While I was biking into work this past Monday, the air was incredibly cool and crisp, and the sky was actually somewhat blue for a change. I remember thinking, “What a perfect way to start another work week in January.” Then, as I walked into Anderson Hall I heard the sound of someone playing piano up in the Forest Club Room. Those notes reinforced my optimistic feeling for the week and made me think of our wonderful community at SEFS—and, in many ways, how much of it revolves around that room.
The 26-foot noble fir, brought up from Pack Forest for the SEFS Holiday Party this year, soars toward the ceiling of the Forest Club Room.
When Agnes Anderson donated the financial support to build Anderson Hall in the early 1920s, she stipulated that the large room on the second floor was to be known as the Forest Club Room, and that it would forever be dedicated to students within our School. Her intent was to create a reading room and a common space where students could gather, discuss, study, invent, reflect, forecast and celebrate. The room also happens to be visually impressive, as it has a vaulted gabled ceiling with chandelier lights, a balcony, a large fireplace that we use at annual events, and tall multi-paneled windows that create a cozy, naturally lit atmosphere. It has picked up a few other more eclectic features over the years—such as the elk head mounted on the balcony railing—yet is has remained a warm and inviting space.
For us, as well, it means so much more. Since coming to the University of Washington in 2012, I have emphasized the importance of community within the School, and the Forest Club Room plays a key role in uniting us as friends and colleagues. Sure, the couches are a bit tattered and the tables wobbly—and the carpet seems to attract a remarkable assortment of crumbs—but the room represents so much that is great about our programs, our history, our integrity, our enthusiasm and dedication to our science. It’s the staging ground for scores of meetings and social events, and a catalyst for interdisciplinary activities. Just in the past few months, the room has hosted receptions after SEFS graduate seminars; it was the site of the SEFS Holiday party, a Pecha Kucha night with the International Forestry Students’ Association, and a couple Dead Elk parties that echoed laughter through Anderson Hall late into the evening. In the next few months, the room will be home to a Natural Resources Career Fair, the Graduate Student Symposium and prospective graduate student weekend, a Capstone Poster Session to showcase undergraduate research, thesis and dissertation defenses, and so many other solo and group work sessions. The secret is out, too, as just last year the UW Daily ranked the room as one of the best study spots on campus.
Even as we plan for Anderson Hall to get a major refurbishment in the next several years, we will make sure the Forest Club Room remains almost exactly as it is today, just with updated lighting, insulation and windows. After all, the room is like so much of what we offer in our School—unpretentious, welcoming and enriching. On chilly and rainy winter days, especially, it is both a place of retreat and the platform for an advance. It is part of the very fabric that makes us such a special and cohesive program. So, as the piano softly plays in the Forest Club Room, I welcome you as students, colleagues, alumni and friends to come and enjoy this warm and wonderful space during the cold, dark months of winter—and any other time you find yourself in these halls.
Tom DeLuca School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
Shortly after graduating, recent SEFS alumnus Avery Meeker (’15, B.S.) spent the late summer and fall volunteering with the Raptor View Research Institute (RVRI), a nonprofit research and education organization based in Missoula, Mont.
RVRI monitors raptor migration trends by collecting data from hawk counts and raptor banding, and Meeker was helping with fall migration studies along the Rocky Mountain Front in Lincoln, Montana. The goal of this research, he says, is to create long-term studies to better understand anthropogenic impacts on migrating raptors.
In his time there, he got to work closely with a variety of raptors, from hawks to golden eagles, and he shared a few amazing photos with us. With the migration monitoring over at the end of October, though, he’s already moved onto the next gig—volunteering at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C., conducting behavioral studies on ruffs (a seabird).
As the rest of Seattle hunkers down for the darkest days and months of the year, first-year doctoral student Samantha Zwicker has been gearing up for a far more tropical experience as she preps for her winter field season in the Peruvian Amazon.
Zwicker originally came to the University of Washington to study zoology, but she eventually tapped into her interest in ecosystem ecology with Program on the Environment and SEFS.
Zwicker, who grew up nearby on Bainbridge Island, has been working with Professor Kristiina Vogt since her time as an undergrad at the University of Washington. She has explored various angles of ecosystem ecology, conservation and human impacts on the environment, and she earned her master’s last spring with a project in the same region of the Amazon.
Now, for her doctoral work, she has begun a large-scale study assessing the impact of roads on big cats—primarily jaguar (Panthera onca)—in the Las Piedras River basin, wedged roughly between Peru’s southeastern borders with Brazil and Bolivia.
