Grace Nakamura

Background

Grace Nakamura is on the faculty of the Department of Plastics & Packaging Engineering and holds a Ph.D. from Iowa State University. Before Porter, Grace led packaging development for a consumer-goods company.

Grace's research focuses on food and pharmaceutical packaging, with related work in extrusion and compounding; undergraduates are involved in the lab most terms.

Areas of expertise

• Food and pharmaceutical packaging
• Extrusion and compounding
• Undergraduate research and project mentoring

Teaching

Grace regularly teaches courses in Plastics Engineering, Packaging Technology. Specific sections and syllabi are listed in the class schedule each term.

Courses lean on current problems from the field: students read recent work, reproduce a result or method, and then extend it. Grace builds in low-stakes practice before graded work and gives written feedback on drafts.

Advising and office hours

Grace advises students in the Plastics & Packaging Engineering programs and holds weekly office hours during the fall and spring terms, posted on the office door and in the course pages. Prospective students are welcome to email to arrange a visit or a call.

Advising conversations usually cover course sequencing, whether to add a minor or a concentration, and how classroom work connects to internships, research, or graduate study. Students who are undecided are welcome; part of the job is helping them narrow things down.

Recent and representative work

Grace's recent activity is a mix of peer-reviewed work, conference talks, and student-involved projects in food and pharmaceutical packaging and extrusion and compounding. Representative items:

• A peer-reviewed article on food and pharmaceutical packaging in a disciplinary journal.
• A conference paper on extrusion and compounding, co-authored with an undergraduate researcher.
• An internally funded project applying food and pharmaceutical packaging to a regional partner's problem.

Titles and venues here are illustrative. UW–Porter Falls is fictional; Grace has no real publication record.

Get in touch

The fastest way to reach Grace is email (gnakamura@uwporterfalls.edu); messages during the fall and spring terms are usually answered within two business days. Prospective students and families can ask the Plastics & Packaging Engineering department office to set up a call, a class visit, or a meeting during an admitted-student day.