Dr. John Westland will put his biochemistry and chemical conversion skills to work on behalf of the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance. For more than 22 years, he has helped to develop and commercialize new products for Weyerhaeuser, managing multi-year projects with several million dollars in annual budgets. He also has collaborated with major companies like Procter and Gamble, Rohm & Haas and Bayer.

Specifically, Dr. Westland has developed modified lignins as antioxidants and as additives to make polyester and polypropylene plastic tougher. He also has conducted studies to relate the benefits of different lignin properties to specific markets. He has worked on methods to extract organic acids from kraft black liquor for incorporation into bioplastics. He also has directed the conversion of wood and hemicellulose to sugars for fermentation to bioplastics, organic acids and chemical intermediates and led an investigation for extracting chemicals from wood and lignin pyrolysis products.

Before joining Weyerhaeuser, Dr. Westland was technical service director for Biochemical Environmental Services at Seattle and an associate research professor in biochemical toxicology at New Mexico State University.

He earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from NMSU from 1980.