UMaine graduate student receives national award from the American Chemical Society

Md. Ikramul Hasan, a master’s student in the School of Forest Resources, is the recipient of a 2021 Younger Chemist Leadership Development Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS)

The award will enable Hasan to attend a leadership development workshop at the ACS’s Annual Leaders’ Conference. The Society grants 15 of the awards nationwide each year. Applicants are evaluated on the merits of their research and contributions to their field.

Hasan, who is co-advised by associate professor of renewable nanomaterials Mehdi Tajvidi and research forest products technologist and cooperating faculty Jinwu Wang, is dedicating his master’s research to developing renewable packaging materials made from cellulose nanofibrils derived from wood pulp. The material is remarkably light, strong, absorbent, and may offer solutions to longstanding challenges in industries ranging from food packaging to cosmetics to construction.