UMaine P&P Foundation Establishes Genco Award for Industry Support

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The University of Maine Pulp and Paper Foundation, Orono, Maine, USA, has established a new annual award that recognizes a UMaine employee who supports the pulp and paper industry through research, innovative student recruitment, or teaching that inspires current engineering students. The new award will bear the name of its first recipient—long-time UMaine chemical engineering professor Joseph Genco, an exemplary scholar who personifies all three of the award criteria.

In announcing the award and presenting it to Genco at this year’s foundation meeting, foundation president Barbara Hamilton noted Genco's impact on the industry and those who work in it. Some 130 industry representatives, students and former students responded affirmatively to Hamilton's request that those influenced by Genco join him at the podium to share in the award, to be called the Joseph M. Genco Award.

Genco thanked the group, the university, and the foundation, noting that he has enjoyed his time working with the industry and that he has benefited from that association. The award comes with a $1,000 stipend and $2,500 for the recipient to use for research, related travel, or graduate student support. Genco immediately returned the stipend to the foundation to be used for its Helen Horner Genco Scholarship.