The IOM3 Wood Technology Group (formerly the Wood Technology Society) provides a technical focus for those engaged in all aspects of the the scientific, technical, practical, management/selection/and use of all timber and wood based materials.
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Meet the Wood Technology Leadership Team
Morwenna Spear
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.
Andrew True FIMMM
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.
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.
Adrian Hall MIMMM
Adrian Hall MIMMM - Following qualification with a degree in Timber Technology from Bucks College, Adrian has gained in-depth sales and management experience in various sectors of the timber trade, especially in panel products and softwoods, working for a number of the key companies, and consequently gaining a unique and wide product knowledge.
Since 2019 he has been the Owner/Managing Director of Stoneleigh Timber Engineering Ltd.
Adrian is also a Board Member of the Trussed Rafter Association, with whom he has had a long involvement having previously been Director concurrent with his other work at the time.
His hobbies range from gardening and writing, to building and flying model aircraft.
Tim Belden MIMMM
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 PhD MRSC Chem
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.
Laura Keily
Laura Keily is currently Head of Marketing at Accsys, a company known for pioneering acetylated wood products Accoya and Tricoya. After earning a BA Honors degree in European Business with Languages Laura began her career in the timber industry as an internal sales executive at Weyerhaeuser’s Medite MDF.
Her transition into marketing, where she found her true passion, allowed her to work on several award-winning campaigns for Medite MDF and later through a change of company ownership managed the marketing for Smartply OSB.
In her senior global role at Accsys, Laura now oversees all global marketing activities, from brand strategy to creating sales support collateral, digital, PR, trade shows, events and campaigns for the Accoya and Tricoya brands. She is deeply passionate about the timber industry and sustainability, and her work emphasises promoting environmentally friendly building solutions.
