Rachel Cook, graduate student in the Department of Forestry and
Environmental Resources is interviewed about research she is conducting
with Dr. Elizabeth Nichols that is helping to clean up a contaminated site
using phytoremediation.
See the News 14 Carolina video • Read the NCSU News story
Robert Jetton, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources and a Project Leader in Camcore, is the 2009 recipient of the Roger F. Anderson Memorial Outstanding Graduate Student Award sponsored by the Southern Forest Insect Work Conference. 
Robert has a B.S. in Biology from Furman University and a M.S. in Forestry with an Entomology co-major from NC State University. He received his Ph.D. in Entomology with a Forestry co-major from NC State in December 2008. The award is for his doctoral research with Fred Hain, Professor in the Department of Entomology, which he completed as a part-time student while on staff at Camcore.
Camcore is a non-profit, international program that strives for the conservation and domestication of forest genetic resources for sustainable economic, ecological, and social benefits. Robert serves as the Project Leader for gene conservation and research programs with Eastern and Carolina hemlock and Table Mountain Pine. He explains, "All three species are native to the southeastern United States and are endangered in their native range."
Among Robert's many accomplishments are six refereed publications (four as senior author), 25 oral and poster presentations at national and regional scientific conferences, and three invited presentations/guest lectures. He will receive a plaque and check for $250.00 in recognition of this impressive achievement in forest entomology.
News Release – October 1, 2009
Media Contact – Renee Strnad 919.515.5518
Raleigh, NC – Twenty Wake County high school students from four high schools gathered at North Carolina State University's Schenck Memorial Forest on September 30, 2009, for the 2009 Wake County FFA Forestry Contest. Participating high schools included East Wake, Knightdale, Wake Forest, and Wakefield.
The Wakefield team, lead by teacher Jodi Riedel, placed first in the competition. Ben Stalder, a Senior at Wakefield, was the top scoring individual in the contest. Other Wakefield team members are Blake Baines, Kate Orton, and Josh Tsujimura. Wakefield, along with Knightdale and Wake Forest High Schools, now have the opportunity to represent Wake County at the FFA Regional Competition held in April at Clemmons Educational State Forest in Clayton, North Carolina.
The FFA members competed in four areas; tree identification, saw timber estimation, pulpwood estimation, and cut and leave in which students must determine what trees they would keep or remove depending on management objectives within a given area. The contest was administered by Renee Strnad, Environmental Educator with North Carolina State University's Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, and Jennifer Grantham, Education Director with the North Carolina Forestry Association.
Wakefield High School FFA Forestry Team. L-R: Kate Orton, Teacher Jodi Riedel, Ben Stalder, Blake Baines, and Josh Tsujimura.
Working with Habitat for Humanity deconstructing homes is just the first step for students in a new interdisciplinary course offered this Fall by the Department of Wood and Paper Science at NC State. The main objective of WPS491/"Wood as A Sustainable Material" is to introduce the ideas and concepts of sustainability as it relates to wood and wood products manufacturing, including using waste wood for value added products and energy.
As part of their coursework the students tour historic homes and green buildings and collaborate with Habitat for Humanity to deconstruct homes. The deconstructed wood (lumber) is brought to the Hodges Wood Products Lab at NC State where the students develop value-added products, like mouldings, from the wood. Once produced to Habitat's specifications, the value-added projects will be used on Habitat homes under construction.
According to course professor Sudipta Dasmohapatra, the students will gain a broad perspective of sustainability and green principles; become familar with various applications of wood as a sustainable and renewable material; learn about wood construction and deconstruction concepts like moisture retention, drying, nailing and finishing; and develop an understanding of life cycle analysis and certification – all while providing a service to the community.
NC State News Release – October 5, 2009
Contact: Caroline Barnhill, News Services – 919.515.6251
For most American women, their “time of the month” is seen as a hindrance to daily life. In impoverished and developing countries, however, monthly periods are a major cause for concern among women. The lack of affordable, quality sanitary pads results in females missing up to 50 days of school annually – thereby compromising their educational and professional potential. Researchers at North Carolina State University are helping to combat the problem by designing affordable pads made from natural, available materials that will allow for local production and sale.
“This is the kind of project I’ve wanted to be involved with for a long time – using my knowledge of textiles and the sciences to make a real impact in the underserved parts of the world,” says Dr. Marian McCord, associate professor of textile engineering chemistry, science and biomedical engineering at NC State. McCord was contacted by Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE), a social enterprise dedicated to developing a franchise model led by young women to manufacture and distribute affordable, high-quality and environmentally friendly sanitary pads in underserved parts of the world.
Former President Bill Clinton recently named the SHE project one of the “commitments to action” at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting in September. Established in 2005, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
A prototype of the sanitary pad, produced by textile engineering student David W. Allen, is made from banana stem fibers. McCord and colleagues across NC State are using their knowledge in areas such as nonwovens, wood and paper science, and medical textiles to develop a sanitary pad from materials readily available in local areas – such as the fiber from banana stems in Rwanda. The pads will be sold by community health workers for 30 percent less than the available brand.
“In some of these areas of Africa, a month’s supply of imported sanitary pads cost more than a day’s worth of wages. The donations they receive from individuals help, but they simply are not a long-term solution to the problem,” says Elizabeth Scharpf, founder and CEO of SHE. “Our goal is to create affordable pads that are able to be easily manufactured for a low cost at the local level – and the research being conducted at NC State helps us do that.”
Researchers in the Department of Wood and Paper Science at NC State – Drs. Lucian Lucia, Medwick Byrd and Hasan Jameel – took banana stem fibers, which are easily accessible in Rwanda, and put them through a series of chemical treatments and mechanical actions in order to change their composition from coarse, waxy fibers into soft, billowy materials that are more amenable to absorbing liquid. Students in a textile engineering senior design course, led by Dr. Russell Gorga, associate professor of textile engineering, then incorporated the material into comfortable, effective and environmentally benign covers to create the prototypes currently under evaluation. The final prototype was produced by David W. Allen, a senior in textile engineering at NC State.
“The idea behind our research was to keep this process extremely simple – we employed materials that were cheap and easy to work with,” Lucia says. “In order for this project to be successful, it was imperative that the process could be replicated in other parts of the world – and that the average person, not necessarily a scientist, could create these sanitary pads. Our part in this important project was to show that turning banana stem fiber into an absorbent material is possible – and we’re very pleased that was exactly what we were able to do.”
“Our hope is that through this research, we’ll take a step toward improving the lives of millions of impoverished women in Rwanda, and perhaps all of Africa,” McCord says. “This project is just one of many examples of how a university without a medical school like NC State can have a major impact on global health.”