New settlements and a growing population along the river have resulted in an influx of roads and other stresses on the ecosystem, from selective logging to the clearing of forestland for farming. Despite these land-use pressures, though, the rainforest is surrounded by several national parks and reserves, and it continues to foster an incredible diversity of flora and fauna, from giant anteaters and armadillos, to bush dogs and lowland tapirs, to jaguars and even the rare pacarana. “It’s the last intact tropical forest left in the Amazon, and it’s not protected right now,” says Zwicker.
A crucial part of preserving this habitat involves proving its ecological significance, but she says researchers don’t yet have the animal data to support a conservation strategy. So Zwicker has designed her doctoral program to see how roads are affecting animal movements—and in the process gather as much data as possible about the wildlife communities in the Las Piedras River basin.
Caught on Camera
Zwicker’s research team includes field assistants Harry Turner and Danielle Bogardus, and she also coordinates with several other organizations in the region, including ARCAmazon and Wild Forests and Fauna.
Not all of her jaguar sightings come via camera trap, like this shot here. “One time while we were floating down the central stream on a pack raft, we saw a jaguar lying out in the sun on a log,” says Zwicker. “That was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Her study area covers about 450 square kilometers, and the heart of her project involves setting up an extensive network of camera-traps along secondary road networks. These motion-sensitive cameras snap an image of animals that cross in front of their infrared sensors, which detect changes in heat energy. With 100 cameras currently placed, this non-invasive technique allows her to capture a cross-section of species in the jungle and also explore several variables, including tracking how, where and when animals are moving—using roads, streams, etc.—and how those movements relate to habitat qualities—forest density, proximity to human activity, illegal logging. (Check out the video below for a sample of the camera-trap footage of a jaguar!)
More broadly, Zwicker hopes the cameras will help her establish baseline population numbers for some of these secretive and largely unstudied animals. “This place is important and rich in biodiversity,” she says, “and I really want to contribute and show this using mammal frequencies and density estimates.”
One of the biggest challenges in setting up her study, actually, has been concealing the cameras well enough to make sure no one discovers and walks off with them, which was a real problem during her master’s research. This time she expanded her outreach in local communities to explain the work she’s doing, and she says she’s gotten a lot sneakier in placing the cameras. “We hid them well.”
It’s still early, but the camera-traps are already yielding exciting results. “It’s incredibly rare to see a pacarana,” says Zwicker. “The last known camera-trap photo was in 2004, but I’ve recently caught three different individuals.”
As she continues to build her data set, Zwicker anticipates at least another three years of field work. She’s traveling to Peru twice a year, including three months in the summer and then almost two months in the winter (she’ll be heading down this January for most of the Winter Quarter). It’s no easy trek to reach this part of the Amazon, either. She flies into Puerto Maldonado, the entrance city to the jungle, and then has to take an eight-hour boat ride to haul her equipment up the river to her base site near the community of Lucerna—where, incredibly, her doctoral research covers only half of the work she’s doing in Peru.
Double Duty
Lucerna, after all, is also home to Hoja Nueva, a nonprofit that Zwicker cofounded a year ago to help local communities along the Las Piedras River develop more sustainable agricultural practices.
In addition to spurring new road development, population growth in the region has put increasing pressure on converting forests to farm land. And when the soil gets exhausted after three to five years, the cycle continues and accelerates the loss of forest habitat. So working with her partner Melanie Desch, who lives on site in Peru, Zwicker says they are promoting strategies to help these communities maintain their food production and healthy forest ecosystems.
As a master’s student, Zwicker earned the College of the Environment Graduate Dean’s Medalist Award and the SEFS Graduate Student of the Year Award. She’s also President of the Xi Sigma Pi Forestry Honor Society.
Hoja Nueva now owns 30 hectares in the jungle, and they use part of that plot as an experimental farm, or chakra, to demonstrate permaculture practices, such as using biochar to prolong soil productivity. They’re currently growing 2,000 cacao trees, lime, lemon, mango, avocado, cotton, copazu, maracuya, yucca and uncucha, among many other trees, herbs and vegetables. Their goal is to provide a practical framework for communities to follow along the Las Piedras River, as well as in other lowland rainforest environments. “We’re hoping the Piedras will become a larger, protected area,” says Zwicker, “and we’re working with the communities because they can make the largest impact on the ground.”
