{"id":11762,"date":"2017-12-04T10:53:04","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T15:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/?page_id=11762"},"modified":"2026-11-12T08:22:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T13:22:36","slug":"faculty-experts","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/research\/faculty-experts\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2025\/12\/Venditti-with-students-1024x576-1.png\" alt=\"Richard Venditti working alongside two students wearing safety visors in a lab. - Faculty Experts - Forest Biomaterials NC State University\" class=\"wp-image-25855\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2025\/12\/Venditti-with-students-1024x576-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2025\/12\/Venditti-with-students-1024x576-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2025\/12\/Venditti-with-students-1024x576-1-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Our People Are Our Greatest Asset<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our people are recognized worldwide for their cutting-edge research in advanced manufacturing, novel forest-based biomaterials, paper science and processes, renewable chemicals and energy, business processes and innovation, and sustainable materials and technology. <strong>We are a research powerhouse with an ecosystem built for achievement and collaboration. <\/strong>Our research teams are cross-disciplinary and are often comprised of experts from a variety of fields within Forest Biomaterials, the broader College of Natural Resources, other colleges at NC State and representatives from government agencies, the private sector, industry or other universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meet Our Faculty Experts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Faculty in the Department of Forest Biomaterials bring expertise in sustainable materials, paper science, manufacturing, engineering and the bioeconomy. Explore their research interests and areas of specialization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/med-byrd\/\">Med Byrd<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in mechanical, chemical and nonwood pulping and bleaching, as well as agricultural residue processing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/ronalds-gonzalez\/\">Ronalds Gonzalez<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in conversion economics and the analysis of financial and supply chain processes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/martin-a-hubbe\/\">Martin Hubbe<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in chemical paper additives, colloidal chemistry affecting dewatering, the charged nature of cellulosic materials and dry strength development.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/paul-laleicke\/\">Frederik Laleicke<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in wood physics and durability, mass timber products and wood recycling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/nathalie-lavoine\/\">Nathalie Lavoine<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in nanocellulose-based advanced materials, active and intelligent packaging, and sustainable materials processing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/lucian-lucia\/\">Lucian Lucia<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in green chemistry, fiber and polymer science, environmental sciences, materials science, renewable polymers and chemical modification of cellulosics for biomedical applications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/lokendra-pal\/\">Lokendra Pal<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in sustainable materials science and engineering, functional coatings, digital printing, printed electronics, 3D printing and Lean Six Sigma processes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/sunkyu-park\/\">Sunkyu Park<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in lignocellulosic biomass reactivity, hemicellulose chemistry and cellulose crystalline structures for dissolving pulp applications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/melissa-pasquinelli\/\">Melissa Pasquinelli<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in fibrous and biopolymeric materials, environmental chemistry, interfacial engineering and molecular modeling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/joel-j-pawlak\/\">Joel Pawlak<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in engineering multiphase materials, including porous fibrous web structures, foams, natural superabsorbents, enzymatic manipulation of material structure, nanoscale fiber composites and novel applications of rheological phenomena.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/perry-peralta\/\">Perry Peralta<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in wood physical properties, wood mechanics, statistical process control and the development of novel forest biomaterials through nonwoven technologies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/ilona-peszlen\/\">Ilona Peszlen<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in wood anatomy and properties, environmental effects on wood and fiber properties, genetic improvement of wood quality and properties, and utilization of plantation wood.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/richard-phillips\/\">Richard Phillips<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in strategic business practices, leadership and critical thinking in the pulp, paper and forest products industries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/rico-ruffino\/\">Rico Ruffino<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in industrial and product design, including design thinking, development and prototyping with a focus on sustainability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/daniel-saloni\/\">Daniel Saloni<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in process improvement, supply chains, biomass and bioenergy conversion.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/directory\/richard-venditti\/\">Richard Venditti<\/a> \u2014 Specializes in processing and utilizing natural polymers in new products and fuels, separation science in fiber processing and environmental life cycle analysis of products.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our People Are Our Greatest Asset Our people are recognized worldwide for their cutting-edge research in advanced manufacturing, novel forest-based biomaterials, paper science and processes, renewable chemicals and energy, business processes and innovation, and sustainable materials and technology. We are a research powerhouse with an ecosystem built for achievement and collaboration. Our research teams are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"parent":11693,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"six","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11762","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11762"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26695,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11762\/revisions\/26695"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnr.ncsu.edu\/fb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}