BPI Seminar by Dr. Ingo Burgert

TITLE

Wood Materials Science at ETH Zurich and Empa

LOCATION: CHBE #202, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z

ABOUT THE EVENT

The talk will focus on the opportunities arising from the modification and functionalization of wood by taking advantage of its hierarchical structure. The anisotropic, porous structure combined with excellent mechanical properties makes wood an eligible biomaterial to develop high-performance composites and hybrid materials. Wood treatments in top-down approaches can lead to wood materials with improved properties and/or new functions. Recent concepts and approaches to obtain functional wood materials will be presented, as well as the various fields of potential applications. Additional focus will be laid on the upscaling for large-scale production and the adhesion to green chemistry guidelines, which will be discussed highlighting potentials and limitations.

AGENDA

• Introduction by Dr. Shawn Mansfield
• Keynote Presentation by Dr. Ingo Burgert
• Q&A / Discussion moderated by Dr. Shawn Mansfield

*Subway sandwiches and coffee will be provided from 11:45am. Arrive early to have lunch and mingle before the presentation begins. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ingo has been a Professor for Wood Materials Science at ETH Zurich and Empa, since 2011. He studied wood science and technology at the University of Hamburg, Germany and obtained a doctoral degree at the same university in 2000. From 2000 to 2003 he worked as a postdoc at the Institute of Physics and Materials Science of BOKU, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, Austria. From 2003 to 2011, Ingo was research group leader of the group “Plant Biomechanics and Biomimetics” at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in the Department of Biomaterials, Potsdam, Germany.