Work Experience

Last Updated: January 2009

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Zeen Huang Advanced Materials Characterization Lab Faculty of Forestry University of Toronto 33 Willcocks Street, Toronto, M5S 3B3 Ontario, Canada Tel: 416-978-0879 Fax: 416 978-3834 Email: EMAIL ME

Experience:

Post-doctoral Research Assistant January 2008 - present
Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

• Analyzing of bark extractive compositions for bark utilization and conversion.
• Characterizing bio-active components from bark extractives.
• Evaluation of the effect of different exposure conditions on the pH distribution and wood chemistry near adhesive-wood bond lines through microtome pH profile and FT-IR ATR spectroscopy.
• Measurement of the penetration of extreme pH adhesives into wood through an X-ray densitometer.
• Evaluation of copper fixation mechanism in ACQ-treated wood, and determined chemical change in ACQ-treated wood after extracting preservatives with different types of chemical solutions.

JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow November 2005 - November 2007
Department of Biomass Chemistry, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan

• Screened African tropical tree species for novel bioactive compounds by conducting various bioassays (antifungal, antioxidant, tyrosinase inhibitory, and melanin biosynthesis inhibitory assays).
• Fractionated the extracts from the tree species with high biological activities by successive extractions with different solvents.
• Isolated the individual active components using flash column chromatography and preparative TLC.
• Identified the chemical structures of the isolated bioactive compounds by means of 1D- and 2D-NMR (1H, 13C, COSY, CHSHF, HMBC, etc.), MS and pyrolysis GC-MS.
• Elucidated the structure-activity relationships of identified bioactive compounds.

PhD Student & Research Assistant May 2001- May 2005         
Forest Products Research Centre, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College,
Brunel University, UK.

• Assessed effects of extractives on the natural durability of some lesser-utilised species from Ghana by determining changes in decay resistance of wood after having successively extracted the wood samples with different solvents (hexane, diethyl ether, acetone, methanol and water).
• Measured changes in the chemical composition of wood caused by fungi at various decay stages using wet-chemical methods (gravimetric analysis), HPLC, and FT-IR.
• Probed the attack pattern in the wood cell wall caused by fungi using SEM.
• Collected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from wood (untreated or heat-treated) using PEJ-02 cartridges and DNPH-silica cartridges (SUPELCO) through a dynamic headspace sampling apparatus, and identified the VOCs by means of GC-MS and HPLC.

Visiting Scientist January 2000 - January 2001
Prof. A. Pizzi’s laboratory, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Technologies et Industries du Bois
(ENSTIB), Université Henri Poincaré - Nancy I, France

• Synthesized melamine-urea-formaldehyde (MUF) resins, and improved their quality with acetals as additives.
• Studied on the utilization of wood tannins and lignosulphonates as wood adhesives.

Research Chemist August 1988 - December 1999
Deputy Chief of Division (1992 - 1999)
Division of Wood Adhesives, Research Institute of Wood Industry,
Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China

• Synthesized the novel urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins with high moisture resistance property.
• Developed quantitative methods and characterized the structure of uron in UF resins via FT-IR.
• Industrialized novel UF resins with low free formaldehyde emissions.
• Patented the novel manufacturing methods for wood fibre-plastic composites and wood-metal composites.

Honors:
The International Research Group on Wood Protection, Ron Cockcroft Award, 2004
Award for Excellent Youth Researchers, Chinese Society of Forestry, 1995

Membership:
The Japan Wood Research Society

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