Arthur Jonas Ragauskas Wins Prestigious Research Management Award

This year the TAPPI Research Management Committee has selected Dr. Art Ragauskas to be the recipient of the prestigious William H. Aiken Prize. The prize is funded by an endowment from the estate of William H. Aiken, TAPPI President in 1967-1968 and vice president of technology for the former Union Camp Corporation. The award is given for outstanding accomplishments or contributions that have advanced the technology of the paper and related industries in the field of research and development.

Dr. Kari Ebeling, former VP of R&D for UPM-Kymmene now retired, nominated Dr. Ragauskas for the Aiken Prize. Dr. Ebeling says, “Dr. Ragauskas has carried out outstanding research nearly twenty years. His work at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST), then at IPST Georgia Tech and at Georgia Tech, has covered chemical pulping and bleaching, fiber modification including fiber properties and interfiber bonding, chemistry of natural polymers including cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, biofuels and biorefinery, nanobiomaterials, and sustainability of the pulp and paper industry. The results of these studies have deepened our fundamental understanding in these subjects and provided development opportunities for new products.”

Arthur Ragauskas is a TAPPI Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow, and a Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science. His research program at Georgia Institute of Technology is seeking to understand and exploit innovative sustainable wood bioresources. This multifaceted program seeks to develop new and improved applications for nature’s premiere renewable wood biopolymers for pulp/paper, biofuels, biopower and biomaterials.

This research program is supported by his internationally recognized expertise in nanotechnology, biotechnology, pulp/paper process chemistry, green chemistry, environmental science, fiber modification/engineering, and papermaking. His research program is sponsored by the federal and state government and a consortium of national and international industry partners.

Currently, Dr. Ragauskas manages a research group of eleven graduate students, ten postdoctoral research fellows, one research scientist, and two visiting scientists. He is program leader for a Georgia Tech Focused Research Program in Biofuels, BioPower and Biomaterials. In addition, he is Theme Leader for the Georgia Tech, Imperial College London and Oak Ridge National Laboratory Atlantic Alliance in Biomass to BioFuels, BioProducts and BioPower program and Team Leader for an industrial consortium program titled Fiber Modification/Fiber Fiber Bonding. • Arthur Jonas Ragauskas Wins Prestigious Research Management Award Art Ragauskas