Theodore H. Wegner Assistant Director, USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, USA

Dr. Theodore Wegner is Assistant Director of the United States (U.S.) Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and received his Master of Science and PhD from the University of Illinois. Prior to his joining the Forest Service in 1977, he worked for E. I. DuPont. Dr. Wegner is a Fellow of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry and is a member of the Forest Products Society, The Society of Wood Science and Technology, the Pulp and Paper Education and Research Alliance, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, Sigma Xi Research Society, and Alpha Chi Sigma—Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Fraternity. He also serves on the Forestry Research Advisory Committee of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Dr. Wegner has been a leader in advancing nanotechnology within the U.S. forest products industry. He co-chaired the first U.S. workshop on Nanotechnology for the Forest Products Industry; is co-editor of the “Nanotechnology for the Forest Products Industry: Vision and Technology Roadmap”; helped organize a National Science Foundation workshop on lignocellulosic nanotechnology at Georgia Institute of Technology; and a Cross Industry Issues in Nanomanufacturing Workshop at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He was co-chair of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 International Conferences on Nanotechnology for the Forest Products Industry. He serves as Forest Service representative on the $1.44 billion U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative. He has coauthored a number of articles on the role for nanotechnology in the forest products industry and serves on the Nanotechnology Task Group of the American Forest and Paper Association’s Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance.