February 2008

Notable travels: Rakesh Gupta attended the Steering Committee meeting of the ASCE Wood Engineering Research Needs Workshop in New Orleans. "Wood Engineering Challenges in the New Millennium - Critical Research Needs" will be held in April in Vancouver BC. Chris Knowles and Eric Hansen attended the International Builders Show of the National Association of Homebuilders in Orlando Florida to monitor innovation developments in the industry and to meet with NAHB Research Center staff. Kaichang Li visited the R&D Center for the Rohm and Haas Company in Pennsylvania to give an invited presentation and to explore collaborative research opportunities. He also gave a second presentation in St. Louis, MO to the United Soybean Board Technical Advisory Board. Jian Huang attended Panel World Conference and Expo in Atlanta, GA and gave a well-received presentation on “A new soy flour-based adhesive for making interiorly used plywood.”

International workshops: Mike Milota along with Antonio Silva (WS&E PhD ’04) and other faculty from the University of Guadalajara gave drying workshops in Uruapan and Oaxaca Mexico in January. The workshops were a part of the Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships Initiative (TIES) program funded through the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Mexican Commisión National Forestal (CONAFOR). The grant is coordinated by Eric Hansen and is supporting 3 Mexican graduate students in the department.  
Recent Proposals and new projects: Barb Lachenbruch, Rick Meinzer, and Steve Voelker have received an NSF grant with a University of Missouri colleague for $609,000 ($489,000 to OSU). They will test whether young and old trees have faster radial growth at elevated CO2 levels by comparing wood from oaks in the Midwestern US from the last 14,000 years, taking advantage of the known increase in atmospheric CO2 with the industrial revolution. They will also analyze the stable isotopes that were locked into the wood when it was formed to generate models of predicted carbon capture over a broad range of forest age and environmental conditions. This research provides an opportunity to test how forest ecosystems respond to climate change and the impact of these responses on the global carbon cycle. The results will have important implications for policy decisions concerning carbon emissions, land-use and forest management to optimize carbon capture.

Chris Knowles, Scott Leavengood, and Eric Hansen recently submitted proposals to the International Science & Education grants program of CSREES and the Rural Development area of the USDA National Research Initiative on the topics of innovation and education in the forest sector.

WSE faculty submitted five proposals to the BEST Signature Research Center for Round 1 funding ($50k each). We’ll know the winners in mid March.

New Visitors: Dr. Hüseyin Ünal, Associate Professor in the Department of Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering at Sakarya University in Turkey has joined WSE as a visiting scientist for the rest of 2008. He is working with Kaichang Li on developing and characterizing natural-fiber reinforced plastic composite materials for automotive applications.

Miscellaneous: Rakesh Gupta’s Katrina display that was in the Weyerhaeuser Gallery is now on display in Owen Hall lobby. Chris Knowles worked with Weyerhaeuser Co HR to organize an information session on jobs and internships for WSE undergraduates. Kudos to Margie York for her first-place Gold Award in the Food Share Dessert Competition.

DEPARTMENT OF WOOD SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

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 & Engineering.