The Academy Lecture
Robert Evans
Senior Principal research Scientist
CSIRO, Division of Forestry and Forest Products
Bayview Avenue, Clayton, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
Wood structure — a matter of perspective.
Almost everyone has an opinion on wood and its suitability for a particular purpose. Whether for fuel or furniture, paper or construction, music or weaponry, tools or sculpture, our collective practical understanding of wood is probably more comprehensive than any for other material. The versatility of wood arises from its highly organized, yet variable and adaptable, structure. We pride ourselves in our ability to create « advanced composite materials » but none of them come close to the all-round performance of wood. It even has the ecological advantages of being renewable and biodegradable. Considering its complexity, we simply could not afford wood if it did not grow on trees.
The intricate physical, chemical, biological and geometrical organization of wood has attracted the attention of researchers from all scientific disciplines. In my efforts to automate the analysis of wood structure, I have been influenced by the works of colleagues separated by distance, time and specialty, yet united by universal, perennial goals. These people provided a variety of perspectives by virtue of their unique backgrounds and personalities. Progress in wood science has thereby greatly benefited, although the incompleteness of our knowledge occasionally allows apparently contradictory hypotheses to coexist. In this lecture, I review some of these influences on my work and attempt to convey my perspective on wood structure analysis
The Lecturer
Robert EVANS has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Sydney. Prior to his current position, he was Senior Research Officer at Australian Paper Manufacturers (APM) in Alphington, Victoria, Australia (1978-1985) and Postdoctoral Fellow at the Empire State Paper Research Institute of the State University of New York in Syracuse, N.Y., USA (1976-1978)
Among his awards are the prestigious Marcus Wallenberg Prize (2001) for SilviScan, a machine to perform rapid analysis of wood microstructure, the CSIRO Chairman's Gold Medal (2001), the Appita L.R. Benjamin Medal (1997). He was elected Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science in1997