Seven members of the U of T Engineering community will be honoured by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) with Ontario Professional Engineers Awards at a gala on November 12.

In June 2011, it was announced that Dean Emeritus Michael Charles (ChemE) received the Gold Medal, Ontario’s most prestigious engineering honour. Professors Elizabeth Edwards (ChemE), Doug Perovic  (MSE) and David Zingg (UTIAS) were awarded the Research and Development Medals. Professor Milica Radisic (IBBME/ChemE) is recognized with the Young Engineer Medal. Alumnus Anton Davies (MechE 7T2 MASc 7T4 PhD 7T7) received the Management Medal, and alumna Anna Dunets Wills (CivE 7T6) with the Citizenship Award. The Ontario Professional Engineers Awards recognize outstanding individuals for engineering excellence and community service. Eleven awards in total were given this year.

Michael Charles served as Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry from 1975 to 1985 and as Dean of the Faculty from 1993 to 2001. He currently serves as President of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE). His many achievements include leadership in the creation of Ontario’s first Centres of Excellence, his expansion of the Faculty’s PEY program, and his founding of the Canadian Association for Internship Programs. He is a Fellow of CAE, the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Chemical Institute of Canada, and a Senior Fellow of Massey College.

Elizabeth Edwards is the Director of BioZone, a new centre for collaborative bioengineering in the Faculty, and has achieved international recognition for her pioneering research on how biological processes affect pollutants in the environment. Most notably, she developed a microbial culture called ‘KB-1’ for anaerobic biological reductive dechlorination of chlorinated solvents, a widespread class of groundwater contaminants, which has been used in more than 200 sites worldwide. Professor Edwards received a NSERC Synergy Award in 2009 and was recently inducted into CAE.

Doug Perovic is the Celestica Chair in Materials for Microelectronics. He served as MSE Chair from 1998 to 2008, and during that time led the development of the world’s first undergraduate degree program in nanotechnology. Professor Perovic is recognized internationally for his innovative work in the fields of scanning and transmission electron microscopy of advanced semiconductors and metallic alloys, thin film nanostructures and failure analysis. A CAE Fellow, his distinctions include the Canadian Materials Physics Award and the NSERC Synergy Award.

David Zingg is the Canada Research Chair in Computational Aerodynamics and Director of the University of Toronto’s Institute of Aerospace Science (UTIAS). He has made seminal contributions to computational fluid dynamics and aerodynamic shape optimization for aircraft design. The focus of Professor Zingg’s current research is the aerodynamic design of more environmentally friendly aircraft – he garnered a Guggenheim Fellowship for this research in 2004.  He received the University of Toronto Faculty Award in 2009 for excellence in teaching and research, and was inducted into the CAE in 2010.

Milica Radisic’s research is in the field of cardiovascular tissue engineering; her long-term objective is to enable cardiac regeneration through tissue engineering and biomaterials. Professor Radisic demonstrated for the first time that stimulation of contractions using an electrical field improves functional and structural assembly of the heart tissue in vitro. In 2008, she was named one of the Top 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review. Her work was recently featured on the cover ofToronto Life, and she was named one of 2010’s People to Watch by the Toronto Star.

Anton Davies is Vice-President and co-founder of Rowan Williams Davies and Irwin Inc. (RWDI). As one of the Principals in charge of RWDI’s Environmental Team, he has directed many of the firm’s major environmental projects worldwide. Mr. Davies has been instrumental in leading this Canadian success story to its current status as one of the world’s premier engineering consultancies. His expertise on wind engineering and air quality has been sought by countries around the world to help make their large-scale public engineering projects safe and sustainable. He was recently inducted into the CAE.

Through her work with planning Alliance and rePlan Inc., Anna Dunets Wills has dedicated herself to the development of best practices for international organizations operating in developing nations; assisting them in the building of sustainable and culturally appropriate infrastructure such as transportation and sanitation systems and housing. She also volunteers extensively with a number of organizations in Canada and internationally to improve living conditions and infrastructure in remote First Nations communities and in developing nations.

“I am delighted that OPSE and PEO have recognized so many outstanding members of our community for their accomplishments through research, leadership, professional service and service to the community,” said Cristina Amon, Dean, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. “I would like to congratulate all the recipients and thank them for their remarkable contributions to the Faculty, to the profession and to society.”

University of Toronto Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) researchers have demonstrated for the first time the key mechanism behind how energy levels align in a critical group of advanced materials. This discovery is a significant breakthrough in the development of sustainable technologies such as dye-sensitized solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Transition metal oxides, which are best-known for their application as super-conductors, have made possible many sustainable technologies developed over the last two decades, including organic photovoltaics and organic light-emitting diodes. While it is known that these materials make excellent electrical contacts in organic-based devices, it wasn’t known why.

Until now.

In research published today in Nature Materials, MSE PhD Candidate Mark T. Greiner and Professor Zheng-Hong Lu, Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Organic Optoelectronics, lay out the blueprint that conclusively establishes the principle of energy alignment at the interface between transition metal oxides and organic molecules.

MSE PhD Candidate Mark T Greiner (pictured left), with his supervisor Professor Zheng-Hong Lu, has established a blueprint for energy alignment that could enable scientists and engineers to design simpler and more efficient organic solar cells and OLEDs.

“The energy-level of molecules on materials surfaces is like a massive jigsaw puzzle that has challenged the scientific community for a very long time,” says Professor Lu. “There have been a number of suggested theories with many critical links missing. We have been fortunate to successfully build these links to finally solve this decades-old puzzle.”