When she’s not down in Peru, Zwicker takes the lead on fundraising in the Seattle area—including hosting a benefit in November that raised about $4,000, which they’ll use to build a more permanent lodge. Right now, their accommodations are fairly basic, and they’re hoping to add a composting toilet and water tower and generally build out infrastructure that could potentially house future SEFS students.
In short, there is plenty of work to do, and between her ambitious long-term goals and all the projects she’s managing year-round in Peru, Zwicker has committed just about every free minute she has. But if you’re lucky enough to steal a moment with her, make sure to ask about jaguars, or Hoja Nueva, or really anything related to her work in Peru. She has great stories to tell, and watching her beam with excitement and energy will have you ready to sign up as her field assistant next season!
This fall, the SEFS Research Committee awarded five Graduate Research Augmentation Grants through the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research program, totaling $72,209 in funding.
This special round of grants was designed to support graduate student research, with awards targeted for Spring 2016 or Summer 2016 (and with all funding to be spent in full by September 30, 2016). Read more about the funded projects below!
Awarded Projects
1. Nisqually Garry Oak Habitat: Cultural and Ecological Considerations for Successful Restoration in the Nisqually Tribal Reservation
PI: Professor Ernesto Alvarado, SEFS
Co-PI: Professor Steve Harrell, SEFS
Garry oak (Quercus garryana) ecosystems are a designated Priority Habitat for management in Washington State (Larsen and Morgan 1998). Although there are many research projects that examine how to restore Garry oak ecosystems for the purposes of establishing more habitat for endangered and threatened species like the golden paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta) and Mazama pocket gopher (Thomomys mazama), respectively (Larsen and Morgan 1998), there are few studies that look at restoration for the objective of developing an environment for the purpose of cultural restoration, specifically agroforestry. We intend to evaluate whether Garry oak ecosystem restoration for the intended purpose of cultural activities (traditional medicinal and edible plant harvests, inter-generational education) will greatly change the components of the restoration and management plan of the Garry oak ecosystem.
Award total: $13,232
2. How Do Conclusions About the Effectiveness of Fuels-reduction Treatments Vary with the Spatial Scale of Observation?
PI: Professor Jon Bakker, SEFS
Co-PI: Professor Charles Halpern, SEFS
Restoration of dry-forest ecosystems has become a prominent and very pressing natural resource issue in the western U.S. Although mechanical thinning and prescribed burning can effectively reduce fuel loads in these forests, scientists and managers remain uncertain about the ecological outcomes of these treatments. This uncertainty reflects the short time spans of most restoration studies and a limited consideration of how ecological responses vary with the spatial scale of observation. This funding will support graduate student research that explores how ecological responses to fuels-reduction treatments vary with the spatial scale of observation, and will complement ongoing research on the temporal variability of responses.
Award total: $15,114
3. Growth and Physiological Response of Native Washington Tree Species to Light and Drought: Informing Sustainable Timber Production
PI: Professor Greg Ettl, SEFS
Co-PIs: Matthew Aghai, third-year Ph.D. student at SEFS; Rolf Gersonde, affiliate assistant professor with SEFS and Seattle Public Utilities Silviculture; and Professor Sally Brown, SEFS
Intensive management of the conifer-dominated forests of the Pacific Northwest has resulted in millions of acres of largely mono-specific second- and third-growth forests. These forests have simple vertical structure and low biodiversity, and consequently much lower value of non-timber forest products. Research on establishment of underplanted trees in partial light is needed to increase structural and compositional diversification of Douglas-fir plantations undergoing conversion to multispecies stands. However, the ecology of seedling establishment under existing canopies is poorly understood. The general aim of our research is to address the need for improved structural diversity in managed forest systems through a better understanding of species-specific performance potential of underplanted seedlings. This proposal extends ongoing research; in this phase we will document physiological differences in seedling performance.
Award total: $17,004
4. A Novel Reactor for Fast Pyrolysis of Beetle-Killed Trees
PI: Professor Fernando Resende, SEFS
In this project, we will optimize the production of pyrolysis bio-oil from beetle-killed lodgepole pine using a technique called ablative pyrolysis. We developed a novel and unique system for pyrolysis of wood that has the capability of converting entire wood chips into bio-oil. This characteristic is important for mobile pyrolysis units, because it eliminates the need of grinding wood chips prior to pyrolysis.
