Prof. Orlando Rojas

Orlando J. Rojas is a professor and Canada Excellence Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, with joint appointments with the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Wood Science, and Chemistry. He is the 2018 Anselme Payen Award recipient for his contributions to cellulose and renewable materials. He is an elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society and a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He holds double affiliation with the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems and Applied Physics at Aalto University and is an adjunct professor with the Departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Forest Biomaterials of North Carolina State University, USA. He led Aalto's Materials Platform, an innovative think-tank organization that catalyzes interdisciplinary research in the area. He was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant (EU Research Commission) and co-PI of the Academy of Finland's Center of Excellence in Molecular Engineering of Biosynthetic Hybrid Materials Research, HYBER (2014-2019). He works toward supporting global sustainable development through research on the fundamental and utilization aspects of renewable resources, including lignocellulose, proteins, and other biopolymers. His research aims to discover competitive alternatives for fossil materials.