IRG55 Local Organising Committee

Jeff is IRG55 LOC Chairperson. He is also currently the IRG Finance Committee chair and a past President of the IRG. Jeff has been a member of IRG since 1992 when he was awarded the RCA. He is Senior VP of Nisus corporation and lives in Knoxville TN.

Mark has been Business Development Manager at Nisus Corporation for the last 4 years based in Denver, Colorado. Prior to that he he held management positions with US Borax - Rio Tinto for 29 years. Mark graduated from Arizona State Univ with a B.S. and from UCLA with a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry. Mark was Chair of the IRG45 LOC held in St George, Utah in 2014.

Colin McCown is currently serving as the Technical Director of the American Wood Protection Association on a part-time basis after leading AWPA as its Executive Vice President for over two decades. He holds an MSc in Wood Science and Technology from Mississippi State University and was a member of the LOC for IRG 45 in St. George, Utah.

Jay is a Denver, CO native who attended Carnegie Mellon University, graduating with a B.S. in Chemistry and a Polymer Science M.S. After a stint the pharmaceutical industry, Jay joined the wood protection industry as Senior Research Chemist for Arch. Currently he is Director of Global Product Management and North America Marketing for Arxada’s Wood Protection business.

Beth is Assoc Professor & Undergrad Program Coordinator for the Dept of Sustainable Bioproducts at MSU in Starkville MS. She graduated from Mississippi University for Women with a BS in Biology and a PhD in Forest Resources from MSU. Beth oversees various independent research contracts for industry at MSU. She has been associated with IRG since 2016 and is a member of the AWPA, where she serves on multiple committees.

Jeff is President & Exec Dir of the Treated Wood Council, based in Washington DC serving wood treaters, preservative manufacturers, etc in government affairs. Jeff graduated from Univ Notre Dame with a BS in Chem Eng, from SUNY Buffalo with an MS in Civil Eng, & from Fairleigh Dickinson Univ with an MBA. Jeff & Sandy have been married for 48 yr with 2 daughters & a grandson, and live in Bluffton, SC. Jeff enjoys senior softball, poker games, & golf as well as organizing outings of fun.

Jun is employed by Koppers Performance Chemicals as VP of Global R&D. Jun grew up in a small village of China, graduated from Fudan University with a B.S. in Applied Chemistry, a M.S. in Polymer Chem from Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his Ph.D from Michigan MSU. Jun has been a member of IRG since 2000 and served on IRG committees and presented a number of papers at IRG, as well as authoring numerous other papers and over 30 US patents.

Kevin is employed by Viance LLC and is currently Director of R & D. He has worked in various roles with the company since joining in 1988. Kevin grew up in New Zealand and graduated from the University of Canterbury with a PhD in Forest Microbiology. He has been a member of IRG since 1983 and has served on the IRG EC, as well as the AWPA EC including being the current Past President of the AWPA.

Mark has been a Research Entomologist/Forest Products Technologist at USDA Forest Service based in Starkville, MS for the last 9 years. He graduated with a B.S. from SUNY Geneseo, and M.S. and PhD degrees from OSU in Corvallis, OR. Following a post-doc at UH Manoa, Mark worked for Rio Tinto, American Borate and the AWPA prior to joining the USDA. Mark is currently Chair of Section 1 in the IRG SPC.

Active in wood protection since 1976, & now 66yo. Practical and applied research in the remediation and prophylactic treatment of structural wood foundations embedded in soil. Life member of IRG. A member of AWPA for 38 years, served on technical and executive committees. Owns Copper Care Wood Preservatives, Inc & lives in Nebraska with my wife Janette - 6 children, 10 grandchildren. A sawmill, garden, and a fishing boat in Puget Sound.

Paul is a Product & Application Development Research Manager for Louisiana-Pacific Corporation. His career in engineered wood composites has spanned over 30 years, including roles in manufacturing, quality, research and application development. His focus has been the use of preservatives to improve the durability of composite wood products. Paul is an active member of AWPA, serving on technical committees and the Executive Committee. At IRG he has been a member of the SPC and has recently joined the EC.

Adam is a Professor and Wood Products Extension Specialist at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His first IRG meeting was Whistler, BC, Canada in 1997.

Gerald has been an Assistant Professor at Oregon State University for the last 4 years. He graduated with a B.S. from Eastern Illinois Univ and a PhD from the University of Minnesota. Gerald spent research time at the Oak Ridge National Lab and two research stints involving mycology in the Western Cape region of South Africa.