Faculty
Department head
Laszlo Horvath
Laszlo Horvath
Interim Department Head and Professor
His research interests include the following four areas:
Unit load Interactions: Investigation of interactions between the components of unit loads with the overall goal of reducing the cost of the packaging supply chain. Interactions include how pallet top deck stiffness affects the strength of various packages placed on the pallet and how load bridging between package affect the load capacity of pallets. The information generated as part of this research area is being built into The Pallet Design System which is a commercial pallet design software.
Packaging Sustainability: Development of life cycle inventories and life cycle analysis of pallet production and repair.
Smart and Connected Packaging: Evaluating the feasibility of of the applicability of smart and connected packaging for distribution packaging and warehousing.
Market Studies: Survey of the current status of the wooden pallet and plastic pallet and container sectors.
Matt Baker
Matthew Baker
Collegiate Assistant Professor
Expertise: Innovation, Food Packaging, Commercialization, Sustainability, more...
Brian Bond
Brian Bond
Professor &
Director, CNRE Leadership Institute
Expertise: Wood drying, wood processing and manufacturing, wood identification, performance of wood in use, wood flooring, more...
Portrait of Urs Buehlmann
Urs Buehlmann
Professor
Expertise: Manufacturing systems engineering, lean manufacturing, business benchmarking, competitive strategy, and globalization, more...
Robert Bush
Robert Bush
Professor
Expertise: Marketing, competitive strategy, capital budgeting and decision making, structural characteristics of the wood-based industries, more . . .
Kevin Edgar
Jonathan Coote
Assistant Professor
Expertise: Polymer physics and chemistry, Sustainable polymers, Enhanced recyclability of plastic waste, Biodegradable plastics, Biomimetic materials design, more...
Kevin Edgar
Kevin Edgar
Professor &
Associate Dean, Graduate School
Expertise: Creation of drug delivery systems to meet patient needs, bioavailability enhancement, synthesis of novel polysaccharide deriv., more . . .
Chip Frazier
Charles Frazier
Thomas Brooks Professor
Expertise: Lignocellulose chemistry, biomass rheology, composite materials, and surface chemistry and adhesion, more...
Dan Hindman
Daniel Hindman
Professor
Expertise: Wood building design, mechanical properties of wood, stability of wood i-joists, torsional stiffness of wood members, more . . .
Portrait of Ching-Hsun Huang
Ching-Hsun Huang
Professor
Expertise: Economics of renewable energy, forest ecosystem services, carbon sequestration, optimal forest management, wildfire economics, more...
Portrait of Wonjung Jung
Wonjung Jung
Adjunct Instructor
Expertise: Graphic design, illustrator, painting, package design and creation, more...
Portrait of Young Kim
Young-Teck Kim
Associate Professor
Expertise: Food packaging, development of sustainable (rigid/flexible) packaging, analytical packaging chemistry, smart packaging more . . .
Portrait of Pipiet Larasatie outside
Pipiet Larasatie
Assistant Professor &
Extension Specialist
Expertise: Engineered wood industry development and workforce development in the forest and wood product sector more...
Jorge Masis Ulloa
Research Associate &
Associate Director of CPULD
Expertise: Pallet testing, unit load testing, package testing, lab management, project scheduling, more...
Eduardo Molina
Eduardo Molina
Assistant Professor &
Associate Director of CPULD
Expertise: Packaging logistics, packaging design, supply chain management, continuous improvement, material handling, pallets, more . . .
Nicolas Navarro
Nicolas Navarro
Research Associate &
Associate Director of CPULD
Expertise: Pallet testing, unit load testing, package testing, lab management, project scheduling, more...
Maren Roman
Professor
Expertise: Self-assembly and colloidal properties of cellulose nanocrystals, surface functionalization of cellulose nanocrystals, more . . .
Jennifer Russell
Jennifer Russell
Associate Professor
Expertise: Dynamic production-consumption systems for sustainable products and technologies, life-cycle impacts more . . .
Kambiz Sadeghi
Assistant Professor
Expertise: Temperature sensitive pharmaceutical packaging, end-of-life for plastic packaging, more...
Andras Vissi
Research Associate
Expertise: Lab management, forklift operation, equipment setup and maintenance, more...
Kiara Winans
Kiara Winans
Collegiate Assistant Professor
Expertise: Industrial ecology, life-cycle assessment, social ecology, more...
Emeritus Faculty
Dr. Wolfgang Glasser
wglasser@vt.edu
Expertise: Molecular Structure and Reactions of Wood, Thermoplastic and Thermosetting Polymers from Wood, Separation of Wood Components, Biobased Materials and Composites, Structure-Property Relationships
Dr. A. L. "Tom" Hammett
himal@vt.edu
Expertise: Utilization and marketing of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), Nature-based enterprises, Forest-based economic development, Human and instiutional capacity development
Dr. D. Earl Kline
kline@vt.edu
Expertise: Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Lean Manufacturing Methods, Production Operations Management, Computer Applications in Manufacturing, Process Automation and Process Control
Dr. Robert "Bob" Smith
rsmith4@vt.edu
Expertise: Packaging as a Marketing Function, Industrial Marketing, Personal Selling, Sales Management, International Marketing, Strategic Management
Dr. Marshall "Mark" White
mswhite@vt.edu
Expertise: Pallet and distribution packaging design and performance, Sustainable supply chain design, Control of forest pest migration on wood products, Sustainable phytosanitary treatments, more...
Dr. Audrey Zink-Sharp
agzink@vt.edu