BPI SEMINAR BY DR. GARNIER

TITLE

Cellulose, Here, There, Everywhere!

DATE & TIME

September 12th Monday 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM PDT

LOCATION

CHBE Room 202, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3

ABOUT THE EVENT

Cellulose has always been a ubiquitous part of civilized life. In the last decade, Cellulose applications have emerged from those of the traditional, commodity and heavy industry (such as timber, pulp, paper, and textile), to refined engineering solutions for biomedical, functional materials, chemical and agriculture applications.  Using a series of examples, the unique reactivity, wettability and structure of cellulose at the different hierarchical length scales will be explored. The first part of the presentation will focus on a series of biomedical applications including paper sensors, nanocellulose hydrogels for organoids growth and blood typing; the second will analyse cellulose for agriculture applications; the last will explore the limits of plastic replacement by lignocellulosics.

AGENDA

• Introduction by Dr. Orlando Rojas, UBC
• Keynote Presentation by Dr. Gil Garnier, Monash University
• Q&A / Discussion moderated by Dr. Orlando Rojas, UBC

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Gil Garnier is Director of the Bioresource Processing Research Institute of Australia (BioPRIA) and Professor in Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Australia (2005-). He is also Director of the ARC Industry transformation Research Hub- Processing Advanced Lignocellulosics (PALS). Previously, Gil was Team Leader/Senior Research Scientist at Kimberly-Clark (2000-2005) and Paprican Professor in Chemical Engineering, McGill University (1993-2000). His expertise is the application of (bio)polymers and Interfacial Engineering to biodiagnostics and lignocellulosic materials. His research team aims at developing novel paper biodiagnostics and implementing biorefineries based on the concepts of green chemistry and sustainable processes. Gil has supervised over 50 graduate students and is currently on the Editorial board of JCIS, Carbohydrate Polymers, Cellulose, Bioresource and Nordic Pulp and Paper Research Journal (NPPJ). He published over 220 scientific articles and holds 17 patents, many of which are used every day in commercial products.