The Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) has awarded a $1.876 million Collaborative Research and Development (CRD) Grant to Chemical Engineering Professor Honghi Tran and his team. The announcement was made June 19.
The funds from the grant will be directed towards a four-year research program entitled, “Fundamental studies of drying, combustion and ash properties of biomass and impacts of pulp and paper mill operations.”
Requirements for efficient energy generation and usage, stringent environmental regulations, improved waste management and clean mill operations are growing concerns for pulp and paper mills. New approaches are required to address these important issues. The new CRD project led by Professor Tran aims at increasing the efficiency of biomass boilers in Canadian pulp and paper mills by preventing surface fouling of combustion ash, diversifying boiler fuel feedstocks, and increasing the utilization and value of ash that results from biomass combustion.
In addition to the NSERC-CRD Grant, 10 industrial partners consisting of pulp and paper producers, boiler manufacturers and chemical suppliers have agreed to sponsor the research program with approximately $1.4 million cash and $660,000 of in kind support.
“We are grateful that NSERC recognizes the relevance of the work that Professor Tran and his team are conducting. Not only will it bring many benefits to Canada but it will also help us train 26 graduate students, four postdoctoral fellows and 22 undergraduate students – creating highly qualified personnel,” said Professor Grant Allen, Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry.
Professor Tran is an internationally respected expert in the field of pulp and paper research. He holds the Frank Dottori Chair in Pulp and Paper Engineering and is Director of the University of Toronto Pulp & Paper Centre. Professor Tran is also a technical consultant to kraft pulp mills on problems related to kraft recovery boilers, lime kilns and borate autocausticizing. His research interests are in fouling and corrosion in recovery boilers and chemical recovery processes. Professor Tran has co-authored over 120 referred papers, holds eight patents and is a Fellow of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.
Donna Vakalis, who will begin her PhD in Civil Engineering this September, will be competing for Canada in the pentathlon competition at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.
The pentathlon – which originated in the ancient Olympics as a test of military skills – is now a test of both mental and physical agility.
Speaking to The Toronto Star, Vakalis said that the five sport competition is “… very much a mental game, but it’s also a physical game now.”
Competitors are required to swim 200 metres, run three kilometres, fence, ride a horse through a show jumping circuit and fire a laser gun at a stationary target 10 metres away.
Vakalis is one of 36 athletes who qualified for the event, which will be held on August 11 and 12.
She has been seeking donations to cover the cost of the equipment required for the event, which includes a Kevlar vest for fencing and the laser gun. So far, she has raised $12,000 towards her ultimate goal of $36,000.
You can follow Vakalis as she prepares for the Olympic Games on Twitter. You can also see recent profiles of Vakalis in The Toronto Star andThe Globe and Mail or read our interview with her here.
University of Toronto Engineering Professor Peter Zandstra has been named to the scientific advisory committee of Stem Cells Australia, which is a network of Australia’s top researchers tackling the big questions in stem cell science.
Professor Zandstra is one of six internationally renowned researchers to join the committee. They were drawn from Australia, Canada, Japan and The Netherlands..
In announcing the appointments, Stem Cell Australia hailed the six as “scientific luminaries” who will provide strategic advice and independent evaluation of the research undertaken, which is supported by the Australian Research Council
“With impressive scientific expertise spanning developmental biology, bioengineering and genetics, as well as extensive knowledge of the international stem cell field, the members of the Scientific Advisory Committee will make a substantial contribution to Stem Cells Australia’s research program,” the organization said in a statement.
Professor Zandstra is a recognized leader in the integration of engineering and biological approaches to develop new ways to grow and differentiate adult and embryonic stem cells in clinically and industrially relevant numbers. His work impacts tissue and cellular engineering, gene therapy, and organ transplantation. He is a core faculty member in the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering and cross-appointed to the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry. He is also a member of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine, the Heart and Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence and currently acts as Chief Scientific Officer for the Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine.
“Peter Zandstra is an internationally-celebrated leader in stem cell research. His wise counsel will be of tremendous value to our colleagues in Australia,” said Professor Ted Sargent, Vice-Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “This is yet another example of the global impact and international reach of U of T Engineering researchers.”
Also appointed was Professor Andras Nagy, Senior Investigator at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital and a Professor in U of T’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
This month, Professor Zandstra will be in Australia to deliver a keynote address at the BioNano Innovation Conference in Brisbane and will also visit Stem Cells Australia’s researchers in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourn.
With just a few words, Padina Pezeshki captivated her audience: “Here’s a woman suffering from advanced breast cancer,” she said simply, “the kind that has spread to her bones. The kind that has fractured her spine.”
But Pezeshki, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), painted a picture of hope and survival through a novel therapy that may significantly alter the course of cancer that has spread to bone.
