Dr. Ramsay Smith, a professor in the LSU AgCenter's School of Renewable Natural Resources, was elected vice president of the Forest Products Society at its 2003 Annual Meeting held recently in Seattle, Wash.

Smith is program leader in the LSU AgCenter's Forest Products Development Center, which provides technical assistance to the primary and valueadded processing wood products industries in Louisiana.

In addition to Smith's election, two graduate students from the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources won the firstplace and secondplace awards for research papers at the meeting.

It was the first time in the society's history that the top two awards went to students from the same institution. Cheng Piao won first and Ronnie Vun won second in this prestigious national competition.

Piao received a $1,000 honorarium, and Vun received $500. Both were given the opportunity to present their research findings in a technical forum in Seattle.

Smith, who has a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, has been on the LSU AgCenter faculty since 1993. He previously was on the faculties of West Virginia University in Morgantown, W. Va., and the University of Washington, Seattle.

The Forest Products Society is an international notforprofit technical association founded in 1947 to provide an information network for all segments of the forest products industry.

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