The L.J. Markwardt Award began in 1969, when the eponymous charter member of the Forest Products Society decided to encourage research and promote knowledge of wood in the engineering field. For several years, L.J. Markwardt was also an assistant director in charge of wood engineering at the Forest Products Lab.

The award is presented each year to the author or authors of a technical paper published during the two calendar years prior to the award year in either the Forest Products Journal or Wood and Fiber Science that is judged to be the most outstanding research paper in the field of wood as an engineering material.

This year in Madison, Wisconsin, at the 75th Annual Forest Products Society International Conference, Forest Products Laboratory research scientist Hongmei Gu became the award’s latest recipient. She received a beautiful plaque and a $1,000 prize.

“This is a total surprise to me!” she said in her acceptance speech. “I didn’t even know about the award until I heard I’d gotten it. I really, really appreciate this!”

The title of her winning research paper is “Comparison of Building Construction and Life-Cycle Cost for a High-Rise Mass Timber Building with its Concrete Alternative.” It was published in the Forest Products Journal in 2020.