July 17, 2009
Dean Cristina Amon and Professors Barry Adams (CivE), William Bawden (CivE), Michael Collins (CivE), Masahiro Kawaji (ChemE), Javad Mostaghimi (MIE), Chul Park (MIE), Jonathan Rose (ECE) and Willem Vanderburg (CivE), were inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) on July 13.
The CAE comprises the country’s most accomplished engineers, who have expressed their dedication to the application of science and engineering principles in the interests of Canada and its enterprises. Forty-two new Members were inducted this year, nine of which were U of T Engineering professors.
Cristina Amon is Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. Her research has advanced the scientific foundation of heat transfer enhancement by flow destabilization and nano-scale thermal transport, and she has made pioneering contributions to concurrent thermal designs, innovation in electronics cooling and transient thermal management of wearable computers. Dean Amon has served numerous professional societies with distinction, and demonstrated exceptional dedication to outreach and to diversity in engineering.
Barry Adams has served the Faculty with distinction as Chair of the Environmental Engineering Program and Chair of the Department of Civil Engineering. He has consulted widely in Canada and abroad on water resources and environmental engineering studies and has a prolific record of contributions to scholarly and professional organizations. Professor Adams has developed a number of innovative models for urban water resource infrastructure system planning and design, and wrote the first major textbook on this subject.
William Bawden is an educator, researcher and practitioner in applied rock engineering for the mining and civil engineering communities in Canada and internationally. He holds the Pierre Lassonde Chair in Mining Engineering. Professor Bawden’s research has focused primarily on the design and support of large underground excavations in rock, primarily in the mining sector. He has published his research broadly and has developed new tools that are used by mines around the world to enhance mine safety and productivity.
Michael Collins is a University Professor and a Bahen-Tanenbaum Professor of Civil Engineering. His analytical and experimental research contributions on the shear behaviour of reinforced concrete (particularly his Modified Compression Field Theory) have received international recognition, and his theories have been incorporated into the design specifications of the Canadian Standards Association. Professor Collins is also a gifted educator who has received numerous teaching awards.
Masahiro Kawaji is an internationally recognized leader in the field of energy production, particularly the production of renewable energy and improving the efficiency and safety of boilers and nuclear reactors. Professor Kawaji has contributed to the development of advanced heat exchanger systems, safety improvements in nuclear reactors, and identification of the causes of thermal problems in kraft recovery boilers used in the pulp and paper industry. His work had a significant impact on sustaining the competitiveness of Canadian industry.
Javad Mostaghimi is a University of Toronto Distinguished Professor in Plasma Engineering. He is internationally recognized for his research on thermal plasma technology and its industrial applications, and his numerical models of plasma sources and thermal spray coating are widely cited and applied. Professor Mostaghimi is the cofounder and Director of the Centre for Advanced Coating Techniques at the University of Toronto and has cofounded two successful companies commercializing his research.
Chul Park holds a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Advanced Polymer Processing Technologies and is the Founder and Director of the University of Toronto’s Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory. He is a world leader in the development of innovative technologies for the cost-effective manufacture of microcellular foamed plastics, resulting in greatly improved plastics and reduced processing costs. Over 200 companies have used Professor Park’s microcellular foaming technology.
Jonathan Rose recently completed a five year term as Chair of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is a pioneer and world leader in the area of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and has done seminal research in both their architecture and the computer-aided design (CAD) tools needed to use and explore them. Professor Rose has also participated in the architectural development of the two key commercial FPGAs in the market today.
In 2002 Willem Vanderburg was recognized as one of the 25 leading Canadian innovators by the Canada Foundation for Innovation. He pioneered the discipline of preventative engineering, which examines how technology influences human life, society and the biosphere to improve engineering design and decision-making. Professor Vanderburg is the founding director of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Technology and Social Development and has written several books on this subject.
“The unprecedented election of nine of our faculty members to the Canadian Academy of Engineering is a great testament to the strength of our Faculty,” said Amon. “On behalf of the Faculty and all the newly inducted Members, I am grateful to the Academy for this honour.”
The new Fellows were inducted during the CAE’s 2009 Annual General Meeting in Calgary, Alberta.
