He is a tier II Canada Research Chair in Advanced Renewable Materials, and he is studying how to transform modern carbon, found in trees, into high-value, advanced, renewable materials. These materials are created from the bottom-up by carefully manipulating molecular structures that are one billionth of a metre in size. Dr. Renneckar uses analytical chemistry methods to evaluate size and functionality of isolated and modified biopolymers and nanoparticles, such as lignin and nanocellulose.