With this piece of the puzzle solved, this discovery could enable scientists and engineers to design simpler and more efficient organic solar cells and OLEDs to further enhance sustainable technologies and help secure our energy future.

The paper, entitled “Universal Energy-Level Alignment of Molecules on Metal Oxides,” is available online.

This publication marks the third major research paper in 2011 for Professor Lu’sOrganic Optoelectronics Research Group. Science published PhD Candidate Michael G. Helander’s “Chlorinated Indium Tin Oxide Electrodes with High Work Function for Organic Device Compatibility” on April 14 and Nature Phototonicspublished PhD Candidate Zhibin Wang’s “Unlocking the Full Potential of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes on Flexible Plastic” on October 30.

On November 21, the CBC’s documentary channel will air When Dreams Take Flight, which follows UTIAS PhD candidate Todd Reichert (EngSci 0T5) and his team, as they construct and fly a human-powered ornithopter.

The U of T Engineering graduate students made aviation history in August 2011, when their ornithopter, “Snowbird,” became the first ever to achieve sustained flight.

Make sure to catch the documentary on November 21 at 9 pm ET. For more information on the documentary, visit the CBC website.

Biomedical implants have the potential to transform everything – from drug delivery, to orthopedics and neurology. They’re crucial to new treatments that will help meet the challenges posed by an aging population – and transform the practice of medicine.

There’s a strong business case for developing biomedical implants, noted Professor Paul Santerre, Director, Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME). Through 2014, the American market for implantable medical devices will grow more than 8 per cent annually to $49 billion (U.S.), according to Cleveland-based market research firm the Freedonia Group.

Globally, researchers are zooming in on several key areas, said Professor Santerre, who oversees Canada’s largest biomedical program. They’re developing devices for aging patients, especially stents and other cardiac implants.

Another burgeoning field is orthobiologics, explained Professor Santerre. Its applications include the use of anti-microbial agents with orthopedic implants to treat degradation of bone structure around the healing area.

Professor Santerre is also excited about real-time diagnostics, combination drug-delivery devices that use biomaterials and neural implants and therapies. “The whole area is getting ready to explode as a result of an aging society and Alzheimer’s and other kinds of dementia and diseases that begin to show an onset as we roll into our 80s,” he said.

At IBBME, which has 36 core and 55 cross-appointed faculty affiliated with 10 teaching hospitals, many scientists do research connected to biomedical implants. For example, rehabilitation technology sciences team leader Professor Milos Popovic(IBBME) has helped quadriplegic patients regain upper-body movement by administering regular electrical stimulation to their tissues.

“We’re conceiving systems that would be implanted for anywhere between a week and four months, depending on what we’re trying to achieve,” said Professor Santerre.

Looking ahead, he sees great promise for tissue engineering, another implant-related IBBME research area.

He believes that by 2020, it will be possible to implant a new coronary artery built by your own cells. “[For] more complex organs, it’s going to take a bit longer, but we’re getting there.”

To read the full story, visit the Globe and Mail .

The CBC’s The Nature of Things recently explored nanotechnology and all its potential in saving the planet.

Nanotechnology is a universe where scientists explore matter on a scale 80,000 times smaller than a human hair. It’s a gigantic global laboratory where scientists converge from all disciplines, and dedicate themselves to observing and manipulating the smallest particles in the natural world.

Professor Ted Sargent (ECE) sees a future where nano-particles applied to solar cells transform the way we capture energy. “The imaginative possibilities that emerge when you make low-cost, flexible and high-efficiency solar cells, are really limitless,” explained Professor  Sargent, a Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology.

In June 2011, Professor Sargent and his research team discovered a new solar cell that may pave the way to inexpensive coatings that efficiently convert the sun’s rays to electricity.

Watch the episode online , or see it on CBC News Network on November 10.

Making medical devices that address the challenge of delivering safe care to patients is standard procedure at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME). Just ask Professor Paul Santerre, IBBME Director, who developed Endexo Technology through his spin-off company, Interface Biologics Inc (IBI).

In July, IBI announced that the largest provider of dialysis products, Fresenius Medical Care, would apply the company’s Endexo Technology to dialysis circuits for treating end-stage renal disease.

Now, Navilyst Medical has launched BioFlo, a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) that uses Endexo in five clinical centres in Canada. The U.S. will launch BioFlo in early 2012.

Endexo is a self-locating fluoro-oligomeric additive that reduces platelet adhesion and activation, protein adsorption and thrombus formation. Endexo is present on all surfaces of the BioFlo PICC and remains present for the life of the catheter. It also reduces the need for anti-coagulants, such as herapin, which patients may adversely react to, or antibiotics that may be associated with bacterial resistance.

“Endexo products are now in young neonatal children at Canadian hospitals, including the Ottawa Civic Hospital and other centres in Canada,” said Professor Santerre. “Interface Biologics is only one of the 16 current IBBME start-up companies. Imagine the impact that awaits the healthcare market from this great Institute.”

Technology transfer is a priority at IBBME. With the assistance of MaRS, the Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine, and the U of T Innovations and Partnership Office, innovative technologies and processes are brought out of the lab and into the hospital. Techna, a new University Health Network-University of Toronto healthcare technologies commercialization initiative that launches next week, will also help bridge the gap between research and the clinical application of technologies.

For more information, visit the IBBME website.