Dr. Roland J. Trepanier, Ph.D.
Dr. Roland J. Trepanier is the president of OpTest Equipment Inc. in Hawkesbury, Ontario, Canada. He has over 40 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Nuclear Spectroscopy from McGill University.
He began his career with Canadian International Paper Research Ltd. in 1977 reaching the position of Senior Research Scientist. He joined Noram Quality Control and Research Ltd. in 1986 as Technical Director and later served as vice president, Technology and Manufacturing, and president. He founded OpTest Equipment Inc. in 1992.
Trepanier is an expert in fiber and paper physics research, with emphasis on the relationship to the manufacturing process and final product quality. He has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers including twelve in TAPPI Journal and the Journal of Pulp and Paper Science. He also holds two patents. Trepanier has shared his expertise through TAPPI by authoring and presenting papers at many TAPPI conferences. He also served as the working group chair for several test methods and technical information papers (TIPs).
A TAPPI member since 1978, Trepanier is active in the Process and Product Quality Division. From 1995 to 2000, he served as the Division’s secretary, vice chairman, and chairman. Trepanier co-chaired the 1999 Engineering/P&PQ Conference and the 2000 Pulping/P&PQ Conference. He also served as technical program chairman of several P&PQ conferences. In addition to his Division activities, Trepanier has served on the Quality and Standards Management Committee of the TAPPI Board of Directors since 1997.
In 2005 Trepanier was presented TAPPI’s Process & Product Quality Division Technical Award and Richard Hunter Prize. He was the recipient of TAPPI’s Process & Product Quality Division Leadership and Service Award in 2017.
Trepanier is active in a number of other industry organizations including the Pulp & Paper Technical Association of Canada and the Chemical Society of Canada. He is a member of the Canadian Advisory Council (SCC) to ISO/TC6 and the ANSI US Technical Advisory Group to ISO/TC6. In addition, he has represented Canada for over 20 years as a technical expert on ISO working groups and as a Canadian delegate at ISO plenary meetings.