News

The Honourable Michael Kerzner, Ontario's Solicitor General, visited the Department of Chemical Engineering to show support for a graduate student's project. The student aims to develop innovative materials to create firefighting gear designed to reduce the risk of occupational cancer.

The highest honour for graduates in the Faculty of Engineering is the Alumni Achievement Medal. Baoling Chen, who completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2015 was bestowed this honour in recognition of her exceptional talent for strategic industry partnership development, mission-driven leadership, and disruptive biotechnology research.

Rosemary Niechcial (Class of 1998) leveraged her BASc in Chemical Engineering to create a globetrotting, diverse and successful career. She has worked extensively throughout South America, Australia, the United States and Japan.

“The fact that I chose to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo is key to my success,” says Niechcial. “Although the University of Waterloo definitely is regarded as the best engineering school in Canada and recognized globally, it felt very intimate due to small class sizes in the Chemical Engineering Program and being with the same cohort throughout the years during my undergraduate degree.”

Three Department of Chemical Engineering professors have been named to the 2023 list of Highly Cited Researchers. They are recognized as innovative researchers who demonstrate significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research.

Professors Aiping Yu and Michael Fowler were among the researchers who made the prestigious list. Both Yu and Fowler have expertise in electrochemical engineering and energy storage systems.

As a high school student, Sarah Vandaiyar (Class of 2009) enjoyed her chemistry and math classes and thought a degree in Chemical Engineering was a great mix of those two disciplines.

To this day, Vandaiyar continues to reap the benefits of her decision to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She feels that her experience as an undergraduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering prepared her for professional life.

A team of researchers from the University of Waterloo is working on a project to reduce CO₂ emissions. They are designing new materials that can minimize energy consumption while transforming CO₂ into valuable chemicals. The project is specifically focused on captured CO₂ from power plants, as well as from the iron, steel, and cement industries.

The research project is led by Professor Luis Ricardez-Sandoval, Canada Research Chair in Multiscale Modelling and Process Systems (Tier II). Two other professors from the Department of Chemical Engineering, University Research Chair, Professor Aiping Yu and Professor David Simakov, will utilize their expertise in advanced materials to contribute to the project.

The third Sustainable Future Perspectives' discussion was held in November and hosted by the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and the Department of Chemical Engineering. The November event centered on how research and training at the University of Waterloo can contribute to several vital areas in the circular economy. These areas include recycling battery materials, researching new materials to create better batteries, and developing proactive solutions to mitigate delays in setting up new mines.

Professor Mark Matsen is set to receive the Polymer Physics Group Founders’ Prize. Only 11 scholars have been awarded this prize since its inception in 2001. Matsen, who holds a joint position as a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, is being honoured for his remarkable work on molecular self-assembly in polymeric systems involving block copolymers.

In October, the Department of Chemical Engineering hosted a seminar presented by Professor Greg Stephanopoulos, a pioneer in the field of metabolic engineering. His seminar titled, “Can biotechnology deliver cost-effective liquid fuels from renewable feedstocks?” focused on his groundbreaking research in engineering microbes for sustainable biofuel reproduction.

Professor Yverick Rangom is leading an interdisciplinary University of Waterloo team that is competing in the Battery Workforce Challenge. This challenge is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Stellantis and is managed by Argonne National Laboratory.