Paper and chemical engineering chair wins educator of year award

KALAMAZOO—A state organization has awarded the head of Western Michigan University's nationally renowned paper and chemical engineering department an educator of the year award.

Dr. Said Abubakr, chair of the Department of Paper Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Imaging, has received the 2013 Michigan Printing Week Association Ben Franklin Educator of the Year Award.

The honor will be awarded at the association's annual event, the Ben Franklin Award Dinner, named after the father of American printing. At the dinner, the association will honor 2013 award recipients in three categories, including individual, company and educator of the year. The event is Tuesday, Jan. 15, at the Laurel Manor Banquet and Conference Center in Livonia, Mich.

Said Abubakr

Abubakr earned his doctoral degree in chemical engineering from Michigan State University in 1982. He was assistant professor at Yarmouk University-Jordan, where he developed a new chemical engineering department from 1982 to 1985. He moved to Wisconsin in 1985, where he accepted a position as assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and was subsequently promoted to associate professor and full professor.

In 1993, he joined the USDA Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory where he was the research project leader-supervisor and chemical engineer until accepting the position of chair of the Department of Paper Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Imaging at WMU in 2001.