RIT Receives $90K for Packaging Science Research

Rochester Institute of Technology’s packaging science program is receiving $90,000 from American Packaging Corp. The grant will be used to support graduate research in RIT’s Integrated Plastics Center in the College of Applied Science and Technology, the college of innovation.

Peter Schottland, president and chief executive officer of Rochester-based American Packaging, announced the gift in a recent visit to RIT. The grant funds the American Packaging Corp. graduate assistantship and provides a one-year tuition stipend to two RIT graduate students. The gift will be given to RIT over three years.

Launched last year, RIT’s 1,100-square-foot plastics center is used to evaluate and characterize plastic materials and develop cost-effective packaging. American Packaging provides packaging for food, beverage, medical, household, personal care and other industries.

Note: RIT’s College of Applied Science and Technology, the college of innovation, offers 31 undergraduate and graduate degree programs and 30 certificates and diplomas emphasizing technology, service management and multidisciplinary studies. The college leads the university in lifelong, corporate and outreach education, online learning and international studies including programs taught at the American College of Management and Technology in Croatia, at the American University in Kosovo and in the Dominican Republic. The college is home to the world’s only university-level course in space tourism development and its packaging science degree program is one of only six in the nation.