Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM
Jim Coulson CEnv FIMMM FFB AIWSc is a consultant Wood Scientist who founded and still runs TFT Woodexperts Limited: based in North Yorkshire since 1991.
His early career in Wood Science was spent at TRADA – in the days when that organisation was still an independent Research Association – and where he first of all worked in the Training Department, teaching Strength Grading and other Timber Technology skills to members of the Timber Trade. He later transferred to TRADA’s Regional Service, running their network of ten Regional Offices: but when TRADA was privatised, Jim left and set up his own consultancy practice, which has now been running successfully for 30 years. Woodexperts teaches and examines both an Accredited Level 4 Certificate in Wood Science and Timber Technology and an Accredited Level 6 Diploma in Advanced Wood Science. The practice also works with both UK and international clients, solving timber problems and writing Expert Witness Reports on all manner of wood-related topics.
Jim’s first timber qualification was in 1976: when he gained Distinction in the Certificate in Timber Studies at Buckinghamshire College. He followed this with two prizes – in the Institute of Wood Science Certificate Course in 1977 and the IWSc Associateship Course in 1978 – thus gaining his full qualifications in advanced Wood Science and Timber Engineering.
In 1986, he was elected as a Fellow of the Faculty of Building and in 2004, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Wood Science, following his period as President of that organisation from 2002-2004.
After the merger of the IWSc with the IOM3, Jim was created a Fellow of the IOM3 in 2014; and he later qualified as a Chartered Environmentalist in 2016 – forty years after gaining his initial Wood Science qualification.
He sits on a couple of BSI Committees, concerned with structural timber matters and sustainable development in construction; and he is a member of the International Wood Committee for ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites). He is also a member of the International Research Group on Wood protection (IRG-WP).
Jim has published three books: “Wood in Construction” (2012) “The Sustainable Use of Wood” (2014); and “A Handbook for the Sustainable Use of Wood in Construction” (2021).
In his private life, Jim is a Setter of both cryptic and quick crossword puzzles; having first been published in the Listener (the then BBC magazine) in 1975. After more than forty years, he still sets occasionally for The Listener Puzzle series (now published in The Times every Saturday) under the pseudonym of Jago; and he also sets for the Sunday Telegraph’s Enigmatic Variations series under the pseudonym of X-Type (he also sets the back-page Cryptic and Quick puzzles for the Daily Telegraph once a month – usually on a Tuesday – but those puzzles do not carry any Setter’s name). Members of IOM3 who read Materials World will also come across Jim’s monthly “themed” crosswords – set under the pseudonym of Anobium (the name for the scientific Genus of “Woodworm”).