TAPPI Announces 2020 Engineering Division Technical Award and Beloit Prize Winner

For more information, contact:
Janet LoBue
Marketing Manager
jlobue@tappi.org

ATLANTA (December 15, 2020) – Christopher L. Verrill, Ph.D., an Engineering Fellow in International Paper’s Global Technology organization, was recently named by TAPPI as its 2020 Engineering Division Technical Award and Beloit Prize winner.

Division awards are presented once a year and are intended to recognize outstanding accomplishments or contributions which have advanced the industry’s science or technology.  Dr. Verrill received the award in recognition of outstanding accomplishments that advanced the paper and related industries’ technology in the field of Engineering.

Dr. Verrill has worked at International Paper (IP) since 2007 where his responsibilities include developing cost reduction projects and supporting IP mills worldwide with his evaporator and kraft liquor cycle process expertise. Previously, he held a research faculty position at Georgia Institute of Technology from 2002 – 2006 where he led research efforts on crystallization and fouling during black liquor evaporation, and from 1999 – 2002 he was a senior research engineer at MeadWesvaco in Charleston, SC, where he worked on improving evaporator and recovery boiler availability and thermal efficiency. Earlier in his career, Dr. Verrill focused on recovery boiler modeling and black liquor gasification research and development as a research engineer at McDermott Technology Inc. in Alliance, Ohio (1994-1999), as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada (1993), and as a research associate at Åbo Akademi University, Combustion Chemistry Research Group in Turku, Finland (1992).

He received his doctorate from the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Atlanta; an M.S. from Lawrence University (Institute of Paper Chemistry) in Appleton, Wisconsin; and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maine at Orono. He has been an active TAPPI member since 1984, holding several volunteer leadership positions, most recently serving as the Chair of TAPPI’s Engineering Division (2014-2016). He is also co-chair of AF&PA’s Recovery Boiler Program R&D Committee.

Dr. Verrill was presented with his award at the recent Pulping, Engineering, Environmental, Recycling and Sustainability (PEERS) Conference, which was held virtually in November due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nominations for TAPPI Awards are due by August 1 of each year for the award to be presented the following calendar year. To learn more, please contact TAPPI Membership Director Mary Beth Cornell at mcornell@tappi.org.

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