Award total: $15,887
5. Modeling the Effects of Forest Management on Snowshoe Hare Population Dynamics in Washington at the Landscape Scale
PI: Professor Aaron Wirsing, SEFS
The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is already listed as Threatened in Washington and, following an ongoing status review, likely to be designated as Endangered because much of its habitat has been lost to a series of large wildfires since 2006. Lynx subsist on snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus), and it is widely acknowledged that habitat quality for lynx is tied to the availability of this prey species, so forest management with the goal of promoting lynx conservation requires an understanding of the relationship between silvicultural practices and hare abundance. Accordingly, we are requesting summer 2016 funds to complete the third and final phase of a graduate research project whose objective is to assess the impacts of forest management on hare numbers across a large landscape in north-central Washington. By sampling a network of snowshoe hare fecal pellet transects spanning protected and harvested portions of the Loomis State Forest for a third consecutive summer, we will produce a model of hare relative abundance that will enable managing agencies to tailor their harvest plans such that they promote snowshoe hare availability and, as a result, lynx population persistence.
Later this winter and spring, from February 16 to March 30, the Elisabeth C. Miller Library will be hosting an art exhibit by Patty Haller, a Seattle oil painter with a studio in nearby Magnuson Park.
Haller enjoys applying visual concepts from art history to Pacific coastal woodland imagery. Her new series, “Forest Sampling,” was inspired by an exercise she did long ago as a forestry student at SEFS (’84, B.S.), where she studied forest ecology with Professor David R. M. Scott. Her work is included in the permanent collections of several area hospitals and the Anacortes Arts Festival organization.
We hope you’ll head over to the library and take a look at her work!
Last month, SEFS grad students Laurel Peelle and Jack DeLap volunteered in the annual “Meet the Mammals” event held at the Burke Museum on Saturday, November 14. It’s the only day of the year when the museum brings out hundreds of specimens from its extensive mammalogy collection for visitors to see and touch, and this year more than 1,100 people—a record high—joined the fun.
Peelle engages with a young scientist in the making.
Led by Mammalogy Collection Manager and SEFS alumnus Jeff Bradley (’00, M.S.) and Curator of Mammals Sharlene Santana, the Burke Museum organizes Meet the Mammals for guests of all ages to explore species from tigers and bats to sea otters and even a live llama. Mammal experts were on hand all day to answer questions about their particular specimens, and other activities ranged from live music played on instruments made from mammals, to putting together a 16-foot whale skeleton.
DeLap has volunteered four of the last five years, and this time he helped out with the “Limbs & Locomotion” table, which featured museum specimens (skins, skeletons, print infographics, video) illustrating mammalian adaptations for walking/running, flying, swimming and digging. The leader of his table was Tamlyn Sapp, a former SEFS undergrad (’13) and student of ESRM 351 who is pursuing a career in zoo keeping.
Over at Peelle’s table, she was showcasing some of her research involving Canada lynx and snowshoe hares. Her display featured two hare pelts (one winter and one summer), along with a stuffed bobcat and lynx, for folks to touch—and the steady stream of visitors kept her busy from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “I was hoarse by the end of the day, literally talking for six hours straight,” she says. “It was crazy but really, really awesome!”
DeLap fields questions at the “Limbs & Locomotion” table.
It’s a much different kind of outreach than a public talk, says Peelle. Instead of standing up at a podium and fielding a few questions afterward, she got to spend six hours engaged in back-and-forth discussions about her research, and she learned a great deal through those wide-ranging—and often eye-opening—conversations. “For one thing, I realized that 99 percent of people in Washington don’t even know that we have Canada lynx as a native species here,” says Peelle. “It was cool to see people take pride in learning something new about their state.”
The crowd included lots of families with young children, as well, and Peelle loved hearing insights from budding scientists. One girl came through and looked at the stuffed lynx specimen on the table. She was feeling the paws and spreading out the toes with her hands, and she asked whether that adaptation made it easier for the lynx to walk on snow—like natural snowshoes. “She was so observant,” says Peelle. “It was really inspiring.”
This fall, we were very pleased to welcome Kurt Haunreiter has the new manager of the Paper Science Center in Bloedel B-14! He arrived at the beginning of October, right when classes started, and he’s been scrambling to get the paper lab back in shape. “It’s been kind of a whirlwind,” he says.
Haunreiter, who lives north of Everett, Wash., earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from the University of Washington, and then a master’s from the Georgia Tech Institute of Paper Science and Technology. He started in the industry as an analytical chemist for the James River Corporation in Camas, Wash., and then held positions as a process engineer, tissue operations manager and pulp manufacturing superintendent at Kimberly-Clark in Everett.
