Canada Research Chairs

CRC chairholder: Dr. Michael Worswick

Title:  Canada Research Chair in Light Weight Materials under Extreme Deformation: Forming and Impact

Synopsis: Professor Michael Worswick is exploring the possibilities of stamping, electromagnetic forming, bending, and hydro-forming of light-weight sheet and tube materials for automotive parts production. In addition, he is investigating in-service performance of automotive body and structural components, in particular focusing on how they would respond if the vehicle crashed. The research is enhancing the competitiveness of Canadian auto manufacturers, improving automobile crash-worthiness, and reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by automobiles.

CRC chairholder: Dr. Amir Khajepour

Title:  Canada Research Chair in Mechatronic Vehicle Systems

Synopsis: Professor Amir Khajepour is working to develop and enhance active vehicle stability systems to reduce car crashes and rollovers, which result in thousands of injuries and deaths every year in Canada. Khajepour works on hybrid and electric vehicles to develop more efficient and environmentally friendly vehicles. He is also developing a revolutionary adaptive suspension system that will provide added passenger safety, reduced fuel consumption, solid tire manufacturing opportunities and extra comfort.
 

CRC chairholder: Dr. Norman Zhou

Title:  Canada Research Chair in Microjoining

Synopsis: Today, miniaturization is a distinctive attribute of a vast array of high technology products, from computers and consumer electronics to medical and automotive devices. Manufacturing these complex products depends on the availability of advanced joining technologies. Professor Norman Zhou work focusses on developing new or improved microjoining processes and on increasing scientific understanding of microjoining. This includes research on topics such as bonding mechanisms and metallurgy, thermal stresses and distortion, and numerical modelling which is of immediate interest to the telecommunications and medical industries.

CRC chairholder: Dr. Dongqing  Li

Title:  Canada Research Chair in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics

Synopsis: Dr. Li's group develops theoretical models and conducts numerical simulations for various electrokinetic phenomena and transport processes in micro-/nanochannels for on-chip microfluidic applications. Experimental studies are also carried out to investigate the characteristics of various electrokinetic microfluidic processes. The liquid flow and mass transfer are generated by applied electrical fields. Liquid flow velocity profiles, mass transfer (ions, particles and cells) and the related heat transfer in microchannels are visualized and measured by a laser-induced dye technique and by fluorescent visualization techniques. Microchannels and lab-on-a-chip devices are made by a soft-photolithography rapid prototyping facility in Dr. Li's labs.

CRC chairholder: Dr. Carolyn Ren

Title: Canada Research Chair in Lab-on-a-Chip Technology

Synopsis: Dr. Ren's research focuses on developing microfluidic-based Lab-on-a-Chip technology for chemical, biological and biomedical assays through both theoretical and experimental approaches. There are two major directions being carried out in her lab which include droplet-based microfluidics for high throughput analysis and microfluidic platforms for proteomics. In the first direction, her team is investigating fundamental transport phenomena of water-in-oil droplets in microfluidic channel networks using both optical microscopy and on-chip sensors for monitoring. In the second direction, her team is focusing on exploring various combinations of multidimensional separation schemes that can be integrated on a single chip for protein separation towards disease diagnosis.