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Reese to Receive TAPPI's 2011 Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award

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Richard A. Reese will receive the 2011 TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award, TAPPI's most prestigious annual award. Carrying a cash prize funded by an endowment by Dr. Gunnar W. E. Nicholson and TAPPI Foundation, the award will be presented to Reese at the Tuesday evening, May 3, 2011, awards dinner during the 2011 PaperCon Conference at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Ky., USA.

The Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award was established in 1985 to replace the TAPPI Gold Medal, which had been awarded from 1928 to 1984. It recognizes an individual who has created a preeminent scientific and engineering achievement that has proven commercial benefit to the world's pulp, paper, board, and forest products industries and other industries that TAPPI serves.

"Dick has made enormous contributions throughout his career to the successes of the world-wide pulp and paper industry," said Larry N. Montague, president and CEO of TAPPI. "He has become one of the outstanding teachers of technology and has put into practice many of the concepts and ideas he previously developed."

A graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, with a bachelor of science degree in applied science with a major in paper technology, Reese joined Hammermill Paper Co. after graduation and worked in several technical, engineering, and production positions. During his career, he has worked at Huytech Systems Division of Huyck Corp., Poyry-BEK, OPTEC Division of Rust International, CRS Sirrine Engineers Inc., and Georgia-Pacific Engineering Technology and Manufacturing Services. He founded Dick Reese and Associates Inc. in 2004 and currently works with paper companies around the world to reduce energy consumption. Reese has conducted performance and energy evaluations on more than 300 paper machines in his career.

Reese has developed a number of paper machine performance guidelines that have been used for TAPPI TIPs, technical papers and paper industry conference presentations. He has made more than 50 presentations at paper industry conferences and published more than 60 technical articles. He conducted a world-wide paper machine energy survey for TAPPI in 2005 and used the results to develop paper machine energy targets and paper machine energy scorecards to benchmark energy performance. The energy scorecards have been translated into Spanish and French and are used worldwide. Reese has contributed to development of instrumentation for assisting in evaluating paper machine performance, including on-line and portable total mass and moisture meters, opacity sensors, dryer pocket humidity testers, and dryer surface temperature measurement equipment.

At Georgia-Pacific, Reese was involved in paper machine capital improvements, including installation of a new recycled linerboard machine at the Big Island, Va., mill. He developed a comprehensive interactive papermaking training program for G-P papermakers and papermaking support personnel, resulting in improved paper machine performance and significant cost reductions. His paper machine performance analysis and reporting techniques evolved over 20 years of work and are used as industry standards.

Reese has been a member of TAPPI since 1973 and is an active member of the Papermakers and Water Removal committees. He founded the Papermaking Specialist subcommittee. He was named a TAPPI Fellow in 1992 and was awarded the Harris O. Ware Prize from the TAPPI Paper and Board Manufacture Division in 1997 and the TAPPI Engineering Division Beloit Technical Award in 1999.

 

Xerium Technologies, Inc.