Mike Wolcott is a Regents Professor for Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA. Grown up in the mountains he first got into forestry, before entering wood science and engineering. His curiosity and interdisciplinary attitude, which he sees genuine to wood science, brought him to wood quality, adhesives, polymer processing and composites, biomass and biofuels. Learning from students is a great priviledge: "I never had a student that didn't bring in a different viewpoint to a project!", he says. This is the value of research, bringing in different perspectives, also to industry. Mike talks about the todays grant societal challenges, such as climate change, carbon management, or the entire shift of society towards circular economy.