Dr. Marko Hakovirta has been named director of the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering (AC-PABE) and a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Auburn University. Dr. Hakovirta comes to AC-PABE from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he was associate director of research at the Institute of Paper Science and Technology and holds an adjunct professorship in the School of Materials Science and Engineering.
Dr. Hakovirta spent five years as the CTO of Metso Corp. (corporate VP for technology, environment, and quality), and worked as a fellow at CERN (European Center for Particle Physics), Geneva, Switzerland, and at LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory), New Mexico, as a director's funded post-doctoral fellow. Hakovirta held a faculty position at the University of Helsinki, Department of Physics, where he currently holds an adjunct professorship. Among his many awards is the Outstanding Innovation of the Year from Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Dr. Hakovirta's research interests are in novel forest-based biomaterials, nanomaterials applications, and materials synthesis using plasma techniques. He is especially interested in sustainability research related to global business, and how it affects the pulp and paper industry in particular.
Department chair Dr. Christopher Roberts said that "the Department of Chemical Engineering at Auburn University is extremely pleased to have Dr. Hakovirta providing leadership to the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering, particularly given his wealth of experience and tremendous accomplishments in both the academic and industrial sectors. He has already forged a clear vision for AC-PABE, and the broader pulp and paper community, at this critical time for the industry."
Dr. Hakovirta succeeds Dr. Harry Cullinan, who provided strong leadership to AC-PABE over the past 20 years until his retirement last year, and Dr. Steve Duke, who served as interim director following Dr. Cullinan's retirement.
The Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering provides undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education in science and engineering relevant to the needs of the pulp, paper, and bioresource industries, conducts fundamental and applied research in line with the industry's research agenda, develops and transfers technology to the industry consistent with the industry's technology vision, and provides timely technical information to the operating sector of the industry.
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