Professors Dimitrios Hatzinakos (ECE), Javad Mostaghimi (MIE), Brent Sleep (CivE) and Murray Thomson (MIE), as well as alumnus Phillip (Rocky) Simmons (ChemE 6T4, MASc 6T5, PhD 6T9), have been recognized by the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) for their outstanding engineering achievements.
Professor Mostaghimi received the Julian C. Smith Medal “for achievement in the development of Canada.” Dr. Simmons was awarded the K.Y. Lo Medal “for significant engineering contributions at the international level.” Professors Hatzinakos, Sleep and Thomson have been named EIC Fellows for their exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada.
Professor Hatzinakos holds the Bell Canada Chair in Multimedia and serves as Director of the Identity, Privacy and Security Institute at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in the areas of multimedia signal processing, multimedia security, multimedia communications and biometric systems. He is particularly known for his research in blind deconvolution, digital watermarking and medical biometrics. His work in these areas has been cited more than 1,000 times. He is author/co-author of more than 230 papers in technical journals and conference proceedings, has contributed to 17 books and has seven patents. A committed educator, Professor Hatzinakos has supervised the research work and thesis completion of more than 50 graduate students.
Professor Mostaghimi is the Director and co-founder of the Centre for Advanced Coating Technologies and holds the title of Distinguished Professor in Plasma Engineering. World-renowned in the area of thermal spray coatings, Professor Mostaghimi led the development of CFD software packages that model the impact and solidification of molten droplets on solid surfaces. His work has led to advances in the aerospace, automotive and resource processing industries, and he has founded three companies based on his research. Professor Mostaghimi was named a Fellow of EIC in 2010. Other honours include the Ontario Professional Engineers Award for Research and Development and the NSERC Brockhouse Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.
Currently serving as Associate Chair, Research in the Department of Civil Engineering, Professor Sleep is internationally recognized for his research on remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater, as well as pathogen transport in the subsurface. His publications, from his seminal PhD research to his more than 50 peer reviewed journal papers and three book chapters, have been widely influential and highly cited. Professor Sleep is currently leading a multi-university project to create more cost-effective water treatment technologies using an innovative combination of methods based on physical, biological and chemical processes. He has served on the British Columbia Science Advisory Board and the Water Science and Technology Board of the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Dr. Simmons is President and CEO of Eco-Tec Limited, a global leader in water treatment and chemical recovery systems. Under his leadership, Eco-Tec has become a true Canadian success story, with operations all over the world and systems installed in 58 countries. Today, a number of Eco-Tec’s environmentally and economically sustainable processes have become the de-facto standard throughout several different industries. A champion of education and technology development, Dr. Simmons is currently Chair of the Advisory Board for the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry. He has also served as Chair of the Board of Governors for the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and Durham College.
Professor Thomson has contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge in the areas of alternative fuels, pollution control and combustion sensors, and his research has been widely applied in industry. He has commercialized and licensed four process sensors based on optics and spectroscopy, which are used by a number of companies to reduce energy consumption and pollutant emissions. He has also developed fundamental models of particulate emissions in flames, which he has applied to develop particulate emissions models for engines produced by companies such as Pratt & Whitney Canada. He has made outstanding contributions to the Canadian Section of the Combustion Institute, where he serves as Treasurer and as Member of the Board of Directors.
“We are delighted that the Engineering Institute of Canada has recognized the achievements of these five outstanding engineers,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “On behalf of the Faculty, I congratulate them for their accomplishments and thank them for their many contributions.”
Dr. Simmons, along with Professors Hatzinakos, Mostaghimi and Thomson, will be honoured at the EIC Awards Banquet on February 25, 2012, at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa. Professor Sleep will be honoured at a joint Canadian Society for Civil Engineering/Engineering Institute of Canada gala on June 7, 2012 at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton.
