TAPPI Approves Two New Student Chapters at Packaging Schools

TAPPI's Board of Directors, Norcross, Ga., USA, this week approved the creation of two new student chapters—at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn., and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. Robert Hammond, chair of TAPPI's PLACE Division noted that "traditionally, the TAPPI Chapters have only been at paper schools. This represents a significant step for TAPPI in reaching out to all sectors of the packaging industry."

Christian Brothers University's packaging program was started in 2001 as a certificate program and now offers two new packaging programs: a BS degree in engineering management (packaging concentration) and a MS degree in engineering management (packaging concentration). Siripong Malasri, Ph.D., P.E., chair of the packaging program, said that "having a TAPPI Student Chapter will galvanize our packaging students. The packaging department at CBU became official on June 1, even though we have had packaging programs for many years. Recently CBU packaging has moved forward significantly with its ISTA certified packaging lab (2009) and healthcare packaging consortium (2010). We are now in the position to grow our packaging enrollment."

Washington State's packaging program is a graduate program within the Department of Biological Systems Engineering focused primarily on food packaging. A contingent from Washington State attended the PLACE Conference this year and won the student poster competition. The team's design entry was called "boteFlex™." The novel packaging design is an expandable or collapsible bottle designed to contain value-added food powders.

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