Dr. Via received his Bachelor degree in Forest Products and his Master degree in Wood Mechanics at Virginia Tech in 1996 and 1998 respectively. In 2004, he obtained his Ph.D. in Wood Quality at Louisiana State University. He has spent 7 years in an industrial research environment at both International Paper and Louisiana Pacific. At International Paper, he studied the effects of wood quality on paper composite performance including genetic and silviculture effects. At Louisiana Pacific, his primary roles included new product development, statistical process control, and statistical modeling in composite manufacturing.
At Louisiana Pacific, Dr. Via was an active advisory board member for the Wood Based Composites Center which consists of 4 North American Universities, several adhesive and wood composite manufacturers. The organizing universities were Virginia Tech, Oregon State, University of British Columbia, and University of Maine. He also served on a Ph.D. committee at the University of Tennessee and provided external guidance to a Master’s thesis at the University of Northern British Columbia.