Stavros Avramidis

Stavros Avramidis (born in Kavala, Greece in 1958) is a Greek Canadian wood scientist and professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada, who is an elected fellow (FIAWS) and president of the International Academy of Wood Science for the period 2023-2026.

First years and education
Avramidis was born in Kavala, Greece, on April 6, 1958, and grew up in Thessaloniki. He attended the Department of Forestry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and received his university degree in 1981. Following that, he pursued research-based postgraduate (1982-1983) (M.S. in the area of composite products) and doctoral studies (1983-1986) in the United States at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in the area of biopolymer physics under the guidance of John F. Siau.

Academic career
Avramidis began his academic career in 1987 in Canada at the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor at Department of Wood Science in the Faculty of Forestry. He was appointed associate professor in 1993 and full professor in 1998. Avramidis served as the Head of the UBC Department of Wood Science for two consecutive terms, from 2016 to the present.

Avramidis's research team has presented research work on the physical and drying properties of wood. His applied research addresses practical issues in the Canadian wood industry related to energy optimization and upgrading production methods, using acoustic, electrical, and optical techniques, as well as radio wave methods, simulation, and artificial intelligence.

Research work and recognition
Avramidis along with his colleagues have authored over 250 scientific articles, more than 100 industrial studies, and his research work has received almost 3,000 citations in the Scopus database, until July 2024.

In 2012, Avramidis was selected as a member of the editorial board of the journal, Wood Material Science and Engineering. He has been a member of the editorial boards of Holzforschung, Drying Technology, Wood Research, European Journal of Wood and Wood Products, ''Maderas. Ciencia y tecnologia and Drying Technology''.

In 2020, his name was included in the Mendeley Data, published in the journal Plos Biology for the international impact of his yearlong research in wood drying.

In 2022, Avramidis received the Ternryd Award 2022 from the Swedish Linnaeus Academy Research Foundation for his research in wood science.

In June 2023, Avramidis was elected as the president of the International Academy of Wood Science, for the years 2023–2026. In October 2023, a referred metaresearch conducted by John Ioannidis and his team at Stanford University, included Avramidis in Elsevier Data 2022, where he was placed at the top 2% of researchers in the area of wood physics.