Student Receives Fellowship for Work With Wood Adhesives

Contact: Roberta Laverty (207) 581-2110; David Munson (207) 581-3777

ORONO, Maine – Xuelian Zhang has been named UMaine’s first recipient of the Wood Based Composites Fellowship, established in 2006 with a gift from the Virginia Tech Foundation. Zhang, a Ph.D. student working at the AEWC Center, has completed approximately 2 years of her studies and is currently completing her comprehensive examination.                                 

Zhang has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking work in the area of ultrasonic atomization of wood adhesives, including:  1st place for her poster, Ultrasonic atomization of resin-adhesives in oriented strand board production, in the University of Maine Student Research and Creative Achievement Week Poster Exhibition (2006) and 2nd place in the poster session of the Forest Products Society Annual Conference – Eastern Canada and the Northeast U.S. Section.

Zhang’s major professor is Douglas Gardner, Professor of Wood Science and Technology. With this fellowship, she will receive support for her research activities in the area of adhesive spreading and penetration into wood.