Bruce Peachey, FCIC, and Christopher Yip were recognized as Honorary Fellows for exceptional contributions to engineering at the Engineering Institute of Canada’s (EIC) CCTC2015 conference and banquet held May 26 in Montreal. Both men were nominated by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE).
Yip, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto, was made a Fellow for outstanding teaching and research in biomaterials and biomedical engineering. As well, Yip has conducted innovative research on the biophysical characteristics of single molecules. He also held a Canada Research Chair in molecular imaging from 2000-2010.
Peachey initially worked for Esso Resources then, in 1991, started his own company New Paradigm Engineering where he pursued solutions to problems ranging from downhole oil/water separation to heavy oil vent gas reduction. He has received five patents for his innovations. Peachey has also worked at the national and local levels for the Chemical Institute of Canada and CSChE and has mentored chemical and petroleum engineering students.
The Jacob Biely Research Prize, the University of British Columbia’s highest honour for research, was awarded to Department of Chemistry professor Chris Orvig, FCIC, who leads the institution’s Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry group. Orvig is a collaborator with Mike Adam, Head of Positron emission tomography (PET) Chemistry at TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics. The UBC Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry group works with TRIUMF scientists to study new radiolabelling methods and chemistry, a crucial step in the development of new radiopharmaceuticals to image specific disease processes through PET or single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanners. Orvig and Adam jointly supervised four students and one postdoctoral fellow in the chemistry group. One of the students, Eric Price, a PhD candidate at UBC in medicinal inorganic chemistry/radiochemistry, was awarded an NSERC postgraduate fellowship to conduct research at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, conducting research into creating new imaging agents and treatments for cancer using with radioactive metals. During his PhD, Price worked on the design and synthesis of novel chelators for radioactive metal ions for application in radiopharmaceuticals.