Dean Benjamin received
a Bachelor of Science degree in paper science and engineering from the
University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point and then went on to earn a doctorate in
chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota. While at Minnesota, he
studied computational and experimental fluid mechanics of the roll coating process
under Professor L.E. Scriven.
Upon
graduation, Dean joined Avery Dennison as a research engineer at the Avery
Research Center in Pasadena, California, where he led projects to develop
coating processes for the production of pressure sensitive labels and tapes.
Dean
then joined Consolidated Papers, Inc. as a senior research engineer at their
R&D facility in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. His research focused on
developing new coating and finishing equipment and he eventually became the manager
of the Coater Research & Engineering Department. He also worked in the
areas of coating color preparation, paper finishing technology, high-speed
coaters, fountain applications, corrosion engineering, kraft chemical recovery
systems and product development. Dean then became the manager of Product
Development - Publication Papers where he worked on a variety of product
developments including high-bulk paper, alternative-finish paper and high-brightness,
carbonate-based paper coatings, and later was appointed as director of research
for NewPage. Dean is now the director of product development for Verso
Corporation.