In April, RBI executive director Norman Marsolan attended TAPPI PaperCon in Nashville.  The events included the awards dinner at which Professor Art Ragauskas received the Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award. See related story.

Former IPC employee Doug Dugal was honored with the Henry Joachim Distinguished Service Award at the event.

The Renewable Bioproducts Institute, in its former incarnation as IPST, hosted a table at PaperCon’s first annual Alumni Soirée.  About a dozen paper schools participated, providing displays featuring their schools and inviting alumni to gather for laughs and refreshments. 

Agenda 2020 Meeting

Norman also attended the quarterly meeting of Agenda 2020 In Raleigh June 4, where team updates on development of priority research roadmaps were featured. PhD student Chad Hume, sponsored by ME Professor David Rosen, attended Agenda 2020’s Drier Web team workshop June 3, preceding the quarterly meeting. RBI recently hosted the Black Liquor Concentration team as well. RBI considers the work of the teams to provide an avenue of insight into industry research priorities, and therefore as one important input to its research plans.