Copy
View this email in your browser
Pulp & Paper Foundation

Summer 2015 News

Luettgen new head of Pulp and Paper Certificate Program

Dr. Chris Luettgen has been named Director of Georgia Tech's Undergraduate Pulp and Paper Certificate Program, announced Dr. David Sholl, Professor and Chair of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE).

The Pulp & Paper Certificate Program is coordinated by ChBE and had been under the direction of Dr. Jeff Hsieh for the past 30 years. The program's cross-listed set of four courses, two lectures and two labs is designed to give students a working knowledge of the pulp and paper industry and related segments. Students affiliated with Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, or ChBE can obtain this certificate by completing these four courses for 12 credit hours. 

ChBE works closely with the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI) in developing the pulp and paper engineers, scientists and executives of the future. “I am very pleased Chris has agreed to take on this role,” Sholl says. “I know he will do a terrific job and having him in this capacity will greatly help with the goal of continuing to strengthen the alignment of this undergraduate program with RBI.”

More about Dr. Luettgen

After 24 years in the tissue industry, Luettgen joined Georgia Tech in November 2014 as Professor of the Practice in ChBE and Associate Director of Pulp and Paper at RBI. “Having been in the pulp and paper industry my entire career, I’m extremely excited to have this opportunity,” Luettgen says. This is a pivotal time for Forest Products and related industries. Some very exciting developments are occurring for our people and our manufacturing facilities. There has probably not been a more advantageous time to enter the industry."

Luettgen's industry experience includes roles at Scott Paper and Kimberly-Clark, where he most recently served as senior research and engineering manager for the professional business sector. He has held positions in product development and innovation as well as in capital project management and manufacturing facility leadership.

For several years, Luettgen has served on the RBI Industry Board of Advisors, and he is the current Chairman of the Board of the Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry. Luettgen, who earned his PhD at Georgia Tech's Institute of Paper Science and Technology (now RBI) in 1991, also serves as Director of Industry Strategic Partnerships in the Georgia Tech Professional Education Division, promoting a new distance-learning Master’s Program on Manufacturing Leadership.


 

Thank you to Dr. Jeff Hsieh

During his 30 years as Director of the Georgia Tech Pulp and Paper Certificate Program, Professor Emeritus Jeff Hsieh touched many people’s lives. His students will long remember his enthusiasm, while his industry contacts will remember his dedication and service.

He continues to lend support to the Pulp & Paper Foundation, and he will teach another class this fall. In appointing Hsieh as Professor Emeritus, Georgia Tech President G.P. "Bud" Peterson thanked him for his "energy, dedication and achievement."

Welcome Dr. Sandra Pettit


Sandy PettitDr. Sandra Pettit has assumed Dr. Hsieh’s lecture and lab responsibilities for the Certificate Program. Having worked in industry for more than 15 years prior to joining academia, she is uniquely qualified to provide academic advising and career counseling.  

Her diverse corporate and industrial experience covers plant operations, engineering design and construction. She has worked in tissue and towel manufacturing as a process engineer for Procter & Gamble. While at Jacobs Engineering, she led engineering design teams for phosphate and pharmaceutical plants. That design experience was leveraged into design and construction management of power plants for TECO Energy and for public infrastructure projects for Hillsborough County. 

Sandy received her PhD in chemical engineering from the University of South Florida. While pursuing her doctoral research in titania based photocatalysis, she was a Signature Research Fellow working in the Heterogeneous Catalysis & Materials Chemistry Group. Her graduate research resulted in numerous peer reviewed publications and conference proceedings.  
 

Welcoming industry connections and support

A special message from Dr. Chris Luettgen

Industry leaders have known for years that they can count on Georgia Tech graduates to be capable and upward leaning engineers and scientists who can contribute on day one. We have every intent of making our industry ties and our graduates stronger in order to meet your needs and anticipate the needs of the future.
 
Enrollment in our Pulp and Paper classes is strong (50-70 in each of the lecture classes this past year) and we have been averaging five students per year fulfilling the complete 12-credit hour Pulp and Paper Certificate. We would like to see that number increase.
 
P&P companies are hiring our students, and the demand appears to be strong enough to support us increasing this number. If there are jobs for our graduates, there will always be interest from our students to take the Certificate Program. 
 
We also desire to see more industry interaction with our classes. So, if you have an interest in visiting a class or guest lecturing, please let us know. Our graduates obtain practical knowledge from the lectures and labs so that they can excel in their roles with you and your companies.

Help with move
 
At the March 2015 Foundation Meeting, Dr. David Sholl presented the case for the move of the Pulp amd Paper labs from their traditional housing in the Bunger-Henry Building and consolidating them with the more equipped facilities housed in the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI). We are ready to act upon this plan. 
 
If you have interest in helping us fund this move, any dollar amount would be greatly appreciated. We've estimated that a cost of $27,000 would be required to move the equipment and ready the space in RBI. When this move is completed, our students will have a much more capable space to learn pulping, recovery, paper-making and emerging technologies in the forest products segment. 
 
At any time during 2016, we welcome you to personally visit the new labs in RBI to see what we’ve accomplished.
 
Again, let me say how honored I am to lead the Certificate Program at Georgia Tech. It is my intent to make this program something that makes us all proud. I welcome your feedback on how we can make it stronger.

Sincerely,

Dr. Chris Luettgen
Georgia Institute of Technology
Professor of the Practice, ChBE
Director, Pulp and Paper Certificate Program
Associate Director of Pulp and Paper, RBI



 
Copyright © 2015, All rights reserved.

.