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Michael Fowler |
Thomas A. Duever |
Professor
Ali Elkamel |
Professor
Xianshe Feng |
Professor
Associate Professor,
Associate Chair Undergraduate
Studies
Tom Duever stepped down as Department Chair after nine
years, and took a sabbatical for the latter part of 2012, and
most of 2013. He spent a major portion of the year collaborat-
ing with Professor Jim McLellan at Queen’s University on a
textbook entitled “Strategies for Process Data Analysis,
Process Improvement and Product Development”. In addition
time was spent working on grant applications. The NSERC
Discovery Grant was successfully renewed, and a large
collaborative grant application originating from the Process
Systems Engineering Group on “Process Engineering of
Nanomaterials” submitted to the NSERC CREATE program
Two of his graduate students completed their degrees.
Samira Masoumi completed her PhD and is now working for
Virtual Materials Group Inc. in Calgary, Alberta. Manoj
Mathew completed his Master’s degree and is planning to
continue studies towards a PhD.
Ali Elkamel and his students made major advances in developing
cost effective, region-wide CO2 mitigation strategies, aiding
solutions for capture, additional treatment, transportation and
storage. Two of their papers won Best Paper Awards at the Interna-
tional Conferences on Industrial Engineering and Operations
Management. Their methodology for the optimization of air quality
monitoring networks was successfully applied to an existing network
of refinery stacks, improving the ability to monitor and protect
environmental resources and human health. This work was featured
in Technical Insights (Frost & Sullivan), and appears at the top of the
list of articles published on the subject. Collaborating with Virox
Technologies Inc and Professors Duever and Reilly, they’re design-
ing a green product disinfectant. Their collaborating company
received the Design for the Environment Champion Status Award,
the highest level of recognition offered under the Safer Detergents
Stewardship Initiative.
2013 was a productive year for Prof. Feng; six grad
students (4 PhD and 2 MASc) completed their studies under
his supervision. He continued to serve on the Editorial
Boards of Journal of Membrane Science and Separation &
Purification Technology, two premier journals in his field of
research. He was an invited speaker at the 7th Int. Conf. on
Materials for Advanced Technologies (ICMAT’2013, Singa-
pore), Int. Conf. on Membrane Science & Technology
(MST’2013, Kuala Lumpur) and Pacific Polymer Conference
(PPC’2013, Kaohsiung). He also served on the “International
Expert Assessment Panel” (comprising of 22 members from
the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, etc.) of
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics at the Chinese Acad-
emy of Sciences to review and assess its strategic “1-3-5”
research plan.
Michael Fowler continued to work with Waterloo’s Alternative
Fuel Team, which is now working on a Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle
based on the GM Malibu platform. This integrates with his
research into battery degradation with vehicle platforms and
design of hybrid vehicle power trains. Energy systems model-
ling has continued with research into ‘Power to Gas,’ where
hydrogen is generated from renewable sources, then distrib-
uted and stored within the natural gas distribution system. He
remained active with the undergraduate class, mentoring
numerous 4th year Capstone projects, including a Fuel Cell
Locomotive. The unique idea was presented at an international
workshop for Hydrogen Rail in 2013. As Associate Chair for
Undergraduate Studies, Fowler made calendar changes to the
undergraduate program to meet with the ‘Outcome’ based
accreditation. Comments and input into the undergraduate
program or expected ‘Outcomes’ for Chemical Engineering
graduates are welcome (
.
