Saewhan Kim, a Graduate Research Assistant from Virginia Tech's - Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design was selected at random from 20 first time IAPRI presenters at this year's Member Conference. He won $500 as part of the IAPRI Career Start Award sponsored by Dr. Paul Singh.

All IAPRI researchers and academics in the packaging community, the IAPRI Member Conference is less than two months away! Now is the time to register for this three-day event.

The US-based Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) is inviting responses to its challenge to find primary packaging design innovations to combat food waste. Those interested have until 18 June 2021 to submit entries for the SPC’s Food Waste Repackaged.

The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded Michigan State University (MSU) close to $500,000 for a project exploring intelligent packaging, combining nanoscale sensors with printed electronics able to transmit data about freshness and spoilage.

Charles Santerre, a former White House senior policy advisor, has been appointed chair of the Food, Nutrition and Packaging Sciences (FNPS) Department at Clemson University in the US.

Germany’s Fraunhofer IVV has provided updates on the FreshInPac project, using active packaging to help keep produce fresh, and on a new project involving several Fraunhofer institutes – Waste4Future - aimed at maximising carbon recycling from plastics waste.

A half-century on from the official founding of IAPRI in 1971, we look at one of the critical decades for the association, when the membership nearly trebled, the geographical footprint began a decisive shift, and communication at Board and membership levels underwent important changes.

With the 30th IAPRI Member Conference due to reach your screens in two weeks’ time, now is the ideal time to take stock of this important member event, map out the most exciting papers, plan your route from stream-to-stream – and register, of course, if you have not done so already.

You have a fantastic new technology or novel material, but how do you scale it up and demonstrate a route to commercialisation? IAPRI members share their experiences in different areas.

The role of affiliate members within IAPRI is an important one, acting as a bridge between their own members, when it comes to other associations, and the packaging research and education community worldwide. The Turkish Packaging Manufacturers’ Association (ASD) is a prime example of this – and an enduring one, in the context of IAPRI.

With travel restrictions still in place, IAPRI held its Member Conference virtually. Thanks to the 45 researchers who presented their work, IAPRI held a three day, three track Zoom Webinar with just over 100 attendees. The sessions were recorded and are available to participants to view the ones they missed. We will feature some of the papers in our Conference Spotlight over the next few issues.