Akash Gondaliya, 'Reinventing wood' : 2024 UBC 3MT Semi-finalist

Akash Gondaliya was a semi-finalist in the 2024 UBC Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. Akash presented their research, "Fighting climate change by reinventing wood." They hope to transform wood into a high-strength material for advanced engineering applications, offering a sustainable alternative to metallic materials.

Biodegradable and renewable materials obtained from natural biomass are excellent candidates to replace non-biodegradable materials obtained from petrochemicals (polymers) or through energy-intensive processes (for instance, metal/alloys or concrete). Wood is an environmentally sustainable, benign, and high-performing green structural material readily available in nature that can be used to replace metallic materials in construction.

However, insufficient mechanical performance, moisture sensitivity, lack of functionality, and susceptivity to microorganism attack make it challenging to use the wood as it is in advanced engineering applications. Wood is a versatile material composed of cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose, which can be altered or modified to give it high strength. It would not be wrong to say that "Wood is the future" is a promising candidate for advanced structural and complex engineering applications.

Akash Gondaliya is completing their PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering @ubc in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering under the supervision of Dr. E. Johan Foster.

#3MT is an academic competition that assists current graduate students with fostering effective presentation and communication skills. Participants have just three minutes to explain the breadth and significance of their research project to a non-specialist audience. For more information or to participate in UBC’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) visit https://3mt.grad.ubc.ca.

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