Date: (14th Feb-15th Feb 2012)
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Francis W.M.R. Schwarze
Francis Schwarze has made highly significant contributions to fundamental understanding of wood decay by fungi and has applied the knowledge for the benefit of such important wood science and technology areas as permeability enhancement of heart-woods and refractory timbers, detection of tree rings, performance evaluation of thermomechanically densified wood, enhancement of acoustic properties of violins, and biocontrol of decay fungi affecting urban tree health. Many areas of his work have beenregarded as pathbreaking research and have been published in high impact international journals e.g. Nature Biotechnology and New Phytologist, attracting attention of such high profile journals as Nature for commentaries.Dr. Schwarze is an officially appointed and attested expert on wood decay of urban trees, concentrating on research into wood-decay fungi, fungus-host interactions and the use of fungi for beneficial purposes e.g. for improving the acoustic properties of wood for violins or biological control. He is a member of the British Mycological Societyand a senior scientist of Empa: Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology – Wood Laboratory.Appointment as Head of the Research Group Wood Protection and Biotechnology, Wood Laboratory Department, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), St. Gallen, CH, (2006); Appointment as Professor by the Senate of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Br., D. since 1993.National Diploma of Arboriculture at Merrist Wood College, UK (1991), Master of Science in Pure & Applied Plant and Fungal Taxonomy, University of Reading, UK (1992), PhD at Freiburg University (1995).