(L-R): David Guss, CSChE past-president, William Anderson, CSChE 2014 technicalprogram co-chair, Hector Budman, CSChE 2014 Conference chair and Zhongwei Chen, CSChE 2015 technical program co-chair.
More than 1,000 researchers, academics, students and industry representatives came together for the 64th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in the spectacular setting of Niagara Falls October 19-22. The theme of the conference was “Advanced Materials, Energy, and Sustainability.” It included six international symposia: Symposium on Sustainable Nanomaterials; Symposium on Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage; Mabnet Symposium on Manufacturing of Monoclonal Antibodies; Symposium on Catalysis for Sustainable Resources: Fuels, Energy and Chemicals; Chemical Reaction Engineering International Symposium; EPIC – Enabling Process Innovation Through Computation.
Conference attendees also got a glimpse into developments in the automobile industry. One of the plenary speakers, Mark Verbrugge of General Motors Research & Development Center in the United States, gave a talk titled “Trends in Vehicle Electrification and High-energy Battery Materials.” Robert B. Magee of The Woodbridge Group presented “Automobile’s Sustainability Challenge is Today!” The Ford Motor Company’s Carrie Majeske presented “Sustainability: Successes, Challenges” while the University of Delaware’s Dionisios G. Vlachos spoke on “Modern Catalytic Technologies for Converting Biomass to Renewable Fuels and Chemicals.”
The conference’s student program focused on career development. Emily Moore, managing director, water and tailings management at Hatch Ltd., an engineering consulting company, presented a keynote speech on the diverse career paths for chemical engineers, relating her experiences and those of two of her classmates. Student competitions included the SNC-Lavalin Plant Design Competition, the Robert G. Auld Competition, the Reg Freisen Competition and the Graduate Student Poster Competition. A new addition to the conference was a workshop that was led by João Soares, editor-in-chief of The Canadian Journal for Chemical Engineering. Soares discussed the scientific elements that must be emphasized in a manuscript in order for it to be accepted by a journal.
Finally, delegates were invited to attend the 65th Canadian Chemical Engineering conference, which is being held in Calgary Oct. 4-7 and will be hosted by the University of Calgary Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. The theme of the conference is “Shaping Energy Technology for the Future.”
SNC-Lavalin teams from Lakehead and Ottawa universities receive their certificates from CSChE student affairs director Sarah Creber (right).