RALEIGH, N.C. — January 13, 2026 — Behnam Pourdeyhimi will step down from his role as executive director of The Nonwovens Institute (NWI), effective Dec. 31, after more than a quarter-century at the helm.
Taking over for Pourdeyhimi is Raoul Farer, who is currently the executive deputy director of NWI and a professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science.
“I was thrilled that Raoul joined NC State last year,” Pourdeyhimi said. “I’ve been incredibly impressed with his accomplishments and firmly believe he is the right choice to lead the institute into the future.”
When Pourdeyhimi first joined NC State himself, over 25 years ago, it was in part to take on a leadership role in what was then known as the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC). Under his vision, NCRC morphed into NWI — becoming the world’s first accredited academic program for the interdisciplinary field of engineered fabrics.
NCRC was established in 1991 as a State/Industry-University Cooperative Research Center with matching grants from the National Science Foundation, the State of North Carolina and several industry partners. Upon the conclusion of NSF grant funding in the 1998-99 academic year — the same time Pourdeyhimi got to NC State — NCRC had to become self-sustaining.
“I remember well the challenges we overcame and the opportunities we seized along the way,” Pourdeyhimi said.
In 2007, NCRC was discontinued and all of its programs were merged into the newly established NWI. Over the next three years, Pourdeyhimi would oversee the launch of two new state-of-the-art pilot labs — the Staple Nonwovens Lab, in 2008, and the Meltblown Lab, in 2010 — in addition to what’s today known as the Spunbond and Hydroentangling Lab, which first opened in 2002.
Posted: January 13, 2026
Source: NCSU Wilson College News
