadian Pulp and Paper Graduate Student Seminars, co-sponsored by PAPIER (the Canadian Pulp and Paper Network for Innovation and Research) and the PAPTAC (Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada) Research Committee, took place all day Feb. 5 at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal.

Nineteen students from universities across the country presented their research on a number of topics, including cellulosic nanofibres, low-consistency refining, biorefining, and bio-active fabrics.

“It’s nice to see the program is as successful as ever,” seminar moderator Prof. Theo van de Ven of McGill University said before leaving the floor to the students.

Richard Kerekes, professor emeritus of pulp and paper engineering at the University of British Columbia and PAPIER director, said he had received positive feedback about the graduate student events, especially the PAPIER student poster session that took place on Feb. 4 during EXFOR and the PAPTAC annual meeting. He added that giving the seminars their own day this year allowed the graduate students to take part in the EXFOR and Annual Meeting events of the previous two days, and also gave industry members the time to learn about the students’ research.

Awards were presented for the three best presentations of the day, as well as the three best posters.

Alkis Karnis Memorial Prize 2009 (for best poster)

1st – Ali Soltanzadeh, University of British Columbia, Mixing Evaluation in Pulp Stock Chests

2nd – Ali Chami Khazraji, Universit du Qubec Trois-Rivires, Physicochemical Study of Factors Inducing Piling in Heatset Offset Lithography

3rd – Antti Luukkonen, University of British Columbia, Understanding Low Consistency Refining of Mechanical Pulps

Henry I. Bolker Prize 2009 (for best seminar)

1st – Zeinab Hosseinidoust, McGill University, Cellulose-phage Interactions

2nd – Azadeh Bagherzadeh-Namazi, University of Toronto, Conversion of Pulp Mill Sludge into Activated Carbon

3rd – Lijun Wang, University of Toronto, Characterization of Two Novel Esterases from Streptomyces avermitilis and Rhodopseudomonas palustris