College of Forestry

NEW PROJECTS: John Nairn started a new project on crack propagation in Balsa wood and on the interface between Balsa core and fiberglass face sheets in a sandwich-core composite structure. The projected is funded by 3A Composites from Switzerland.

NEW PUBLICATIONS: Strategic Marketing in the Global Forest Products Industry, 2nd Edition by Eric Hansen and Heikki Juslin has been published.  This update to the 2002 edition is described as taking a unique planning and modeling approach to marketing allowing the reader to easily move from theoretical to practical marketing processes. ● A review article titled "Cellulose Nanomaterials Review: Structure, Properties and Nanocomposites" has just been accepted for publication as a critical review in Chemical Society Reviews. The authors are R. Moon, A. Martini, J.A. Nairn, J. Simonsen, and J. Youngblood.

OWIC REPORTS: Scott Leavengood has been working with a flooring company that noted reduced shrinkage in products made from fire-killed Douglas-fir logs compared to that produced from the Douglas-fir they were accustomed to using. Scott has cycled several boards from fire-killed timber as well as from ‘standard’ (live, green) Douglas-fir between the hot-wet and hot-dry conditioning chambers. There was little difference in shrinkage behavior between the 2 sources, but the fire-killed timber was much slower to swell in response to increased humidity. This jives with customer’s comments and indicates that flooring made from fire-killed timber may not swell appreciably if exposed to short-term increases in humidity. Further work is planned to figure out why. ● OWIC work to identify the attributes of hem-fir lumber in terms of preservative treatment and performance was a major factor in the decision by a Japanese home manufacturer to keep using this species. The results are helping to keep one PNW mill running to meet the demand. ● Also, OWIC work on western juniper durability helped develop a market for 2 to 3 truckloads per week of this product in California—every little bit helps support rural development and reduce the spread of juniper on rangelands.

TRAVELS: John Nairn will be a visiting professor for one month this summer at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne Switzerland. He will co-teach a PhD course on Modeling the Processing and Physical Properties of Composites. ● Chris Knowles and Mike Burnard attended the Wood Solutions Fair in San Francisco. The Wood Solutions Fair is put on by Wood Works and trains designers about using wood. Wood Works is planning to take their program national and Chris and Mike discussed with them about the opportunities for working with OSU to build upon our existing continuing education offerings.

KUDOS: Jim Wilson will receive the 2011 George Marra Award for Excellence in Writing and Research by the Society of Wood Science and Technology.  The Award is for Jim’s paper “Life-cycle inventory of formaldehyde-based resins used in wood composites in terms of resources, emissions, energy and carbon”, Wood and Fiber Science 42(Supp):125-143.The Award will be presented in June in Portland at the SWST Annual Meeting  ◊ The Forest Products Society announced that 2011 Markwardt Wood Engineering Award will go to former student Peter Seaders (CCE/WSE), Tom Miller (CCE) and Rakesh Gupta (WSE) for their article "Performance of partially and fully anchored wood-frame shear walls under earthquake loads" published in the Forest Products Journal. The award will be presented in June during the FPS 65th International Convention in Portland, Oregon. ● One of David Smith’s undergraduate mentees, Jeff Traver, was awarded an undergraduate research grant from the Kelley Family foundation to help test biomass fuels produced for Oregon bioenergy companies.

RECENT PRESENTATIONS: Chris Knowles was invited to speak about domestic and international markets for forest products at the Montana Society of American Foresters Meeting held in Kalispell, MT. ● David Smith was part of the Forest Biomass Sector Update panel at the Oregon Future Energy Conference in Portland.  David’s presentation explained how complementary College of Forestry research programs work together to advance forest health, provide economical bioenergy, and stimulate economies in rural communities. ● Chris Knowles and Mike Burnard presented “Is Wood Really Good” and “Environmental Pros and Cons of Wood Products” to Oregon woodland owners at Clackamas County Tree School.

STUDY ABROAD: Eric Hansen, Chris Knowles and UO faculty colleagues, began teaching the pre-departure course for Sustainable Housing in Scandinavia. The course includes six Masters of Architecture students from the University of Oregon and five OSU students (one graduate student from nuclear engineering and three graduate and one undergraduate students from WSE). The participants in the course will gain a North American perspective on forest management, forest products manufacturing, energy production, sustainable community development, and sustainable housing prior to departing for Finland and Sweden (August 26-Sept 10) to study these topics.

WORKSHOPS: Chris Knowles is organizing Structure Oregon: Utilizing Local Wood Products in Sustainable Design (www.structureoregon2011.com) to be held at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland on June 1.  It will connect Oregon’s sustainable design and wood products communities in an educational program and product exposition where Oregon designers will have an opportunity to learn about locally manufactured wood products. WSE faculty Fred Kamke, Scott Leavengood and Chris Knowles as well as WSE graduate student Mike Burnard will be presenting at the workshop. ● Scott Leavengood and Chris Knowles recently organized and delivered a workshop on sapstain and mold. Over 85 participants- including 72 from various mill operations, attended and learned about how fungi can damage wood from the woods all the way through to the lumber yard.  Presentations from the workshop can be downloaded from the OWIC website.

What is this?  A monthly capsule summary of selected project updates, new ventures, new grants/ contracts/ testing programs, major papers, accomplishments, awards and kudos, other stuff you are proud of, or activities that your colleagues (and DH) might find interesting.   The goal is better awareness of the professional activities of faculty, staff and students in Wood Science and Engineering.

DEPARTMENT OF WOOD SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY