Lifetime Achievement Award






At the 22nd World Conference on Packaging IAPRI bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award to S. Paul Singh

Since his first day at MSU Paul has been very active in IAPRI, recognizing at a young age its importance and potential in fostering packaging research in the international community. He has attended and participated in almost all symposiums and international conferences. Paul is often a multi paper presenter and he encouraged his students to attend and present as well. Altogether he has been author and co-author of over 50 IAPRI sponsored papers. In 2002 at the School of Packaging's 50th anniversary IAPRI conference Paul took on a central role in its development and delivery and did an outstanding job at both.

Paul has always been a strong advocate in the belief that the IAPRI leadership should be a mirror of the international nature of the membership and worked diligently toward that end. He also believed that the board should be responsible and accountable to the membership. Eventually Paul was elected to the IAPRI board and was was the first non-European to be elected Vice President.

Some of Paul's more notable contributions to IAPRI are as follows:
  • Nomination and Election to the Board of Women and International members. Paul believed that for IAPRI to prosper and truly be an international research organization that board members must come from all geographic areas. Toward that end he secured nominations for individuals from Asia (Thailand and China) and South America (Brazil). He also pushed IAPRI to hold conferences world-wide.
  • During his time on the board Paul fought for and secured much needed changes to the rules by which the Board governed itself. These included term limits for Board members and the president and vice president, and creation of an ethics document.
  • He envisioned the First Corporate Membership and made that a reality. This resulted in several important positive changes to IAPRI. It brought about a greater membership and more funding, and a greater diversity of intellectual thought to the discussion. As importantly it made research findings more available for actual application to real problems and opportunities.
  • Creation of IAPRI Awards. To recognize the input of IAPRI scientists to excellence in Packaging Research Paul envisioned and brought to reality a Young Scientist award and the Lifetime achievement award. The first recognizes the potential of a researcher early in their career, and the later the cumulative contributions over the entirety of a career.
Because COVID caused the in-person World Conferences in 2020 to be canceled and then limited travel to the 2022 World Conference, the Paul received the award in Spain in 2024.
 

Prior Life Time Achievement Award Recipients

2020 - Dr. Thomas Goedecke
Head of Divisions Dangerous Goods Packaging ant the Safety of Transport Containers - BAM
Berlin, Germany


2016 - Mr. Luis Madi
Technical Director at ITAL - Institute of Food Technology
Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

2014 - Dr. Anders Sörås
Managing Director – PACKFORSK – The Swedish Packaging Institute
Stockholm, Sweden


2012 - Dr. Bruce Harte
Director of the School of Packaging, Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI USA
 

IAPRI LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

Purpose of the Award

The purpose of the award is to honor an individual who has done outstanding work and service over many years for the IAPRI packaging research community which have uniquely strengthened and advanced the growth of IAPRI and its reputation as the leading global research and education association.

The award will be granted every two years at the IAPRI World Conference on Packaging.

Specific Eligibility Criteria

The individual must be or have been an associate of an IAPRI member institution. Current IAPRI Board Member are not eligible for nomination.

Nomination of Candidates

Calls for nominations will be sent to each IAPRI board member and all member organizations.
Nominations packets should contain the following information (in English and sent by email):
  1. Curriculum vitae of the candidate (not exceeding two pages).
  2. A statement of the reasons why the candidate has been nominated (not exceeding two pages).
  3. Name, address, e-mail and telephone number of the nominee.
  4. Name, address, e-mail and telephone number of the individual/group making the nomination.
  5. A recent photograph of the nominee.
Nominations should be received before February 1st of the year in which the award is going to be presented and sent to the IAPRI Secretary General at sg@iapri.org.  All nominations will be acknowledged.

Selection and Award

The IAPRI president shall appoint a committee that will review the nominations and make recommendations to the IAPRI board. The committee shall develop and use an objective, criteria-based system for evaluating nominations to ensure consistency and fairness over time. The system is subject to the approval of the IAPRI board.

The IAPRI board will decide on the award recipient. If a suitable candidate is not found or there are no nominations, the award will not be presented during the next conference. All deliberations will be in private and the IAPRI board will not disclose the reasons for an award being declined.

Awardees will be recognized during the Official Dinner of the IAPRI World Conference, and the IAPRI President will present the award. The Awards consist of a commemorative plaque, a contribution to the airfare based on standard rate of up to $1,250 US and free registration for the conference.