Bernadette Nanayakkara

Bernadette Nanayakkara is a Senior Scientist at Scion, with over 15 years of experience in forestry and biomass research. Since 2008, Bernadette has been involved in a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) funded forestry research program, Growing Confidence in Forestry's Future (GCFF), which aims to improve the profitability of commercial forests in New Zealand. Prior to this role, Bernadette served as a Post Doctorate Fellow at Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, Queensland University of Technology, focusing on converting Bagasse to biofuels and managing the analytical laboratory. Bernadette began their research career as a PhD student at the University of Waikato, where the doctoral work contributed significantly to developing chemical indicators for assessing compression wood severity, culminating in a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the same institution.