College of Forestry

RENEWABLE MATERIALS RECRUITING:The WSE marketing team recently re-designed the Renewable Materials Web site and Facebook page. The Web site is taking shape as a content rich resource for potential students. We have a brilliant new overview video – take a look at http://renewablematerials.oregonstate.edu/. Our number of “Likes” for our Facebook page has gone crazy since the re-design. We have gone from less than 700 to over 1200 in one month. Check it out and “Like” us if you haven’t already. Graduate students Mike Burnard and Nadine Orozco have been an especially important part of this effort.

NEW PEOPLE / VISITORS: Jeff Morrell’s Preservation Group has a raft of visitors joining the group. Professor Kang-Hua Cheng (1) joins us from Nanjing Forestry University in China for a 3 month visit to work on a project examining the effects of solvents on triazole performance; Simon Leseux joined us as a student intern for 2 months from ENSTIB in France working on the withdrawal capacity of spikes from railroad ties; and Dr. Elijah Ajuong (2) joined us from the University of Limerick in February for a one year visit to examine the durability properties of second growth Port Orford cedar.  Lech Muszyński is hosting Prof. Chun-Won Kang (3), visiting scientist from Chonbuk N. University, Korea. Dr. Kang will collaborate with Lech, Scott Leavengood and Michael Burnard on a project concerned with checking formation in decorative maple hardwood.

STUDY ABROAD: Chris Knowles and Eric Hansen recently returned from their study abroad course in Finland and Sweden. WSE students Mike Burnard, Rebecca Hamner, Will Hollamon, and Adam Scouse participated as well as five masters of architecture students from UO. The course focused on sustainable housing, energy, and natural resource issues. Touring recently designed/constructed wood buildings with the head architect as the guide was a highlight.

MIDDLE SCHOOLERS: Milo Clauson recently hosted 15 eager middle school students for an afternoon as part of the Adventures in Learning Program on campus. The students learned about the effects of beam shape on flexural properties, but mostly they enjoyed breaking things while learning about the wonders of wood.

WORKSHOP: The Environmental Performance of Treated Wood Research Cooperative and Western Wood Preserver’s Institute recently hosted 27 people from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and various consulting companies for a one-day workshop to learn about the potential impacts of using preservative treated wood in or near water. They explored a predictive model that allows determination of potential impacts of a given project.

TRAVELS: Fred Kamke and Jesse Paris visited the Advanced Light Source at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in September to conduct an experiment using the synchrotron micro x-ray tomography facility.  The project is supported by the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Wood Based Composites.

CONFERENCES: Lech Muszyński served as a member of the Oregon BEST (Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies) Fest 2011 Organizing Committee. Fred Kamke, Ari Sinha, Adam Scouse, and Hongling Liu presented posters on their research during the technical forum.  Ben Sundberg, an undergraduate student mentored by Lech Muszyński since the winter term (SEED/BOV award), also presented a poster.

OWIC UPDATE: Scott Leavengood and OWIC have been working with Greenwood Resources and Collins Companies on a first stage study looking for broad differences in wood quality between clones.  The geneticists with Greenwood Resources want to know how wood quality (machinability, slope-of-grain, hardness, etc.) varies with a clone and within an individual stem. The research will help Greenwood in their quest to find the optimal clones for wood quality as well as personnel at Collins as they seek to maximize lumber value from hybrid poplar.

TORNADOES: Over the summer, Rakesh Gupta participated in a post-tornado damage assessment in Tuscaloosa Alabama. Rakesh, Kate Pfretzschner, Arijit Sinha also participated in an assessment in Joplin, Missouri. Both assessments were sponsored by the National Science Foundation, American Society of Civil Engineers and International Wind Engineering Association.  Check this website for more information on their findings: http://www.davidoprevatt.com/tornadoblog.

RECENT GRADUATE: Melissa Taylor, a recent PhD graduate in Materials Science working with John Simonsen is now a project engineer at Intel. WSE was her home department and her thesis was titled: “Transient Electric Birefringence for the Characterization of Cellulose Nanocrystals and Tobacco Mosaic Virus.”

