Wood Technology Group

Morwenna Spear

Research Scientist, The BioComposites Centre, Bangor University

Dr Morwenna Spear has a BSc (Hons) in Forestry and Forest Products, and a PhD in Natural Fibre Composite Materials. Her research interests include the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of wood and has applied a wide range of techniques to understand and develop wood modification technologies. She also has experience of scaling-up new technologies for industry, and value-adding for timber. Morwenna also has a strong interest in the use of timber as a renewable and sustainable construction material, considering availability, embodied and sequestered carbon, and the route to net zero. She works closely with the timber industry in Wales and the UK. She has also conducted market studies on the forest products sector, the use of timber in construction and the bio-based composites sector.

Dr Spear has supervised a number of MSc and PhD students in topics relating to timber and bio-based materials. She is involved in the Places of Climate Change research group and Plastics Research Centre Wales within Bangor University. She has written many book chapters on topics including: natural materials, wood based composites, timber properties and recycling. Morwenna is the Chair of the IOM3 Wood Technology Group.

Graham Ormondroyd

Dr Ormondroyd completed his PhD (Wood Science) at Bangor University, UK and has been the Head of Materials Research at the BioComposites Centre for 18 years and Reader in Biobased materials since February 2020. In that time has written many proposals, papers and undertaken commercial works in all aspects of biomaterials science. Dr Ormondroyd has over 100 publications including peer reviewed papers, conference proceedings, book chapters and edited books, he continues to publish regularly. Dr Ormondroyd is a Fellow of IOM3, a member of the International Research Group on Wood Protection and a member of the Wood Technology Group.

Andrew True

Andrew True FIMMM has been a Board member since the year 2000, initially with the Institute of Wood Science prior to assimilation into IOM3. He is a past Chair of the Wood Technology Society, and currently is involved with the WTG website.  He was also a member of the IOM3 Membership Committee.

In 2017 Andrew was awarded the IOM3 Outstanding Contribution Award.

Andrew has extensive experience in the softwood sector of the timber trade and retired from active trading in 2018. He has a BA (Hons) gained during employment with the National Coal Board, followed by 3 years at TRADA. Then came 11 years working in the London office of the Canadian softwood shipper Seaboard, before moving to Weyerhaeuser Company at Windsor ending as UK Director. From 1992 he was owner director of a softwood sales agency business, latterly representing primary German and Swiss softwood sawmills and selling to customers in the UK, Japan, USA, and the EU.

Andrew had a keen interest in badminton, and in the early 1980’s was instrumental in the building, from scratch, a purpose built 6-court badminton centre in High Wycombe.  This made use of state of the (then) art timber technology!  Glulam beams, waferboard (a forerunner to OSB), Canadian exterior plywood, Swedish sawfalling boards (for the exterior cladding), and a hemlock sprung floor, were blended into a totally timber building.  And, not forgetting, Douglas fir joists for the flooring in the social part of the structure.  The waferboard was used as a decorative product in addition to being internal cladding.

The emphasis on Canadian timber products in the badminton centre was primarily due to the fact that the architect and engineer, and Andrew, were experienced in the British Columbia forestry business

Andrew is also actively involved with the Institute of Advanced Motorists and is currently a Chief Observer.

For recreation, Andrew is a hiker and cyclist, and a club bowls player.

Iain Thew

Iain Thew is a Structural Engineer with a particular interest in timber and conservation. He works for Structural and Civil Consultants, a practice which specialises in the design and specification of British grown hardwoods, and is a keen advocate for the wider use of timber in construction in the UK. He is a qualified visual strength grader and has considerable experience in surveying historic timber structures.

Iain was a member on the Younger Members' Committee from 2011 until 2018.

Gervais Sawyer FIMMM

Gervais started working in the wood industry at the age of 18, studying Wood Technology at evening classes. His work experience included hardwoods, softwoods, veneers and wood preservation. While pursuing a career in works management he found that most of his time was taken up by training suitable staff and so moved into full-time lecturing. Whilst at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University he gained a Diploma in Wood Science. In later years, he spent his time in consultancy for the Forest Products Research Centre.

Although retired in 2007, he is also very active in schools’ outreach, promoting the wonders of wood to schoolchildren everywhere. He is also a busy consultant solving problems related to wood and manufactures equipment and test materials for the preservation industry. During 2024 Gervais retired after 15 years as Editor of the International Wood Products Journal. 

Dr Martin Ansell FIMMM

Martin Ansell is a University of Sussex graduate in materials science with a PhD researching glassy electronic materials awarded by the University of London. Following two years of industrial research at Standard Telecommunication Laboratory, Harlow, Essex he moved to the University of Bath where he was eventually promoted to reader in materials science. Throughout his career at Bath he has won numerous grants from UK research councils and the European Union and managed Knowledge Transfer Partnerships working with industry. He supervised over 30 graduate PhD students and was external examiner for degree programmes at Buckinghamshire College and Swansea University. He was President of the Institute of Wood Science from 1994-1996 and currently sits on the Board of the Wood Technology Group. Following retirement in 2017 he became an honorary reader and continues to enjoy engaging in materials research within the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Bath. 

Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM

Jim Coulson is a consultant Wood Scientist who founded and still runs TFT Woodexperts Limited: based in North Yorkshire since 1991.

