UMaine Senior Wins Top Student Award from Paper Industry Group
Contact: Nick Knowlen, nicholas.knowlen@umit.maine.edu or (207) 699-8052
University of Maine senior chemical engineering major Nick Knowlen has been named the Paper Industry Management Association (PIMA) Student of the Year
Knowlen, a Freeport native, will receive his award in May at PaperCon 2011, the national meeting of the Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI), which is being held this year in Covington, Ky.
The PIMA award recognizes outstanding students enrolled in paper science programs.
Knowlen has been involved in a co-op program the past two years in the logistics department of SAPPI Fine Paper’s facility in Westbrook, Maine. He is also an undergraduate research assistant to UMaine faculty member Michael Mason, an assistant professor in the department of chemical and biological engineering for whom Knowlen prepares and analyzes silver and gold nanoparticles for toxicology and cancer studies.
Knowlen has received the Pulp and Paper Foundation Scholarship for the past four years and was a student chaperone in 2008 for the foundation’s Consider Engineering summer program.
He became interested in pulp and paper engineering when he attended the Consider Engineering program at UMaine the summer after his junior year of high school.
“The program, offered by the Pulp and Paper Foundation, gave me a chance to learn about engineering and the paper industry,” Knowlen said.
He has also been active in the TAPPI/PIMA student chapter, currently serving as vice president. He has also been treasurer and fundraising chair, and attends the TAPPI/PIMA national student summit.