October 17, 2011
The highly successful Advanced Papermaking Initiative’s (API’s) mission has been to enhance the competitiveness of our Provincial industry through leading edge research, technology development and advanced training. The API was formed in 1998 to address BC’s lack of expertise in its post-secondary system in the field of papermaking engineering and paper. The API is funded by an $8.5M endowment from the Provincial Government through Forest Renewal BC. The Initiative supported the creation of two faculty positions at UBC’s Faculty of Applied Science and one at BCIT’s.
The program delivers Pulp and Paper courses to undergraduate students both at UBC and University of Victoria through distance education, as well as, a range of pulp and paper courses at BCIT. The program also provides outreach to the Provincial community through several innovative activities.
Professor Mark Martinez takes over as Director of the API from Professor Peter Englezos who lead the initiative over the last 5 years. Dr. Martinez is a full professor in the department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. He won the BCIC Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Innovation in 2008, as well as a NSERC Synergy award in 2007 with Canfor and Advanced Fibre Technologies Inc. His research activities focus on the behaviour of papermaking fibre suspensions which exhibit complex behaviour not seen in ordinary fluids with applications to paper forming, pressing and advanced equipment design. Dr. Martinez uses both novel visualization techniques, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and pulsed ultrasound Doppler anemometry, and computational fluid dynamics to elucidate the mechanism by which these suspensions flow. Dr. Martinez is a member of the Institute of Applied Mathematics, a faculty associate of the UBC Pulp and Paper Centre and a member of the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada. He has active collaborations with researchers in Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics and TRIUMF.
For more information on this program and how you can be involved, please contact Dr. Martinez at:
Mark Martinez, PhD, PEng
API Director
Professor Chemical and Biological Engineering,
Email: martinez@chbe.ubc.ca
www.ppc.ubc.ca
Phone: 604.822-2693