His early career in Wood Science was spent at TRADA – in the days when that organisation was still an independent Research Association – and where he, first of all, worked in the Training Department, teaching Strength Grading and other Timber Technology skills to members of the Timber Trade. He later transferred to TRADA’s Regional Service, running their network of ten Regional Offices: but when TRADA was privatised, Jim left and set up his own consultancy practice, which has now been running successfully for over 30 years. Woodexperts teaches and examines both an Accredited Level 4 Certificate in Wood Science and Timber Technology and an Accredited Level 6 Diploma in Advanced Wood Science. The practice also works with both UK and international clients, solving timber problems and writing Expert Witness Reports on all manner of wood-related topics.
 
Jim’s first timber qualification was in 1976: when he gained Distinction in the Certificate in Timber Studies at Buckinghamshire College. He followed this with two prizes – in the Institute of Wood Science Certificate Course in 1977 and the IWSc Associateship Course in 1978 – thus gaining his full qualifications in advanced Wood Science and Timber Engineering.

In 1986, he was elected as a Fellow of the Faculty of Building and in 2004, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Wood Science, following his period as President of that organisation from 2002-2004. 

After the merger of the IWSc with the IOM3, Jim was created a Fellow of the IOM3 in 2014; and he later qualified as a Chartered Environmentalist in 2016 – forty years after gaining his initial Wood Science qualification. 

He sits on a couple of BSI Committees, concerned with structural timber matters and sustainable development in construction; and he is a member of the International Wood Committee for ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites). He is also a member of the International Research Group on Wood protection (IRG-WP). 

Jim has published three books: “Wood in Construction” (2012) “The Sustainable Use of Wood” (2014); and “A Handbook for the Sustainable Use of Wood in Construction” (2021).

In his private life, Jim is a Setter of both cryptic and quick crossword puzzles; having first been published in the Listener (the then BBC magazine) in 1975. After more than forty years, he still sets occasionally for The Listener Puzzle series (now published in The Times every Saturday) under the pseudonym of Jago; and he also sets for the Sunday Telegraph’s Enigmatic Variations series under the pseudonym of X-Type (he also sets the back-page Cryptic and Quick puzzles for the Daily Telegraph once a month – usually on a Tuesday – but those puzzles do not carry any Setter’s name). Members of IOM3 who read Materials World will also come across Jim’s monthly “themed” crosswords – set under the pseudonym of Anobium (the name for the scientific Genus of “Woodworm”).

Dan Ridley-Ellis

Dan Ridley-Ellis is Associate Professor and head of the Centre Wood Science and Technology at Edinburgh Napier University. He is one of the UK’s technical experts on guessing the strength of wood and can talk for hours on the topic – which he frequently does if nobody stops him.  His main area of research is understanding the properties of wood, and how they are influenced by tree growth, forest management, and climate.  He represents the UK at European Standards Committees for grading of construction timber, and the majority of structural sawn timber produced in the UK is now graded with settings he developed. He was named "woodland hero" for 2016 by Grown in Britain, and is also active in online learning, public engagement, and science communication.

He is a member of:

• CEN TC124 WG 1 (Test methods), WG 2 (Solid Timber) and TG1 (Task Group for grading and strength properties)
• UK Timber Grading Committee
• British Standards Committee B/518 “Structural Timber”
• and is Northern UK representative for the Northern European Network for Wood Science & Engineering

Tabitha Binding

Tabitha Binding is Head of Education and Engagement at Timber Development UK (TDUK). She specialises in interdisciplinary wood projects, working with industry, professionals, academia, and students to enthuse, encourage and educate - to increase knowledge and competency in timber as we transition to a biobased economy.

Her background is in forestry, milling, manufacturing, new build, and renovation along with research, product development, monitoring, certification and occasionally policy!

Tabitha’s career includes time at the Timber Trade Federation, BM Trada, TRADA, WoodKnowledge Wales and Coed Cymru, and she is currently part time seconded to NMITE to increase partnerships to deliver essential timber skills.

In her spare time, she has retrofitted her 1840’s home using cork, Woodfibre and sheep wool – and on average consumes 35kWh/pa/m2 in an all-electric house. 

Tim Belden

Tim Belden MIMMM is an Associate Professor Digital Engineering at NMITE, Herefordshire. He is currently developing a centre for autonomous motion and environment recognition. His research interests are in sensors, mapping and data analysis, related to timber buildings both modern and historical. He is also known to discuss mechatronics, robotics, programming, AI and extended reality.

Despite being interested in industry 5.0, he is the vice chair of ICOMOS UK Wood Committee, and previously worked in heritage engineering as a millwright, undertaking work on all grades of listed buildings. In the distant past he also worked as a civil engineering for many years, but considers that as a previous life.

Dennis Jones FIMMM

Dennis Jones FIMMM PhD MRSC Chem originally studied organic chemistry to PhD level, but has been working on wood science for almost 30 years, having worked at Bangor University, Biocomposites Centre, Danish Technical University, SHR Timber Research (Netherlands), BRE, WoodKnowledge Wales, SP/RISE (Sweden) and Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), as well as having a timber consultancy company (DJ Timber Consultancy Limited). Currently he is an Associate Professor at Luleå University of Technology and a docent at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. Whilst specialising in wood modification, he is active in various areas, including composite materials, wood protection, coatings, adhesives, uses of local timbers and the performance of biobased building materials.

Dennis has been chair of COST Action FP1303 (Performance of Biobased Building Materials) from 2013-2017, Vice Chair of COST Action FP0904 (Thermo-hydro-mechanical processing of timber) from 2010-2014 and FP1407 (Understanding wood modification through an integrated scientific and environmental impact approach) from 2015-2019. He is one of the core group members for the European Conference on Wood Modification and currently serving as a member of the communications Committee for the International Research Group on Wood Protection (IRG).

Dennis is the Editor of the International Wood Products journal.