NEW COLLABORATION: Lech Muszyński initiated collaboration with Dr. Sinisa Todorovic in the Department of Computer Science. The first fruit of this collaboration was an OSU General Research Fund award: “Advancing Bio-based Composites by Automated Image Analysis.” Part of this fund was used to support two Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering: Ms. Anita Chow from Sprague High School in Salem and Mr. Casey Schafer from Philomath High School. Lech and Sinisa shared the role of ASE mentors. Outcomes of the successful project were presented at the 2011 ASE Symposium, at the University of Portland.

$$$$$!!!!: John Simonsen and John Nairn received joint venture funding from the Forest Products Lab, Madison, WI, for $299,740 for the project: “Developing Design Models for Cellulose Nanocrystal Composites.” The project is part of a larger ($5 million) national effort in nanocellulosics funded by the federal government. John Simonsen was awarded $54,000 as a co-PI on a project funded jointly by the NSF DMR Biomaterials program and the CMMI Biomechanics and Mechanobiology program. The title of the project is: “Stronger than Glass Fibers, Stiffer than Steel Wires: A New Perspective into the Mechanics of Cellulose Nanocrystals.” Simonsen is collaborating with Reza Yassar (PI) and Gregory M. Odegard at Michigan Tech University, Houghton, MI.

The National Science Foundation has awarded a supplemental grant to the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Wood Based Composites. The title of the project is "Mechanisms of Wood-Generated Formaldehyde Emission". The PI for this $199,490, 2 year project is Charles Frazier (Virginia Tech).  Bruce Broline (WSE courtesy faculty member) is a co-PI providing experimental design and data analysis support.  This project will test the hypothesis that native wood formaldehyde emission is related to an acid catalyzed retro-Prins reaction of in situ lignin, and that this is a function of wood acidity and processing history.

NEW PUBLICATIONS:

Basta, Gupta, Leichti, and Sinha.  Characterizing Perpendicular-to-grain compression in wood Construction.  Holzfurschung.

Craig, Dibrell, and Hansen. Natural Environment, Market Orientation, and Firm Innovativeness: An Organizational Life Cycle Perspective. J. of Small Bus. Mgmt.

Dibrell, Craig, and Hansen. The Effect of Managerial Attitudes Toward the Natural Environment on Market Orientation and Innovation Relationships. J. of Bus. Res.

Goodall and Gupta.  Optimizing the performance of gypsum wall board in wood frame shear walls.  J. of Perf. of Constructed Facilities.

Hansen, Nybakk, Bull, Crespell, Jélvez, and Knowles. A Multinational Investigation of Softwood Sawmilling Innovativeness. Scandinavian J. of For. Ress.

Kamke and Rathi. Apparatus for viscoelastic thermal compression of wood. European J. of Wood and Wood Products.

Kang, Muszyński, and Milota. Optical Measurement of Deformations in Drying Lumber. Drying Technology.

Karas and Muszyński. Sustainable Bio-Composites for Highway Infrastructure: Feasibility of Material Substitution in Existing Products. BioResources.

Khasawneh, Xiong, Peralta-Cruz, and Karchesy. Biologically Important Eremophilane Sesquiterpenes from Alaska Cedar Heartwood Essential Oil and Their Semi-synthetic Derivatives. Molecules.

Knowles, Theodoropoulos, Griffin, and Allen. Oregon Design Professionals Views of Structural Building Products: Implications for Wood. Canadian J. of For. Res.

Kutnar, Humar, Kamke, and Sernek. Fungal decay of viscoelastic thermal compressed (VTC) wood. European J. of Wood and Wood Products.

Leavengood and  Anderson.  Quality + Innovation: Adapting Quality Management Practices to Achieve Innovation Performance. Engineered Wood J.

Macias and Knowles. Examining the effect of price, wood source, and environmental certification on architects’ purchase decisions of wood flooring. Silva Fennica.

Rosales-Castro, González-Laredo, Rocha-Guzmán, Gallegos-Infante, Peralta-Cruz,  Morré , and Karchesy. Chromatographic Analysis of Bioactive Proanthocyanidins from Quercus durifolia and Quercus eduardii Barks. Acta Chromatographica.

Sinha, Gupta, and Nairn.  Effect of elevated temperatures on the lateral load capacity of nailed wood connections.  J. of Materials in Civil Engineering.

Sinha, Gupta, and Nairn.  Thermal degradation of bending properties of wood and wood-based composites.  Holzforschung.

Veluthoor,  Kelsey, Gonzalez-Hernandez, Panella, Dolan, and Karchesy. Composition of the Heartwood Essential Oil of Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens Torr.). Holzforschung.

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