West heads Forest Products Lab

A Virginia-based U.S. Forest Service projects leader and researcher is the new head of the Forest Products Laboratory.

West

Dr. Cynthia D. West assumed her new duties at the university late last month. Formal approval of the appointment is pending by the Board of Trustees, Institutions of Higher Learning.

Established in 1964, the lab is the largest state-funded facility of its kind in the United States. A part of the MSU Forest and Wildlife Research Center, it serves an industry that contributes more than $11 billion annually to Mississippi.

West has served for nine years at the federal Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Princeton, W.Va., and concurrently as adjunct professor of wood science at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va., where she was located. She previously held positions in industry, including raw materials planning coordinator for Weyerhaeuser Co. operations in Plymouth, N.C.

Her research has focused on the demand and use of U.S. hardwood in domestic and international markets. She currently is involved in several joint research projects focusing on furniture industry development and trade in Taiwan, Malaysia and China.

West is an authority on the relationships between Southeast Asian furniture industry development and U.S. hardwood lumber trade trends, as well as on ways to link development of the Southern hardwood chip export market with the Japanese pulp industry.

In partnership with a number of industries, West also has led efforts to develop and assess ways to incorporate natural hardwood features such as knots and color variation into a "character grade" for furniture and cabinets.

She holds a bachelor's degree in forestry management, a master's in marketing and management and a doctorate in wood science, all from Virginia Tech.