News Items - International Association of Packaging Research Institutes
| IAPRI Members Elect Directors in 2023 The membership has elected three new Institutional Director Witchuda Daud, Johanna Lahti, and Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen to service on the board. Selcuk Yildirim has been elected to a second term as an Institutional Director. One director, S. Paul Singh, is retiring as a Corporate Director. Three New Institutional Board Members: 2023-2026 Witchuda Daud
Director of Advance Polymer Technology Research Group
National Metal and Materials Technology Center, Thailand
 Witchuda has attended two IAPRI Member Conferences and has contributed to several conference and peer-reviewed papers as a co-author over the past 10 years. She contributed to IAPRI's monthly e-newsletter, where she wrote about a practical training program that MTEC is currently organizing. Sharing this valuable information with the IAPRI community and contributing to the promotion of sustainable packaging practices.Witchuda brings a diverse range of experience to IAPRI with an extensive experience in packaging research and development, including modified atmosphere packaging, climate and environmental controlled film, plastics film processing, and polymer compounding. She also has experience in project management, having overseen several large-scale packaging projects from start to finish. She has experience organizing training courses, seminars, and forums related to packaging technology and circular economy. She served on Thai Industrial Standards' Sub-committees and has gained a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability and circularity in the packaging industry. Witchuda feels that IAPRI should focus on advancing the science, technology, and sustainability of packaging, while promoting collaboration, innovation, and education. Dr. Johanna Lahti
Senior Scientist,
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Sustainable Materials and Products, Finland
 Has been an active member since 2019 through Tampere University (TAU) and changed in 2022 to VTT. She has a lot of experience in academic research and education at different levels - BSc, MSc and doctoral levels at different universities, with experience in supervising students and thesis works.Johanna has given presentations at conferences and educational events, having worked on many different types of projects. This has given her quite a large network in the field of packaging. In addition, her research has always been very close to industry, so she also has good contacts in relevant industries. Serving on the board, she wants to contribute to development of packaging education and to promote the research in packaging field, because there are lot of different things that could be developed in the packaging sector, but it requires collaboration between different parties. Supporting researchers and education in the packaging field is important. Marit Kvalvåg Pettersen Senior Research Scientist, Food Safety and Quality
Nofima, Norway
 Marit has attended IAPRI conferences almost every other year since 2005. She has participated on scientific committees, and an active participant in Communities of Practice.As a researcher at Nofima, her focus has been applied research within food packaging. This includes material science, food quality, interaction food/packaging. - with a focus on sustainability and challenges and issues related to packaging. She has been a project manager of several national research programs as well as EU projects, often with involvements of the industry. She has a strong connection to the industry and potential to identify their challenges and needs. She believes that IAPRI is an important global scientific network, and it highly encourages her to be a part of “the future packaging” and to be able to help to define/design the role of IAPRI for the future. I would like to participate in promoting the importance of packaging in relation to sustainability. The goals of IAPRI should be sustainability – not just in words but in practice. Reelected Institutional Board Member: 2023-2026 Selcuk Yildirim, Ph.D. Professor, in food packaging
Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.
 Dr. Yildirim is the IAPRI Active and Intelligent Packaging Working Group Chair and is very involved in collaborative research projects in EU programs and has strong connections to industry. His focus is on the global challenges and issues related to packaging (food waste, packaging safety, plastic waste, sustainability.Selcuk thinks IAPRI is the most important scientific network in the area of packaging that brings the scientist and the industry in this field together and facilitates scientific exchange for research and teaching. He hopes with his experiences he can contribute to strengthening this exchange and the collaboration, especially collaboration between the scientific community and industry. Retiring from the Board: A big Thank For Many Years of Service to IAPRI
Published: 05/11/23 |
