Summer 2008

New Grants!: John Simonsen and Michael Lerner (Chemistry) received $50k from the ONAMI GAP funding program for “Development of microporous nanocomposite membranes for rechargeable battery separators.” Lech Muszyński, Fred Kamke, Chris Knowles, and Eric Hansen were awarded $129k from the USDA National Needs Program to support three MS students studying in the area of “Forest Resources Utilization and Advanced Forest-based Products Marketing,”

International Travels: Chris Knowles and Eric Hansen traveled to Scandinavia to set up a study abroad experience to be offered in 2009. The theme of the experience will be natural resources with a strong focus on climate change. Chris and Eric met with researchers at the University of Helsinki, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, and the Norwegian University of Life Science. Rakesh Gupta and David Rosowsky presented papers and attended the World Conference on Timber Engineering in Miyazaki, Japan. Lech Muszyński attended the World Congress on Computational Mechanics and European Congress on Computational Methods in Applied Science and Engineering in Venice, Italy and made two presentations. He also made two presentations at the International Conference on Photomechanics 2008 in the UK.
 
VTC Patent: US Patent No. 7,404,422 Viscoelastic Thermal Compression of Wood was issued to Fred Kamke and Harrison Sizemore. This patent covers technology related to the manufacture of wood materials with improved mechanical properties. Applications include structural composite products for use in building construction and transportation.

Other Notable Travels:   Fred Kamke visited the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago in June. He was granted time on one of the APS beam lines to conduct research on the use of micro x-ray tomography to examine adhesive bonds in wood. This technique provides 3D information with a resolution of 1.3 micron. John Simonsen was on the organizing committee, presented at and chaired a symposium at the 2008 International Conference on Nanotechnology for the Forest Products Industry held in St. Louis, MO. He learned that the National Nanotechnology Initiative will distribute over $1.4 billion in research funds in 2008. Rakesh Gupta attended Advisory and Development Board meeting of the Wood Education Institute (http://woodeducationinstitute.org/ ) in Pomona, CA.

New Scholarship: Andreja Kutnar, Fred Kamke, Marko Petric, and Milan Sernek titled "The influence of viscoelastic thermal compression on the chemistry and surface energetics of wood" is accepted for publication in Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects. A second paper by Andreja, Fred and Milan on "Density profile and morphology of viscoelastic thermal compressed wood" was accepted by Wood Science and Technology. Both Andrea and Milan were international visitors to WSE in recent years. Barb Lachenbruch, Kate McCulloh, and JC Domec and colleagues Rick Meinzer, Dave Woodruff, and Jeff Warren have a paper accepted in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a journal with one of the highest impact factors of the non-medical journals. Entitled "Maximum height in a conifer is associated with conflicting requirements for xylem design," it details the mechanism that appears to control how tall Douglas-fir trees can grow. The pits on the sides of the tracheids appear to be designed for high conductivity at the bottom of a tree, but as one goes up, the pits appear to be increasingly designed to be able to keep air bubbles from entering into the tracheids. Because water is in tension in a tree and because that tension is higher at the top of a tree, entry of air bubbles can be disastrous for water transport. So although the pits high in the tree can keep bubbles from entering, their design drastically reduces their water transport.

Miscellanea: Milo Clauson spent a pleasant afternoon recently teaching 15 middle schoolers from OSU's Adventures in Learning program for talented and gifted middle schoolers about material properties of wood. The students got to break beams (always a favorite) and then tested the flexibility of various wood composite beams created by our undergraduate students. All went away with a new appreciation for what goes into design of wood structures. Rakesh Gupta recently hosted: Dr. Werner Seim, Dept. of Structural Eng., University of Kassel, Kassel, Germany and Dr. Dave Prevatt, Dept. of Civil Eng., University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. WST undergraduate student Michael Shew was one of four recipients of a $5,000 Robert E. Dougherty scholarship awarded by the Composite Panel Association's Scholarship Committee from among fourteen applicants. This is the fifth year in a row that an OSU student has won this scholarship. Rakesh Gupta has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the Korean Society of Civil Engineering Journal of Civil Engineering to handle wood-related papers. The journal is distributed by Springer.

New Cryo-microscopy Capability:  Cryo-microscopy has numerous applications for studying low temperature phenomena as well as for observing cryo-fixed samples. Commercially available cryo-stages for microscopy are expensive and have limited capability for wood science where it is often desirable to observe large samples including sections or cross and longitudinal faces of stem segments. Peter Kitin and Barb Lachenbruch, with the active help of Milo Clauson, made a cryo-system for the fluorescence microscope. The microscope cryo-stage, as well as a microtome specimen holder for cryo-sectioning, are kept at low temperatures (-20 to – 70 °C) with a jet of super-cooled nitrogen gas. The system is being used to study water distribution in the cell lumens of small tree stems. The cryo-stage can help observe fixed cell content, and, compared to other microscopy methods, cell shapes and chemistry of samples are comparatively well-preserved because artifacts of chemical modifications or drying during sample preparation are avoided. At low temperatures, fluorescence is stronger with less bleaching effects on fluorophores. The sample can be observed in real color which potentially carries chemical information and represents a major advantage over the electron microscopy (cryo-SEM).

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.