From the 29th of February to the 1st of March 2016 researchers from Nancy (France), Zürich (Switzerland) and Freiburg (Germany) met for a graduate stuent workshop on "Nanocellulose and Wood Functional Materials". This workshop coincided with the annual visit of Prof. W. Glasser (Virginia Tech, USA) to the Biomat group in Freiburg. He gave an inspiring lecture to students and experienced scientists alike.

This informal gathering follows the tradiational meetings initiated by Prof. Gérard Nepveu and Prof. Gero Becker of the former Institute of Forest Utilization and Forest Science.

On the 26th of January 2016 Michel Brioude successfully defended his doctoral dissertation entitled “Microstructuring of Cellulose Nanocrystal Films with Plasma Polymerization”. During his doctoral studies, Michel was supported by a fellowship granted from the “Barbara und Elisabeth Grammel Stiftung”. This work, performed in cooperation with the Institute of Materials Science from Mulhouse (IS2M), France, aimed at investigating the role of cellulose nanocrystals on the microstructuration of plasma thin films. This successful partnership resulted in 3 peer-reviewed publications and should continue to thrive in a follow-up doctoral project.
Native of Salvador, Brazil, Michel has decided to return to his roots. He pursues his career in academia and is currently a lecturer in the Salvador University, Brazil.

Hatem Abushammala’s dissertation exemplifies the innovations made possible by bridging the traditional field of wood science with the promises of nanotechnology. Devising a facile one-pot extraction process of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) from wood, Abushammala’s doctoral research at the Chair of Forest Biomaterials has opened new avenues to add value to any lignocellulosic waste stream in the forest product industry. This innovation, validated by a patent application (EP1515769) and numerous peer-reviewed publications, was made possible by his systematic approach: an initial fundamental study of the impact of ionic liquids on wood swelling and viscoelasticity proved useful to screen the efficacy of these chemicals for wood softening and defibrillation (Abushammala et al. 2015a).  Abushammala then ambitioned to pulp wood, hydrolyze cellulose amorphous fractions and preserve wood cellulose native crystals all at once and with only one chemical.   Amazingly, he succeeded when studying in detail the potency of imidazolium acetate ionic liquid on wood (Abushammala et al. 2015b).
One shall read his publications to understand the tricks, mechanisms and advantages of the process. However here suffices to highlight the advantages of the method: one can start directly from wood instead of pure cellulose pulp; it is very easy to recover the CNCs without any purification step, otherwise a bottleneck in CNCs production; Finally, the CNCs directly produced from wood have aspect ratios (L/d) about twice those generally reported for wood CNCs. Practically, this means that this new ionic liquid-based process can convert any wood or lignocellulosic waste into high-value cellulose nanocrystals in a  facile process.  
All these findings were highlighted at the Münchner Holzkolloquium on Friday Nov. 20, 2015, where Dr. Abushammala was honored as one of the two recipients of the Leo Schörghuber Preis 2015. With a donation of 3000 euros, the Leo Schörghuber Award from the Leo Schörghuber Stiftung recognizes outstanding work in the field of wood and wood products, primarily doctoral, master and bachelor studies. The award committee chaired by the President of TU München, Prof. Herrmann, selected two dissertations this year.
Congratulations to Hatem for this outstanding recognition and thank you to our Münchner colleagues for the warm welcome.
For further reading:
•    H. Abushammala, J. F. Pontes, G. H. Gomes, A. Osorio-Madrazo, R. Thiré, F. Pereira, M.-P. Laborie. Swelling, Viscoelastic, and Anatomic Studies of Ionic Liquid-Swollen Norway Spruce as a Screening Tool towards Ionosolv Pulping. Holzforschung. 2015a; 69(9): 4607-4619.
•    H. Abushammala, H. Winter, I. Krossing, M.-P. Laborie. On the Prevalence of Side Reactions during Ionosolv Pulping of Norway Spruce with 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium Acesulfamate. Cellulose. 2014; 21(6): 4607-4619.
•    H. Abushammala, I. Krossing, M.-P. Laborie. Ionic Liquid-Mediated Technology for Cellulose Nanocrystals Production directly from Wood. Carbohydrate Polymers. 2015b; 134: 609-616.
•    H. Abushammala, M-P. Laborie. Ionic Liquid-Mediated Production of Cellulose Nanocrystals Directly from Wood. 2015. European Patent, EP1515769.