July/August 2012 Newsletter

Greetings from Virginia Tech,

The students are HERE!! And the campus is gearing back up to full throttle after a busy summer of research, meetings, summer classes, and a bit of vacation too. Classes do not start until next week, but the campus is a hive of activity with students and their parents unloading U-Hauls of gear into dorms. You just have to wonder how they fit it all in one dorm room! (It seems like things were simpler in the old days ;-)

Spotlight on Undergraduate Research

This summer, the department hosted again several undergraduate researchers in its labs. Associate Professor Maren Roman supervised two projects under the NSF-funded Summer Undergraduate Research Program of the Macromolecules and Interfaces Institute.

Student faces in the Department 

Meet Jason Hoepker

Jason is a sophomore in the department and he is focusing on the Packaging Science Option. Jason comes to us as a transfer from the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture but when he heard about the Packaging program in the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials, he decided it was time to switch. Not only is he taking classes toward his degree, but Jason worked as a summer intern in our Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design this summer.

Learn More About the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials

In the CNRE Summer 2012 News Magazine.

The Cover Story in the Colleges’ latest issue of the CNRE News Magazine features the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials.

Unit Load Design Short Course Becomes an International Event

By Laszlo Horvath,

The Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design conducted its bi-annual unit load design short course May 15-17, 2012 with great success. More than 20 participants from three continents arrived Blacksburg to learn about the principles of systems based unit load design.

Hammett and Quesada Participated in Global Forest Products Conference in Portugal

Faculty members Tom Hammett and Henry Quesada from the Department of Sustainable Biomaterials at Virginia Tech participated as speakers and session chairs in IUFRO All Division 5.0 (Forest products) held in Estoril, Portugal during July.