Brian N. Brogdon Honored with TAPPI’s 2023 Herman L. Joachim Distinguished Service Award

TAPPI is pleased to announce that Brian N. Brogdon, Ph.D., TAPPI Fellow, has been named winner of the prominent Herman L. Joachim Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Brogdon is the owner and president of Future Bridge Consulting Services, LLC.

Dr. Brogdon earned his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1992 with highest honors. He holds a Masters and a Doctorate (with Distinction) from the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (IPST). 

In 1997, he joined the Paper Product Development/R&D Group of Vinings Industries (now Kemira) where he held various positions, from Senior Research to Principal Scientist until 2007. He collaborated with R&D, marketing, sales, and mill engineers on various specialty chemical applications to improve pulp and paper operations. 

A TAPPI member since 1992, Dr. Brogdon has held TAPPI leadership roles within the Southeastern Local Section, the Alkaline Pulping & Bleaching Committee, and the Pulp Manufacturer Division.  He has been a member of the TAPPI Journal Editorial Board since 2008 and served a term as the journal’s Editor-in-Chief. 

He has also been lead instructor for TAPPI’s Bleach Plant Operations Workshop since 2017,  and has had a long history with the TAPPI Pulping Conference (now PEERS) where he first presented an undergraduate research project in 1993 on the kraft pulping of kudzu (Pueraria lobata). He has been involved with the Conference’s Technical Programming Committee since 1997.

Having published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and presented more than 60 conference papers, Dr. Brogdon has also written chapters on brownstock washing and pulp bleaching for two TAPPI PRESS publications. He has two US patents and a Canadian patent related to papermaking additives to enhance paper opacity. His main areas of expertise are in chemical pulping, bleaching, brownstock washing, and wood/lignin chemistry.

Dr. Brogdon has received many professional accolades, including the Pulp Manufacturer Division’s Distinguished Service Award and Joseph K. Perkins Prize, the Dave Wetherhorn Award for best Alkaline Pulping and Bleaching Paper (2016 & 2021), the ACS Cellulose, Paper and Textile Division’s Graduate Student Award (1999), and IPST Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award (1996). In the past, he served as an Adjunct Professor in the Pulp & Paper programs at North Carolina State University, the University of Minnesota, and the Institute of Paper Science and Technology.

The award will be officially presented at TAPPICon, April 22-26, 2023 in Atlanta, GA, USA.