TAPPI Lecturers

HONGHI TRAN obtained his B.Sc. and M.Eng. in Ceramic Engineering from Shizuoka University in Japan, and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto (U of T), Canada in 1982.  Honghi has been with U of T since 1987, and is presently a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, the Frank Dottori Chair in Pulp and Paper Engineering, and the Director of the Pulp & Paper Centre. Honghi has helped establish and direct consecutively 11 large industrial research consortia, focusing on issues related to fouling and corrosion in recovery boilers, causticizing and lime kiln chemistry, sodium and sulfur balances, borate autocausticizing, combustion and ash related problems in biomass boilers, as well as mill waste disposal/utilization. Honghi has supervised/co-supervised over 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; authored or co-authored nearly 300 refereed papers and has 8 patents. Honghi has chaired the TAPPI Kraft Recovery Course since 2006. He was named a TAPPI fellow in 2000, PAPTAC fellow in 2015, and Canadian Academy of Engineering Fellow in 2016. Honghi was the recipient of numerous prestigious TAPPI awards including the 2006 Engineering Beloit Award and the 2017 Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal. He served as the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the PAPTAC’s Journal of Science and Technology for Forest Products and Processes (J-FOR) from 2011 to 2014. He was awarded the 2013 John S. Bates Gold Medal from PAPTAC, and the 2014 ICRC “Lifetime Achievements and Contributions” Award, and was inducted to the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in 2017. Honghi is a registered professional engineer of Ontario.

JIM BREWSTER has recently retired from J. D. Irving, Limited in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, where he served as a Senior Project Advisor to the Pulp & Paper Division for a major continuous digester project. After earning his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from Portland State University and completing Minors in both Economics and Accounting, Jim has spent over 40 years in the kraft pulp industry. Throughout his career, Jim has worked as a Shift Supervisor for both Pulping and Recovery operations, a Pulp mill Superintendent; a Project Manager for a major kraft mill rebuild; a Mill Energy Manager; a Project Manager for the construction of a new recovery boiler. He also served Assistant Plant Manager of Engineering, Process Engineering, Capital Projects and Environment. After 20 years at the Georgia-Pacific Pulp & Paper facility in Camas, WA, Jim moved to eastern Canada to join the Irving Pulp & Paper Mill. He spent his first eight years there as Production Manager, and in 2001, assumed the role of Mill Manager, the position that he held until March 2014. During his tenure as Mill Manger, Jim has managed the company’s $400 million investment in a total plant rebuild and environmental improvement projects. Irving Pulp & Paper is now the only mill in North America to meet all current wastewater discharge guidelines without primary or secondary effluent treatment. As a result of these accomplishments, the company earned the Canadian Council of Ministers for the Environment (CCME) Award for pollution prevention, and was more recently awarded a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) 2005 Synergy Award for Innovation, in partnership with the University of New Brunswick (Saint John). Jim has been an instructor of the TAPPI Kraft Recovery Course since 2006.