Organization
The CWS is led by a steering group, which ensures strategic guidance and leadership. This group includes Dr. Pedro Palma and Dr. Mark Schubert from Empa, as well as Prof. Ingo Burgert and Prof. Andrea Frangi from ETH. Their combined expertise and leadership foster a dynamic environment for advancing wood sciences and applications.
Pedro Palma
Biography: Pedro Palma received his diploma in civil engineering, focus on structural engineering, in 2005 from the Technical University of Lisbon (IST). He worked as structural engineer before joining the Timber Structures Division of the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC) as research assistant in 2007. In 2012 he joined the Institute of Structural Engineering (IBK) of ETH Zurich as doctoral student, initially with a doctoral research grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, and received a doctoral degree from ETH Zurich in 2016. He joined the Structural Engineering Research Lab of Empa in 2017 and leads its "Timber Engineering" group since 2025.
Mark Schubert
Biography: Mark Schubert received a diploma in Forest and Environmental Sciences from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2003 and earned his Ph.D. in 2007. Since 2007, he is the leader of the WoodTec research group within the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at Empa, with a special focus on using tailored machine learning algorithms for the resource-efficient utilization of wood. He is also a lecturer at ETH Zurich and holds a Certificate of Advanced Studies in General Management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Ingo Burgert
Biography: Ingo Burgert received a diploma in Wood Science and Technology at the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 1995, followed by a doctoral degree in 2000. From 2000 to 2003, he was postdoc at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria. From 2003 to 2011, he was a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, in the Department of Biomaterials, Potsdam, Germany. Since 2011, he has been a professor of Wood Materials Science at ETH−Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, and group leader at Empa−Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Andrea Frangi
Biography: Andrea Frangi received his diploma in civil engineering from ETH Zurich in 1995. He was a researcher at the Institute of Structural Engineering of ETH Zurich from 1995 to 2001 and received a Ph.D. in technical science from the ETH in 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he worked as project leader by the Structural Engineering Company “Read Jones Christoffersen” in Vancouver, Canada. He was responsible for the design of concrete, steel, timber and composite structures. From 2004 to 2009 he worked part time as project leader by the Structural Engineering Company “Marchand+Partner” in Zürich as well as senior scientist associate at the Institute of Structural Engineering of ETH Zurich. In 2010 he was appointed the title of Professor at the ETH Zurich.