Prof. Dr. Bohumil Kasal

Professor Kasal currently holds a Chair in Organic and Wood-based Construction Materials at the Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany, and he holds professorships at the Czech Technical University in Prague and the University of Primorska, Slovenia.
From 2005 to 2010, Professor Kasal was a Hankin Chair, Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of Architectural Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, he was a Professor at the North Carolina State University (1992 – 2005). He was an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of New Brunswick, Canada and the University of Bristol, UK.
Professor Kasal holds an engineering degree from the University of Zvolen, Slovakia, an MS in Wood Science from Virginia Tech, and an MS in Civil Engineering as well as a PhD in Wood Structures from Oregon State University. He is a Fulbright Scholar and has lectured at universities around the world including the Université Joseph Fourier (today: Université Grenoble Alpes) in France, the Chalmers University in Sweden, universities in Graz, Vienna, Dresden, Prague, Stuttgart, Sopron, Melbourne, and others. From 2001 to 2002, he was a Senior Fulbright Fellow in Germany. In addition, he has more than seven years of experience outside the world of academia.
Professor Kasal’s research is focused on wood structures under natural hazard loads, the combination of wood and high-strength composites, and the in-situ evaluation of wood structures. He has authored over 200 papers and research reports, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Materials and Structures, Wood Science Journal and Acta Facultatis Xylologiae Zvolen, chaired the RILEM committee on the in-situ evaluation of timber structures, actively participates in national and international professional organizations, and he has received a number of awards.
His research into the seismic performance of timber frames was selected by the European Union as an example of a successful international project; the National Science Foundation used Kasal’s work on historic structures in its report to the Congress of the United States, and his work addressing the wind performance of residential structures was discussed on various media outlets including CNN, CNN International, NBC and ABC.

During the last decade our environmental awareness has increased significantly and sustainability has become a frequently used term.  Materials from renewable resources such as plastics, textiles, or platform chemicals have become synonyms for sustainable solutions.  The only truly renewable resources are plants that use photosynthesis to produce biomass.  The capacity of the planet to produce biomass is not unlimited and is severely compromised by human activity.  Using renewable resources to produce various materials does not automatically mean that these processes are sustainable or the products recyclable.  This presentation will focus on global challenges with respect to the sustainability of using lignocellulosic natural resources in the production of materials.  One of the major sources of lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose is wood and the availability of this resource will be discussed in more detail.