A big part of what attracted him to this position was the opportunity to work with students, and this quarter he’s been assisting Professor Anthony Dichiara with BSE 248: Paper Properties. He attends every class, making sure the lab is ready and writing simplified procedures for each instrument the students use for the course.
Fridays are papermaking days, as well, and Haunreiter has been working with a few BSE students to get the paper pilot machine fully operational in time for the senior papermaking class this winter (which will led by Shannon Ewanick and taught jointly with Professor Dichiara). His goal is to have the students more directly engaged in the process, and he’s been writing new procedures so they can eventually operate the paper machine independently.
If you haven’t had a chance to introduce yourself yet, we hope you’ll join us in welcoming Haunreiter to the SEFS community!
What kind of conference lasts for two weeks, allows you to completely immerse yourself in another culture and way of viewing natural resource management, creates opportunities to meet more than 100 forestry students from more than 40 countries, and provides a chance to experience the world of forestry through an international youth perspective? Why, the 43rd International Forestry Students’ Symposium, of course!
Salina Abraham (left) and Miku Lenentine.
Through the official establishment of the UW IFSA Local Committee in February 2015, Salina Abraham and I had the chance to be the first-ever delegates representing SEFS, UW and the West Coast at this amazing event. It’s hard to capture the magnitude of this experience in a few short paragraphs, but I will try!
IFSA World is an international nonprofit run completely by students. It is the largest student-run organization of its kind, and it strives to be the voice of global youth in conservation and environmental management. With partners like IUFRO, CIFOR and FAO, IFSA truly is the voice for students and future resource managers, and it offers a direct pathway to attending and representing youth at events like the UNFCCC COP 2015 in Paris this year.
Much of the business of running IFSA and cultivating this leadership takes place at the annual symposium, and this year’s gathering was held in the Philippines from July 28 to August 10. The range of activities and experiences there was incredible. At the Senate of the Philippines in Manila, we got to attend presentations from industry professionals and top researchers from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos. We participated in local natural resource management field tours, including planting mangrove trees, hiking through the Los Banos experimental forest (largest in the country), and visiting a rice museum to learn about the challenge of rice cultivation and balancing extractive resource management with food productivity.
Miku at the rice museum.
We also attended the IFSA General Assembly, which feels like a mini-United Nations. That’s where all of the elections and business decisions for IFSA World are conducted for the coming year. It was a very new and educational experience for me, and all protocols for behavior and communication were quite formal. Before anybody spoke, for example, they were expected to stand and state their name and country. As part of this year’s General Assembly, as well, Salina and I were both nominated for IFSA World leadership positions, and we are now a part of the 2015/2016 IFSA World Officer team. Salina serves as the International Processes Commission Head, and I am the regional representative for the United States, along with a counterpart in Canada.
Giving my talk, “People Matter – Effectively Gauging Social Acceptability in Natural Resource Planning,” was my first experience presenting my preliminary research results to an international audience, and my first experience speaking to a group larger than 50 people! I thought I would be a minority in studying human dimensions, but I was surprised by the number of people who said my presentation resonated with them. In fact, a major theme of the symposium was becoming a “society-ready” forester.
One of the biggest things I learned from attending the symposium was that the term “forestry” is not just about silviculture and timber harvests. Forests mean life. Everything is forestry—it encompasses and is connected to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, too. We are all foresters in this sense, even me (I am apparently a social forester!).
Students catching hermit crabs.
Another important takeaway for me was getting to know the other participants and learning more about forestry conditions in their countries. The level of informal knowledge we shared was amazing, even with simple questions like, “What is your forest like?” Also, with more than 100 of us traveling everywhere together in overstuffed open-air taxis called Jeepneys, we all grew quite close. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner together, laughed together, got lost together, sang karaoke together, and many of us made new friends for life in the process.
By far the greatest value for me from attending IFSS 2015, though, was experiencing an overwhelming sense of camaraderie and inspiration as I connected with my newfound peers and friends from around the world. We are all working on this together, ushering in a new generation of sustainable resource management for the future. And though the challenges we face are daunting, I am inspired to continue, inspired to do better, and inspired to create a new path forward together.
I want to end with a special shout-out to Sajad Ghanbari, former SEFS student and current founder of a new IFSA local committee at the University of Tabriz in Iran, who inspired the whole thing by saying, “Gosh, why don’t you have a UW IFSA?” And now we do!
