NORCROSS, GA - Pierre Lapointe, President and CEO of FPInnovations, will make a keynote presentation at the 2009 International Conference on Nanotechnology for the Forest Products Industry, presented by TAPPI and Alberta Ingenuity, June 23-26, 2009, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The theme of this year’s event is “Unlocking the Potential of Nano-Enabled Biomaterials.”

 

Lapointe will present “NCC: The Revolution,” on Wednesday, June 24. Derived from wood, nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) has generated interest from the scientific community because of its biodegradability, strength and other characteristics. Lapointe will provide one of five keynote presentations at the conference.

 

Lapointe has served as President and CEO of FPInnovations since Dec. 1, 2008. FPInnovations emerged from the amalgamation of the three main Canadian forest sector research institutes (Paprican, Feric and Forintek Canada Corp.) and the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, a component of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). FPInnovations employs a combined staff of over 650 and manages an annual budget of approximately $100 million, making it the world’s largest private forestry and forest products research institute.