Aidan C. Ackerman | Assistant Professor
As a landscape architect with expertise on digital fabrication and CAD/CAM technology, Aidan leads the effort to develop project workflows which utilize the flexibility and efficiency of CNC routing for mass timber prototyping research. He provides training, oversight, and management of CAD/CAM technology throughout the project. Aidan is currently PI on a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Grant to study renewable wind energy in the landscape, and has previously received two other LAF grants to study landscape performance. |
Dr. Susan E. Anagnost | Director NC Brown Center for Ultrastructure Studies, Professor
Team member for material properties, performance, and fabrication. Dr. Anagnost provides expertise to evaluate wood properties, product durability, and quality control. Dr. Anagnost’s research portfolio includes wood anatomy and identification, wood microbiology, cultural and microscopic methods to evaluate decay condition in wood products, conditions for growth of fungi, mold, and indoor air quality. |
Tristan R. Brown | Associate Professor
As an expert on TEA of energy systems and its integration with LCA under uncertainty, Dr. Brown works with the Systems Evaluation team to help policymakers understand the climate change implications of the team’s TEA and LCA findings. Dr. Brown also links the TEA results to positive and negative externalities identified by other areas of the proposed project for the purpose of quantifying abatement costs under uncertainty. He is currently PI on a USDA BRDI grant that is conducting integrated techno-economic and environmental life cycle assessments of different bioenergy pathways under uncertainty. |
Dr. Paul L. Crovella | Assistant Professor
As a structural engineer (PE), with extensive background in timber structures design and performance, Dr. Crovella provides overall project coordination. He works as the lead for market acceptance, demonstration, and outreach. He is also co-lead on material properties, performance, and fabrication. Finally, he is a team member for the system evaluation work. Dr. Crovella has had multiple funded mass timber research grants and has been PI or Co- PI on over $1M in research on timber projects, building energy, and construction management. |
René Germain | Professor
As lead forester (SAF Certified), Dr. Germain is responsible for forest characterization, and forest operations and supply chain analysis. He has over two decades of applied research experience focused on sustainable forest management, forestry best management practices, viability of forest products industry, wood supply chain analysis as well as other related topics. Since 1998, he has received over $4 million in research/extension grants, published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and developed and presented at over 60 workshops to foresters, loggers, and forest landowners across the Northeast. |
Paul B. Hai | Associate Director of the Adirondack Ecological Center
His responsibilities at the Newcomb Campus include leading the Northern Forest Institute for Conservation Education and Leadership Training (NFI), which is the umbrella under which education and outreach at the Newcomb Campus are organized. NFI draws on the AEC’s near century of research at Huntington Forest and throughout the Adirondacks to create a wide range of program content for diverse audiences. NFI programs are typified by the use of natural history, inquiry-based activities, and outdoor experiences as the foundations for teaching the process of science and for engaging all students in an outdoor setting. In addition to teaching a broad compliment of individual programs he leads NFI’s leadership and diversity initiatives. Additional responsibilities include building intra- and inter-institutional partnerships; development and fundraising; managing program-related activities including guest services and the Rich Lake Dining Center; and strategic initiatives including Newcomb Campus marketing and special projects such as development of Masten House and renovations of the Adirondack Interpretive Center and Huntington Lodge. |
Danielle Kloster | Visiting Instructor ESF
She is a lecturer at SUNY ESF in the Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management and the Sustainable Energy Management program. She currently teaches Energy Resources Assessment, Sustainable Energy Management Capstone, and Analytical and Technical Writing for Resource Managers. She has also previously taught Energy Systems and Biomass and Bioenergy. She has past and ongoing research related to adaptive resource management, teaching natural resource management with case studies, women of color and the environment, tree management around power lines, and soil erosion from willow biomass production. |
Robert W. Malmsheimer | Professor and Associate Chair
As a national expert in forest biomass and products carbon accounting, Dr. Malmsheimer works with the Systems Evaluation team to help policymakers understand the implications of the team’s TEA and LCA findings and the unique policy mechanisms (e.g., carbon tax credits, design fee incentives, changes in LEED certification requirements) that can be used to encourage increases in mass timber construction. Dr. Malmsheimer has provided science-based policy briefings to over 95 US and international legislative and administrative policymakers on the climate change benefits of using forest-based products and energy in place of fossil-fuel alternatives. |
Mohamad A. Razkenari | Assistant Professor
The primary focus of his research is on sustainability in built environment and Industrialized Construction. Sustainability in built environment focuses on reducing the high level of CO2-eq emission in the built environment. Much of his work relates to monitoring human-building interactions and implementing data-driven and computational methods to improve sustainability performance, energy efficiency, and comfort in buildings. Industrialized Construction: Targets problems associated with low productivity in construction industry, lack of skilled labor in the U.S. construction industry, and lack of affordable housing in the U.S. His research is focused on construction process improvement. |
Shaghayegh Shahhosseini | PhD Candidate
Undergraduate Study: Iran University of Science (Architecture Engineering). Previous Graduate Study: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (Landscape Architecture). PhD Research Topic: Mass Timber Construction: Cross Laminated Timber Fabrication and Standardization. |
William B. Smith | Professor and Director, Wood Utilization Service
As a Professor of Wood Products Engineering and Director of the SUNY ESF Wood Utilization Service, Dr. Smith has more than 40 years of experience with the wood products manufacturing sector throughout New York and the Northeast, and teaches courses involving wood properties, manufacturing, marketing and composite materials. Bill’s efforts on this project include wood material sourcing, lumber processing, drying, and handling, adhesives, and fabrication, as well as performance in place and market acceptance. Dr. Smith’s sponsored work, graduate student research and published papers have focused broadly on wood product processing, manufacturing, and efficiency, drying and important moisture relations, structural characteristics, and performance. |
Elizabeth S. Vidon - Assistant Professor | Assistant Professor
As an expert in public perception of, and values toward, nature and wilderness, Dr. Vidon leads the effort to analyze social and political issues associated with forest management. She identifies and addresses barriers to mass timber construction acceptance, and leads the effort to create an interactive website as a source of public information. Dr. Vidon’s previous work includes a Co-PI on an EPA STAR environmental perception project working with green infrastructure and barriers to adoption/acceptance in Syracuse; PI on two current projects in the Adirondack Park, one investigating resident and tourist attitudes towards land use designations, and a second one investigating perceptions of hunters/consumptive users and non-consumptive users towards different land designations (wilderness/preserved, wild forest, intensive use). |
Timothy A. Volk | Senior Research Associate and Associate Chair
With a strong track record of transdisciplinary research success and a background in forestry and sustainable energy, Tim will support the integration aspects of this project and the systems analysis and forest resource teams. As PI or Co-PI Tim has over $15 million in research awards from an array of federal, state, and private organizations. Tim published over 100 peer reviewed articles and collaborated with over 50 different coauthors from universities around the world and from USDA research stations and DOE National Labs. Tim helped to develop and build out a successful undergraduate program in Sustainable Energy Management, as well as a minor, and option area, and a graduate degree in Sustainable Energy. |