Dan Ridley-Ellis
Dan Ridley Ellis

Dr Dan Ridley-Ellis BEng MRes PhD FIMMM

Associate Professor

 0131 455 2449

  D.Ridley-Ellis@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Dan Ridley-Ellis is head of the Centre Wood Science and Technology at Edinburgh Napier University. He is one of the UK’s technical experts on guessing the strength of wood and can talk for hours on the topic – which he frequently does if nobody stops him.

His main area of research is understanding the properties of wood, and how they are influenced by tree growth, forest management, and climate. He represents the UK at European Standards Committees for grading of construction timber, and the majority of structural sawn timber produced in the UK is now graded with settings he developed. He was named “woodland hero” for 2016 by Grown in Britain, and is also active in online learning, public engagement and science communication. He was the lead organiser of Bright Club Edinburgh from 2011 to 2023.

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Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Expert witness (materials)
  • Invited speaker at All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Forestry and Tree Planting
  • Timber in Construction Working Group (DEFRA etc)
  • Judge, Structural Timber Awards 2019
  • CSIC Innovation Champion
  • Judge, Structural Timber Awards 2018
  • Leader, CEN TC124 (Timber Structures) WG 2 TG1 (Task Group for grading and strength properties)
  • Member - Scottish Forestry and Timber Technologies Skills Group
  • Advisory Board Member of TRADA
  • Secretary, CEN TC124 (Timber Structures) WG 2 TG1 (Task Group for grading and strength properties)
  • Member, CEN TC124 (Timber Structures) WG 2 TG1 (Task Group for grading and strength properties)
  • Northern UK representative for the Northern European Network for Wood Science & Engineering
  • Member, UK Timber Grading Committee
  • Member, British Standards Committee B/518
  • Member of the Board of the Wood Technology Society (IOM3)
  • Member, CEN TC124 (Timber Structures) WG 1 (Test methods)
  • Member, CEN TC124 (Timber Structures) WG 2 (Solid Timber)

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Local organising committee member for 2DCOS-11
  • COST Actions

 

Editorial Activity

  • Editorial board member of the European Journal of Wood and Wood Products
  • Editorial board member of the International Wood Products Journal

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External validator for London Metropolitan University
  • External validator for Technological University Dublin

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Scottish Forestry, Sir George Campbell Memorial Trophy
  • Grown in Britain Woodland Hero
  • Queens Anniversary Prize 2015
  • FIMMM
  • Edinburgh Beltane Public Engagement Fellow

 

Invited Speaker

  • Scottish Association for Metals
  • Invited speaker at ICF Innovation for Change Webinar
  • Guest lecturing at Hooke Park
  • Guest lecturing at Ecole Supérieure du Bois (France)
  • Royal Forestry Society's Lawrence Pilling Memorial Lecture

 

Media Activity

  • Quoted in Chemistry World news article
  • Quoted in news articles worldwide about Ethiopian tree planting
  • Guest on rialtalk podcast
  • Quoted in Chemistry World news article
  • Interviewed on 2ser radio (Sydney, Australia) about Ethiopian tree planting
  • Contributor on BBC World Service programme “The Forum” broadcast on 19 January 2015.
  • have discussed Bright Club live on BBC Radio Scotland’s Comedy Café (29 July 2011) and in pre-recorded interview on BBC Radio Scotland's "Good Morning Scotland" (14 November 2012). Performed live on BBC Radio Scotland's MacAulay and Co (25 May 2012).
  • BBC Bang Goes The Theory “Ask Yan” expert 2009/10

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Invited speaker at Lantra VirtRural careers event
  • Engineering Showoff Performer
  • STEM ambassador
  • Main organiser/trainer of Bright Club Edinburgh and Bright Club Scotland (in which academics do stand-up comedy).

 

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171 results

A Shed Resource: A look at Wood Recycling in the UK

Presentation / Conference
Cramer, M., & Ridley-Ellis, D. (2020, September)
A Shed Resource: A look at Wood Recycling in the UK. Paper presented at Timber 2020, Online
The secondary timber value chain was explored by interviewing companies involved in wood recycling. The interviewees include community wood recyclers, chip producers and board...

