Professor Tizazu Mekonnen is being recognized as one of Canada’s top innovators by CILAR, a Canadian organization focused on creating opportunities and breaking down systemic barriers for Canada’s Black Community, Indigenous Peoples and People of Colour (BIPOC)
The recognition of Mekonnen as an innovator illuminates his accomplishments as a chemical engineer working to create sustainable polymer systems toward the creation of a circular economy. His research focuses on finding new ways to mitigate the challenge of plastic waste in the environment.
Mekonnen who serves as director of the Indigenous Black Engineering Technology PhD Project, (IBET) has been actively engaged in efforts to increase the number of Black and Indigenous academics in engineering programs in Canada. He has also been working to attract more Canadian universities to participate in the IBET PhD Project.
“Being named as a top innovator is great recognition of what we’ve been doing over the last few years”, said Mekonnen.
There are currently 30 IBET Momentum Fellows at 16 universities across Canada with the hope that the number of fellows and universities involved will grow exponentially in the coming years.