Earl Kline is a professor of wood products manufacturing systems. For the past 25 years at Virginia Tech, Earl’s main priority has been to teach and mentor students for the next generation of wood products business managers and leaders. Subjects …
Adam Taylor, University of Tennessee
Adam Taylor is an Associate Professor and the Forest Products Extension Specialist in Forestry, Wildlife & Fisheries at the University of Tennessee. His responsibility is to assist the wood products industry in Tennessee through information transfer and applied research. Dr. …
Omar Espinoza, University of Minnesota
Omar Espinoza is Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota’s Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering Department.
He also chairs the Forest Products Management Development Institute, an initiative to support the Forest Products Industry in Minnesota.
Omar obtained his undergraduate degree in …
Robert "Bob" Smith, Virginia Tech
Bob is the Department Head and Associate Dean for Engagement for the College of Natural Resources and Environment. He is a Professor in Forest Products Business at Virginia Tech. In his current role, Bob is responsible for the college’s cooperative …
Brian Bond, Virginia Tech
Brian H. Bond, Ph.D., serves as an associate professor and extension specialist in the area of wood products. His focus is on improving the sustainable use and manufacturing of wood products. He has fifteen years experience in wood drying, sawmill …
Henry Quesada, Virginia Tech
Henry works in the area of process improvement, marketing, and business strategy for forest products businesses.
Dr. Henry Quesada examining the Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam.
Contact information:
Email: quesada@vt.edu
Phone: (540) 231-0978
…Wood Identification for Species Native to Virginia
Virginia has many tree species that yield a rich variety of wood, each with its own unique structural, physical, and mechanical properties. These differences determine a species’ suitability for products. Because wood is a readily available and popular material, it …
Innovation in the Forest Products Industry
By Omar Espinoza and Maria Fernanda Laguarda-Mallo
The U.S. forest products industry has been facing many struggles during the last two decades. A combination of growing competition from imports, the rise of electronic media, competition from substitute materials, environmental concerns, …
Basics of Cross Lamited Timber (CLT)
Basics of Cross Laminated Timber (CLT
Developed in Europe in the 1990s, cross-laminated timber, or CLT, is among the latest in a long line of “engineered” wood products that are strong and rigid enough to replace steel and …
Lean Thinking: Examples and Applications in the Wood Products Industry
Lean thinking is a process focused on increasing the value added to products and services and the reduction of waste. The term “lean,” coined by Womack during one of his visits to the Japanese carmaker Toyota in the early 1980s …