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Networks of Centres of Excellence: A night of good food and good cheers

Good food, excellent wine, outstanding people. That is how the Thursday reception could be summarized. Not only did the wines flow at the Auberge Ste. Gabriel in Old Montreal, but outstanding people w…

Good food, excellent wine, outstanding people. That is how the Thursday reception could be summarized. Not only did the wines flow at the Auberge Ste. Gabriel in Old Montreal, but outstanding people were also recognized.

Dr. Henry Bolker, the founding scientific director of the Network, was honoured in a celebratory dinner. Network manager George Rosenberg proposed a toast for him, as well as the “heart of the network”, Heather Avedesian, who has been with the Network since its inception, over 12 years ago.

Certificates were given to the winners of the H.I. Bolker Prize, aimed at encouraging and recognizing students in the Network who achieved excellence in communication by presenting their research at the Canadian Pulp and Paper Graduate Students seminar.

Entries were judged on technical content and for achieving the clarity, precision, and conciseness of thought and expression championed and practiced by Dr. Bolker throughout his career.

McGill University’s Ccile Malardier-Jugroot bagged the first prize for her research, Interactions Between Poly(styrene-maleic anhydride) Chains in Water. Edmond Young, University of British Columbia, got the second prize for his research on the Design of a Continuous, High-Efficiency Laboratory Fibre Fractionator. Third placer Christopher Hammock, McGill University, was awarded for Mechanisms of Drainage on the Laboratory Twin-Former.

Certificates were also given to the recipients of the Alkis Karnis Memorial Prize, awarded for the best NCE student posters presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada (PAPTAC). Posters were judged on the basis of technical content, quality of the design, oral presentation by the student and knowledge of the subject matter.

First prize went to Design of a Continuous, High-Efficiency Laboratory Fibre Fractionator, Edmond Young, University of British Columbia. Kamilah Smith’s Quantitative Detection of Radical Species Involved in Pulp Bleaching (McGill University) got the second prize, while A Dryer Simulator to Solve Paper Machine Problems, by Mohsen Sadeghi, McGill University, got the third prize.

Dr. Alkis Karnis was director of the Mechanical Pulping Division at Paprican from 1987 and leader of the Network’s Mechanical Pulping Program until his retirement in 1995.

— Jennifer M. Ellson