In March 2019 Professor Dr. Gerd Wegener, former head and professor at Holzforschung München and Emeritus of Excellence at TUM, got honored with the Distinguished Service Award of IAWS. Prof. Wegener received the award in recognition of his long and illustrious career, in which he has contributed substantially to wood science as a teacher and scientist, member of numerous advisory committees and boards concerned with academic and industrial excellence and, for almost two decades, editor-in-chief of the two wood science journals European Journal of Wood and Wood Products and Wood Science and Technology.