14 Mar. 2023: Each year, the TAPPI Journal (TJ) Editorial Board honors the best of TJ content by nominating and voting for the Best Research Paper. The award is ultimately selected based on scientific merit, innovation, creativity, and clarity. For 2022, two papers claimed this distinct honor.
“It is notable that a Nonwovens paper, for the very first time, has won the TAPPI Journal Best Research Paper Award. This speaks to the excellent caliber of their research and the tremendous contributions of all the co-authors,” said Doug Coffin, TAPPI Journal Editor-in-Chief. “TAPPI congratulates them for producing and submitting such an outstanding paper.”
The second paper, “Review of coating cracking and barrier integrity on paperboard substrates,” was authored by Joel C. Panek and Peter W. Hart. Panek is a senior principal R&D scientist at WestRock in Richmond, VA, while Hart is the director, Fiber Technology, also at WestRock. The paperboard coating research appeared in the November 2022 issue and is now available as a free download.
“This research paper is a comprehensive review of the literature around a common cause for failure in sustainable barrier coatings in packaging; fold cracking,” said Steve Ottone, the TJ Editorial Board member who facilitated the paper’s peer review. “It looks at the causes of cracking, both substrate and coating, and helps set a path forward for improving barrier integrity. It represents a great starting point for anyone looking to develop sustainable packaging solutions.”
In addition to receiving Best Research Paper honors as primary authors, Narasimhan and Panek will also share the Honghi Tran TAPPI Journal Best Research Paper award. The $2,000 cash prize is endowed by Professor Emeritus Honghi Tran, Ph.D., of the University of Toronto and author or co-author of more than 80 papers published in TJ. Tran established the award in 2019 to encourage and reward the publication of high-quality research in TJ.
The awards will be presented at TAPPICon, April 22-26, 2023, in Atlanta, GA, USA.