D. G. Fisher Award

The 2010 winner is:

J. Fraser Forbes
University of Alberta
Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

J. Fraser Forbes earned a BASc in 1982 and a MASc in 1984, both in chemical engineering from the University of Waterloo. In 1994 he received a PhD in chemical engineering from McMaster University. Between his Masters and Doctoral degrees he worked primarily as a consultant in the food processing, wood products and steel industries, finishing this period as control engineer at Dofasco. In 1994, Forbes joined Ryerson University and in 1996 moved to the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta. His research has focused on the use of optimization methods in process operations and control, real-time optimization, and control of distributed parameter systems. He has worked with 41 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates to publish 113 refereed contributions and 77 conference presentations in this area.

Forbes served as chair of the Systems and Control Division of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE) from 1998 to 2000, and was the vice-chair of the CSChE annual conference in 2007. He has served on the programming and organizing committees for 12 international conferences since 2000.

Previous Winners of the D. G. Fisher Award

Nomination Form: Submit your nomination package as a PDF  

Terms of Reference

This award is presented to an individual who has made substantial contributions to the field of systems and control engineering while a resident of Canada. The award is given in recognition of significant contributions in any, or all, of the areas of theory, practice and education.

Deadline: February 28 of each year.

Sponsors: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta; Suncor Energy Foundation and Shell Canada Limited. Administered by the CIC’s Chemical Education Fund.

Award: A scroll, $1,000 cash and reasonable expenses, to a maximum of $500.

Nomination procedure:

Nominations must include a letter of support summarizing the achievements and contributions of the nominee in the field of Systems and Control Engineering. The Award Selection Committee will select the award recipient based on the contributions by the nominee, letters of support and, where necessary, the solicited advice of experts. The selection committee may decide not to give an award in any given year.

Submit nominations to: Systems and Control Division Chair 

Membership in the Institute is not a prerequisite for this award.

The award shall be presented annually unless the committee considers that no suitable candidate has been nominated.

The award shall be presented at the Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference. The recipient will be required to present an award lecture.