Klaus Richter (born in 1957) is a German wood scientist and professor emeritus at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...

(TUM), who is a honorary ''fellow'' of the International Academy of Wood Science, editor-in-chief in the scientific journals,

Wood Science and Technology ''Wood Science and Technology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of wood science and technology. It is published by Springer Nature and the editors are Klaus Richter and Jan-Willem van de Kuilen, both of the Te ...

and European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, and also, a member of the German Bioeconomy Council.

Research career

Richter studied

wood science Wood science is the scientific field which predominantly studies and investigates elements associated with the formation, the physical and chemical composition, and the macro- and microstructure of wood as a bio-based and lignocellulosic materi ...

at the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

, earning his university diploma (''Dipl.'') in 1983. He completed a doctoral project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) on dendrochronology in the Iberian Peninsula, graduating in 1988. He spent one year for his post-doc research at the

Forest Products Laboratory The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) is the national research laboratory of the United States Forest Service, which is part of USDA. Since its opening in 1910, the FPL has provided scientific research on wood, wood products and their commercial ...

in Madison,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, USA. From 1987 to 2002, he served as a research associate at

EMPA The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa; :de:Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt, German: ''Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt'', :fr:Laboratoire fédéral d'essai des ...

, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. Between 2003 and 2011, he headed EMPA's Wood Department and also lectured at the

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

. In April 2011, Richter was appointed full professor of wood science at Technical University of Munich (TUM) and became, in 2012, head of the university's, "Wood Research Laboratory", coordinating since then several PhD works in the area of wood sciences. He eventually retired from this position in October 2023.

Recognition

The research work of Richter and his coworkers, has received international recognition in the area of wood science and technology. At

Scopus Scopus is a scientific abstract and citation database, launched by the academic publisher Elsevier as a competitor to older Web of Science in 2004. The ensuing competition between the two databases has been characterized as "intense" and is c ...

, his published work -until May 2025- has received over 5,000 citations. Richter also has served as editor-in-chief of the journals

and European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, both published by

Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

. His yearlong research encompasses the elucidation of structure-property relationships in wood to enhance adhesion, coating, and modification technologies, also focusing on the sustainability of wood and building industry processes, climate efficiency through modeling and transforming cascading and end-of-life processes.

External links

Academic website

ResearchGate

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Richter, Klaus Fellows of the International Academy of Wood Science German scientists University of Hamburg alumni Wood scientists 1960 births Living people