In the last issue of Roots, our alumni e-newsletter, we asked our graduates: What was your favorite spot on campus—a place to study, to eat lunch, to go for a walk? Here’s what Tara Wilson (’14, B.S.), who is working nearby as a research technologist with the Center for Conservation Biology, shared with us!
Tara Wilson volunteering at “Meet the Mammals” last year.
“Favorite spot on campus? Well, I don’t think I could pick just one. There are so many different places that are optimal for different things. First of all, hands down, the best place to go for a walk is the Union Bay Natural Area. Yeah, it’s a bit of a hike to get there but totally worth it! It’s a great place to see beautiful habitat, and I like to practice my bird watching (here I come, savannah sparrow!).
As an undergrad, my favorite place to study and get work done was on the top floors of the Suzzallo and Allen libraries. Along the perimeter there are individual desks with tons of outlets and good lighting. Plus, you’re right next to huge windows, which is always nice to gaze out on our campus for inspiration—or procrastination. Whatever you need at the moment.
Finally, I’m going to throw a curveball and say my ultimate favorite place to be is Pack Forest. Although it’s technically not on our Seattle campus, it is a campus for SEFS. It’s the best place to have lunch, hike and even get work done (yes, there’s even a computer lab there! In the forest!). Pack Forest is a gorgeous place, and I think it’s a hidden gem at UW.”
This fall, we were very excited to welcome Professor Anthony Dichiara as a new faculty member with our Bioresource Science and Engineering (BSE) program. Dichiara joins us after two years with the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., where he had been working as a postdoc with Professor Reginald Rogers. He brings an extensive background in materials science and engineering, and his research here will focus on the synthesis of carbon-based nanomaterials from biomass—with applications in multifunctional composites and environmental remediation, including the development of innovative ways to improve the sustainability of the biorefinery process.
“I’ve always been interested in nanomaterials,” says Dichiara, who grew up near Fontainebleau, France, about an hour outside of Paris. “From a very early age, you have those people who are interested in space and everything that’s huge. On the reverse end, I was always into everything that’s small. You look at planets, I look at atoms.”
Dichiara and his wife Emma are living in Bellevue with son Ayden, who is 16 months old.
Dichiara earned his bachelor’s and master’s in materials science and engineering, as well as a master’s in optics and nanotechnology, from the University of Technology in Troyes, France. He then earned his Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from École Centrale Paris in 2012.
As part of his master’s double degree program, Dichiara spent about a year on a fellowship doing research in optical applications of nanomaterials in Hsinchu, the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. It was a defining experience personally and professionally, he says, as he met his future wife Emma there and sharpened his career outlook. “When I was doing my research in Taiwan, that’s when I realized I wanted to work with nanomaterials for my career,” he says. “That’s where I decided I wanted to go into academia and have more freedom with my research.”
Dichiara’s research initially focused on synthesizing nanomaterials, which are comprised of incredibly tiny nanoparticles and have broad uses in industries from healthcare to electronics and aerospace. His pioneering work on hybrid structures contributed to record performances in multifunctional polymer composites and water purification.
His overall goals haven’t changed, he says, but at SEFS he’s shifting to a biomass perspective and no longer using synthetic materials. He’ll be starting from nature, trying to create carbon-based nanomaterials that mimic the natural world—and that have powerful applications in the production of biofuels and other bioproducts.
Working with his new BSE colleagues, he’s already collaborating on a project to increase the efficiency of water treatment at biorefineries. That’s one of the main costs of producing biofuels, and Dichiara is looking to improve methods of cleaning toxic pollutants from the water to make the biorefinery process more cost-effective and sustainable. A related project involves working with biomass that comes from waste management, and trying to transform those materials into high-value products to treat water at a biorefinery. It’s using waste from one industry to solve the challenges of another. The result would be a synergistic, highly sustainable waste management system that brings us closer to the long-term goal of a biorefinery that create zero emissions and zero waste.
As he jumps into these projects, Dichiara has been getting settled in his office in Bloedel 288, and his lab refurbishment should be complete by the end of November. He’s hoping to start advertising for grad students this spring, as well, and he already started teaching this quarter with BSE 248: Paper Properties. “It’s pretty exciting to meet the students from UW,” he says. “They are really bright and dynamic.”
It’s wonderful to have Dichiara’s energy and expertise at SEFS, and we hope you’ll join us in welcoming him to our community!
