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60th Anniversary Conference Report
From Cultural Heritage, Cell Walls to Smart Materials: Wood Science at a Turning Point—A conference report
The Academy held its 60th Anniversary Conference from June 1–4, 2026, hosted and organized by ETH Zurich and EMPA, Switzerland. It brought together 113 Fellows and Non-Fellows from over 19 countries, presenting wood science as a field that is both deeply rooted in anatomical, structural and biological understanding, and rapidly expanding toward circular, digital and high-performance bio-based technologies. Across the presented topics, a clear overarching message emerged: future wood science will depend on connecting fundamental knowledge of wood structure with scalable processing, material design, sustainability assessment and industrial implementation.
- The conference was opened by the outgoing president Stavros Avramidis, followed by the Academy Lecture, presented by Akira Isogai, University of Tokyo, Japan, entitled: Wood cellulose nanomaterials: diverse and unique structures, morphologies, and characteristics.
- A strong scientific focus was placed on wood anatomy, cell-wall architecture, plant hydraulics and climate responses. Contributions showed how quantitative wood anatomy, dendrochronology, xylogenesis and advanced imaging can reveal how trees respond to drought, elevation, species differences and environmental stress. Wood was repeatedly presented not only as a material, but also as an archive of biological, climatic and cultural information. This was also reflected in presentations on wooden cultural heritage, archaeological wood, shipwrecks and historical timber structures, where wood anatomy was framed as a bridge between material science, conservation, archaeology and history.
- A second major theme was the transformation of wood, cellulose and lignin into advanced functional materials. The conference highlighted nanocellulose, lignin-cellulose multiphase plastics, molten-salt-hydrate processing, transparent and translucent wood, superblack wood, bio-based films, foams, hydrogels, aerogels, coatings, adhesives and CNC-reinforced veneers. Several contributions pushed wood beyond its traditional role as a structural material, demonstrating potential in energy harvesting, humidity sensing, thermal and light management, EMI shielding, smart packaging and multifunctional building components.
- Digitalisation and advanced characterisation formed another visible thread. AI, computer vision, µCT, nano-CT, synchrotron methods, NMR, X-ray scattering and high-throughput tomography were used to understand structure-property relationships, automate wood identification, predict mechanical properties, support timber legality control and enable data-driven material development. These approaches show that the future of wood science will increasingly rely on combining expert knowledge with machine learning, modelling and digital workflows.
