Hundreds of students and early career professionals have already registered for next month’s World Conference on Timber Engineering (WCTE), which is shaping up to be one of the largest WCTE’s on record.
Running from June 22 to June 26, the Brisbane-based conference, the first time the premier conference for timber engineering will be hosted in Australia, will see representatives from all corners of the globe converge on the Queensland capital in the coming few weeks.
Speaking to Wood Central, which will provide extensive coverage at the conference, Professor Keith Crews, WCTE 2025’s chair, said that the development of Australia’s timber economy, especially over the past 12-15 years, has put it on the map: “That there’s a level of innovation that’s occurred, and some of it’s been technology transferred out of Europe.”
“We haven’t sought to reinvent the wheel,” Crews said, “but we’ve done well with innovating, consolidated the engineering or the scientific basis, and engaged with architects and developers as practitioners.”
Included and six young and early career professionals—George FitzPatrick, Jasmin Goldberg, Tyson Mosely, Nipun Koliyabandara, Liam van der Westhuizen, and Danny Watson—who are attending the conference courtesy of the Gottstein Trust.
“These six were selected from a long line of applicants,” according to John Simon, former FWPA Chair and current Gottstein Trustee, who spoke to Wood Central today about the tremendous opportunity. “Attendance at this conference will give them a wonderful opportunity to expand their expertise and to network with many of the top global timber engineers.”
Simon, a former chair of the Gottstein Trust attended a past WCTE equivalent conference in Sweden, said the learnings from that conference, as an early career structural timber engineer, significantly assisted his career, which included a role as CEO of Simmonds Lumber and chair of the Timber Development Association.
“We look forward to these scholarship recipients taking what they learned from this conference to grow personally and expand the use of engineered wood here in Australia,” he said.
In November, Wood Central reported that the WCTE committee—which includes Professor Crews, Professor Greg Nolan from the University of Tasmania, and Kelly Rischmiller, executive secretary of the University of Queensland/Australian Research Council (ARC) Advance Timber Hub—has developed “a uniquely Australian way” to offset the conference’s carbon footprint by contributing to the creation of a full coral tree in the Great Barrier Reef.
To achieve this, part of all delegate registration fees are allocated to the Reef Restoration Foundation’s Resilience and Recovery Program, and updated on the WCTE website. “Delegates will be encouraged to visit the Great Barrier Reef during their time in Queensland … and pay a visit to the WCTE 2025 Coral Tree,” Crews told Wood Central last year. “The restoration foundation bolsters coral reef resilience and speeds up the natural recovery process, slowing the rate of change and allowing species to adapt to the changing environment.”
- Visit the dedicated website to learn more about the World Conference on Timber Engineering, including the terms and conditions for abstract submissions.