Some awkward questions about density

Conference Proceeding
Ridley-Ellis, D., & Cramer, M. (2020)
Some awkward questions about density. In Timber 2020 Conference Proceedings. , (99-110
There are several different concepts of wood density, such as specific gravity, basic density, dry density, and oven dry density. These are often confusing, and sometimes poor...

Analysis of a wooden specimen's mechanical properties through acoustic measurements in the very near field

Journal Article
Pantelić, F., Mijić, M., Šumarac Pavlović, D., Ridley-Ellis, D., & Dudeš, D. (2020)
Analysis of a wooden specimen's mechanical properties through acoustic measurements in the very near field. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(4), EL320-EL325. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0001030
This paper presents the method for prediction of some basic mechanical parameters of a wood specimen by using simple instrumentation. The standard acoustic method for assessme...

The Mechanical and Resonance Assessment of Large Clear Samples of UK-Grown Beech Wood

Journal Article
Ridley-Ellis, D. (2019)
The Mechanical and Resonance Assessment of Large Clear Samples of UK-Grown Beech Wood. Pro Ligno, 15(4), 32-39
The paper presents the results of non-destructive longitudinal resonance (impulse excitation technique), and mechanical flexural testing, of a batch of European beech wood (Fa...

Influence of knot area indexes on tension strength of Sitka spruce

Conference Proceeding
Gil-Moreno, D., Ridley-Ellis, D., & Harte, A. M. (2019)
Influence of knot area indexes on tension strength of Sitka spruce. In Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering
It is well known that knots can reduce the strength of timber, and the selection of “critical section” for testing to EN 408 and EN 384 is typically based on the size and posi...

Grading of British spruce cladding battens by ring width for density, fastener performance and fire

Conference Proceeding
Ridley-Ellis, D. (2019)
Grading of British spruce cladding battens by ring width for density, fastener performance and fire. In Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of the Northern European Network for Wood Science and Engineering
The UK has a British Standard for external timber cladding, BS8605-1, in which support battens are defined as timber components of a section, grade, and durability, suitable f...

The use of a visual grading code of practice in the UK in the assessment of the mechanical properties of in situ structural timber elements

Conference Proceeding
Bather, M. J., & Ridley-Ellis, D. J. (2019)
The use of a visual grading code of practice in the UK in the assessment of the mechanical properties of in situ structural timber elements. In SHATiS 2019: 5th International Conference on Structural Health Assessment of Timber Structures (89-98
The estimation of the mechanical properties of in situ timber elements is an essential part of the structural appraisal of many existing buildings and structures. Currently, i...

Use of Nondestructive Techniques for Determination of Tension Parallel-to-Grain Properties of Spruce

Conference Proceeding
Gil-Moreno, D., O'Ceallaigh, C., Ridley-Ellis, D., & Harte, A. M. (2019)
Use of Nondestructive Techniques for Determination of Tension Parallel-to-Grain Properties of Spruce. In Proceedings: 21st International Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation of Wood Symposium, Freiburg, Germany 2019 (233-240
The paper presents a study of the tension properties of Irish-grown Sitka spruce. Fifty timber pieces were destructively tested having resonant frequency and knots measured. T...

Quantification of chemical changes taking place in spruce wood structure following long period thermal treatment

Presentation / Conference
Popescu, C., Ridley-Ellis, D., & Popescu, M. (2019, August)
Quantification of chemical changes taking place in spruce wood structure following long period thermal treatment. Paper presented at 2DCOS-10, The 10th International Symposium on Two-dimensional Correlation Spectroscopy, Changchun, China
Wood is a natural composite polymer containing different amounts of cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses and some other low molecular compounds (i.e. extractives). Due to its ...

Timber grading potential of Douglas fir in the Republic of Ireland and the UK

Journal Article
Gil-Moreno, D., Ridley-Ellis, D., & Harte, A. (2019)
Timber grading potential of Douglas fir in the Republic of Ireland and the UK. International Wood Products Journal, 10(2), 64-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/20426445.2019.1617984
Results of the recently approved machine control grading settings for Douglas fir in the Republic of Ireland and the UK have shown that the species can be graded to C18, and h...

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