That presentation earned Pezeshki a trip to Vancouver to participate in the Canadian finals of TED Talks’ 2013 Talent Search, which is focused on the theme: “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.”
TED Talks are an extremely popular non-profit series of online presentations geared towards spreading new and innovative ideas. TED staged presentations in 14 cities around the world, including Vancouver.
Pezeshki, who co-invented a commercially-available spine device that earned three patents, discussed her PhD research involving advances in radio frequency technology used to treat bone cancer.
“It’s a totally different pressure [than giving an academic presentation] because of the scope and context and potential for what it can do,” said Pezeshki of the TED Talks stage.
Although radio frequency therapies have been in use for some time, the problems associated with this technology — not reaching the entire tumor or damaging surrounding healthy tissue — have been persistent issues. What’s so novel about Pezeshki’s technique?
“Its success in the tissue being targeted,” Pezeshki described.
The technology Pezeshki has been working with — a collaborative project involving the University of Toronto, the Orthopaedic Biomechanics Lab at the Sunnybrook Research Institute and Baylis Medical Company — has incorporated several nuances into its design that make it more effective than similar conventional technology. The resulting device delivers a much more controlled and consistent application of radio frequency energy that targets cancer tissue more effectively, so much so that researchers have recently begun clinical trials of the device in the U.S. and Canada.
“All of the pre-clinical trials, testing, validating and optimizing the device on test subjects have been part of my PhD project,” Pezeshki explained. “My PhD project results led to FDA approval for these clinical trials.”
Pezeshki’s advancement in the TED Talks competition will be determined through online voting currently underway. The number of clicks and comments each presenter receives will be used by organizers to determine which candidates are included in next year’s line-up.
“It was my secret birthday gift to myself,” said Pezeshki of her application, which involved a CV and a one-minute video. “The deadline was my birthday and I didn’t tell anyone I applied.”
“This was a great opportunity for Padina to present her work to a large audience and motivate other young women in bioengineering and biomedical research,” said Professor Cari Whyne from the Department of Surgery and cross-appointed to IBBME, who is co-supervising Pezeshki’s research. “Padina’s enthusiasm is reflected in her work in the lab and her dedication to the science and engineering of RF (Radio Frequency) ablation for cancer spread to bone.”
While she’s in the limelight now, celebrity isn’t a career option for Pezeshki. Although a self-proclaimed TED Talks fan, her passion lies in the biomedical engineering field and translational sciences. Several people came up to her after her presentation to tell her stories of loved ones lost to cancer, something she hopes her research might subsequently change.
“This is my motivation,” she said. “I hope I become useful to the world.”
View the Vancouver finalists’ presentations here.
On June 20, Professor R. Doug Hooton (CivE) was presented with the V.M. Malhotra Award at the first International Congress on Durability of Concrete in Trondheim, Norway.
Professor Hooton was recognized for his outstanding and sustained contributions in the broad area of durability of concrete. It is a research area that impacts one of the foundations of Canadian society – physical infrastructure.
As the NSERC/CAC Senior Industrial Research Chair in Concrete Durability and Sustainability, Professor Hooton is investigating ways the concrete industry can reduce point source greenhouse gas emissions, increase the durability of concrete and make the material more sustainable.
Among Professor Hooton’s many honours, he is the recipient of the American Concrete Institute’s (ACI) Arthur R. Anderson Medal, the Award of Merit from the Canadian Standards Association and American Standards for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and is a Fellow of ASTM and ACI.
“On behalf of the Faculty, I would like to congratulate Professor Hooton, a pioneer and innovator in the field of concrete materials,” said Dean Cristina Amon, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “We are delighted that he is once again being recognized for his significant research contributions.
Professor Chul B. Park (MIE) has been recognized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) with the M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Medal.
The award is given to an individual who has had significant influence and responsibility for improving the productivity and efficiency, either by research or by implementation of research, of manufacturing operations. The award was established in 1986 in honour of M. Eugene Merchant, a pioneer in manufacturing research and development.
Professor Park is the Canada Research Chair in Microcellular Plastics and the founder and Director of the Microcellular Plastics Manufacturing Laboratory. A world leader in the development of innovative technologies for the manufacture of microcellular foamed plastics, he holds 20 patents and his research has been licensed by more than 200 companies.
“The Department is extremely delighted that Professor Park been recognized by his colleagues of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Society of Manufacturing Engineers,” said Professor Jean Zu, Chair of the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering. “Professor Park is a true innovator and an exceptional leader in his field. I congratulate him on this outstanding honour.”
Professor Park is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Royal Society of Canada (RSC), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC).
He will receive his award during the ASME Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition November 9 to 15 in Houston, Texas.