Our Living Lab member the Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST), in cooperation with Japan Wood Research Society and Nagoya University, hosted the 61st International Convention with the overall topic “Era of a Sustainable World – Tradition and Innovation for Wood Science and Technology”. The conference took place from 5th November to 9th November 2018 in Nagoya, Japan.

The Director of the InnoRenew CoE and the Director of the Board of SWST Dr Andreja Kutnar was among the keynote speaker at the conference where she pointed out the potential of the circular economy with wood science. She also took part of the session about Business and Marketing where she presented the interdisciplinarity research through wood science.

Image: Mike Burnard

Our Deputy Director and the Research Group Leader of the Human Health in the Built Environment at the InnoRenew CoE Dr Michael Burnard was also actively involved at the conference. Through 2 oral presentations and 1 poster he presented the InnoRenew CoE’s research activities in the area of the human health in the built environment.

Poster about the human health in the built environment at the InnoRenew CoE. Image: Mike Burnard

In the session Wood in Health & Wellness, he talked about his research on assessing human stress responses to wood furniture using salivary cortisol as an indicator of stress. Moreover, he shared with the audience how we at the InnoRenew CoE are supporting the use of wood in the built environment and how we are connecting it to health research. Also our researcher Dr Jakub Sandak presented his topic in this session where he focused on defining limit states and user preferences when changing the wooden facade.

Dr Matthew Schwarzkopf a researcher at the InnoRenew CoE presented his research on olives, wood protection, and on adding value to agricultural residues. Besides this he was also a Chair of the session dedicated to Wood Engineering. The Research Group Leader of Wood Modification Dr Anna Sandak was part of this session where she talked about service life performance of bio-based facade materials – from modelling and simulation of appearance to environmental impacts.

Dr Matthew Schwarzkopf. Image: Mike Burnard

The conference brought together numerous wood science experts from all around the globe. Among those was also our global expert Dr Eric Hansen, and our researchers had an opportunity to meet and discuss with him. Besides the full conference programme, the organizers provided a variety of social and networking events and guided tours of Japanese monuments.

Nagoya Castle. Image: Mike Burnard

At the InnoRenew CoE we are pleased that we could take part in the SWST conference in Nagoya, and we are already looking forward to the 2019 conference, which will take part at the Yosemite National Park in the USA.