Paper Center Funding OK'd

Congress has passed about half-a-million dollars in funding to assure the start of new Paper Sciences Technology Transfer Center in Green Bay, Wis., according to U.S. state representative Mark Green and the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Bruce Shepard, who announced the project early last month.

Green, who says it will take about a year to organize the center, noted that the timing is ideal, coming in the wake of the decision by the Institute of Paper Chemistry to leave its site in Appleton.

The goal of the new center, he added, is to become the focal point for research into new uses of paper, including developing patents for new uses for paper and new ways of manufacturing it.

Pat Schillinger, president of the Wisconsin Paper Council, said establishment of the center could lead to more of the paper industry focusing on the state.