FULL SPEED AHEAD FOR THE LEATHER RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The  Leather Research Institute is pleased to announce that  its  present  directions  and   programs  plans  will continue with the appointment of Prof.Dennis Shelly as its next director. Effective 1  Sept.  1998,  Prof. Shelly moved  from  the number two position to Director with the  resignation of Prof.Jinger Eberspacher.Jinger, with her  husband  Jack  and  her  two  children, moved  to Vienna,  VA.  Jack  has  a  full  time  position  with the American  Wheat   Growers  Council  and  Jinger  has been  promoted  to  he position to full-time mom.  The transition,  supervised  by  the  Texas Tech  University Office  of  Research Services,  was orderly and logical with  administrative  responsibility for the Institute now shared   by  the  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences  and College of Human Sciences.

The new direction that Profs. Eberspacher and Shelly crafted  for  LRI  during  1998  will continue to be the focus for 1999 and  beyond. The  Institute's technical research program became much stronger  in 1998 as new faculty investigators and projects were supported. For example,Prof Shelly was supported with a grant to study collagen structure modifications during chromium tanning using infrared spectroscopy.Prof.Terry Ervin ,an   agricultural   economist,   began  a  study  of the economic  a spects  for  alternatives  to  conventional branding  techniques   and   concluded  a  study  of the economics of enzymatic  unhairing. All three  of   these project  were  presented   as   papers  at  the  94th American Leather Chemists Convention.A preliminary study of a proposed method for chromium extraction and spectrophotometric determination was undertaken by   Prof. Purnendu  Dasgupta,  Prof.  Shelley Harp began a two year project to study leather consumption among    select    consumer     subgroups,      such as Korean-Americans,  and  to  develop  an   improved consumer preference database for the institute. Finally, C. Wayne Moore  undertook  the  synthesis  of  a quantitative   model   of    the  leather industry,  using computer modeling and economic analysis tools. The Institute   also  began   new economic developement projects. LRI participated in a new initiative to foster economic    developement       through   value-added agricultural processing business. Called the AgriTech Corridor Project, the Texas Department of Economic Developement is oganizing industry, academia and local governments to establish a flourishing commercial area from Amarillo to San Antonio. Leather is an ideal value added agricultural co-product that is perfectly suited to this initiative. the overwhelming success of slaughter-wet blueing integration in the Texas Panhandle region signals tremendous future developement potential of crusting and finishing in the South Plains region of Texas. Also, LRI has proposed to help establish a leather product testing facility and a crust leather plant as part of the city of Lubbock's economic development strategy.

With its development of a new website, the Leather Research Institute has begun a new phase to improve its educational outreach and effectiveness. LRI is now on the web (www.hs.ttu.edu/Lri) with a very user friendly and educational homepage. It is designed to instruct novices and inform experts on the leather industry and the research program of LRI. All of these developments point the Institute towards strength and success, which is where it has to bring new opprotunities to the leather industry and to the people of the State of Texas and the South Plains.

For more on the Leather Research Institute, contact Dennis Shelly at 806-742-1762.