Xenia Stodiek, a student at Napier University’s Centre for Timber Engineering, has been awarded the prize for Best Dissertation by a Timber Engineering or Timber Industry Management Masters student.
Ms Stodiek’s work focused on the determination of stiffness characteristics of a six-metre span stress-laminated timber arch bridge.
The prize was offered by the Scottish Timber Trade Association (STTA) and is the fourth to be given in 2007, after Kenneth Leitch was awarded Best Timber-related Honours Dissertation Project for his work on timber to concrete dowel-type fasteners; Sylvia Makowska was named best student on the Properties & Use of Structural Timber module in the second year of the BSc Civil & Timber Engineering course; and David Ritchie claimed the Best Timber Design Project by a second-year Architectural Technology student.
“With increasing recognition of wood’s status as the only truly renewable construction materials, it is vitally important that the timber engineers and specifiers of the future are given every encouragement to utilise wood and wood products,” said Andrew Newton, STTA president.
“[Ms Stodiek’s] study is certainly very topical, as there is renewed interest in timber bridges in the UK.”
