Leonardo Simon

Leonardo Simon is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering Professor. He is also a member in three research institutes: Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research, and Institute for Polymer Research.

Professor Simon’s research deals with polymer nanocomposites, sustainable materials, thermoplastic composites, polymer materials for advanced manufacturing, and innovation. His research laboratory is equipped for synthesis and processing polymers and nanocomposites and the investigation their structure and properties.

Professor Simon is also a lead investigator in Ontario’s BioCar Initiative, which takes agricultural products and processes them as polymer sources in order to develop plastics that can be used for the manufacturing of car parts. His role is to investigate the use of natural fibres and other renewable feedstock toward manufacturing plastic products. As a result of the Ontario’s BioCAr Initiative, straw fibers grown in Ontario were implemented in the manufacturing of plastics for automotive applications. This new technology started being applied to Ford vehicles assembled in Oakville plant in 2010.

Professor Simon has been presented with the 2005 Early Research Award (MRI-ON), the 2006 Young Canadian Innovator Award (OMAFRA), the 2007 Best Paper Award at the SPE-ACCE Conference and the prestigious Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 (Caldwell Partners International) in 2009.

• Polymer Science, nanomaterials, bioproducts, characterization of materials, physical properties, polymer reaction engineering, sustainable materials for transportation, chemical engineering, materials science, Nanotechnology, Mathematical Modelling of Polymerization Mechanisms, Polymer nanocomposites, Synthesis structure properties and degradation of polymer materials

Reserach interests:

-nanocomposites

-polymer reaction engineering

-bioproducts

-sustainable materials

Offices held in professional and technical organizations:

-member board of directors on the Ontario Section of Society of Plastics Engineers

-member board of directors on the Ontario BioAuto Council

Refereeing or reviewing:

-referee for research papers

-referee for grant applications (NSERC, OCE)

Industrial Projecs:

- Research Associate position at Braskem SA (in Brazil) from February to May 2008 during sabatical leave

• 2001, Doctorate Materials Science,

• Area of Study: Polymer Materials, Graduate Program in Materials Science, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, Brazil

• 1997, Master's Chemical Engineering, Degree with Distinction, Area of Study: Catalysis and Ionic Liquids, Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

• 1995, Bachelor's Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

• 2005 Presented by the Ontario Minister of Research and Innovation, Topic: Hybrid Polymer Nanocomposites

• 2006 Presented by the Ontario Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Innovation Awards

• 2007 7th Annual Automotive Composites Conference and Exhibition - Society of Plastics Engineers, United States of America

• 2009 Founded in 1995 by Caldwell Partners, Top 40 is the country’s most coveted award for young business leaders, often the first program to shine the spotlight on many successful Canadian notables. Honourees have gone on to create remarkable track records of achievement post-award; the ranks of Top 40 alumni include hundreds of nationally and internationally prominent CEOs, CFOs, executives, and entrepreneurs.

• CHE 102 - Chemistry for Engineers
  • Taught in 2024
• CHE 383 - Chemical Engineering Design Workshop
  • Taught in 2024, 2025
• CHE 482 - Group Design Project
  • Taught in 2025
• CHE 541 - Introduction to Polymer Science and Properties
  • Taught in 2022, 2023
• NANO 603 - Nanocomposites
  • Taught in 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
• NE 333 - Macromolecular Science
  • Taught in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Ashraf, Ahmad Raza and Akhter, Zareen and Simon, Leonardo C and McKee, Vickie and Dal Castel, Charles, Synthesis of polyimides from α, αʹ-bis (3-aminophenoxy)-p-xylene: Spectroscopic, single crystal XRD and thermal studies, Journal of Molecular Structure, , 2018

• Abdulrazik, Abdulhalim and Elsholkami, Mohamed and Elkamel, Ali and Simon, Leonardo, Multi-products productions from Malaysian oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB): Analyzing economic potentials from the optimal biomass supply chain, Journal of Cleaner Production, 131, 2017

• Esfahani, Azam Nasr and Katbab, AliAsghar and Taeb, Aidin and Simon, Leonardo and Pope, Michael A, Correlation between mechanical dissipation and improved X-band electromagnetic shielding capabilities of amine functionalized graphene/thermoplastic polyurethane composites, European Polymer Journal, 520, 2017

• Alhumade, Hesham and Abdala, Ahmed and Yu, Aiping and Elkamel, Ali and Simon, Leonardo, Corrosion inhibition of copper in sodium chloride solution using polyetherimide/graphene composites, The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 896, 2016

• Alhumade, H and Yu, A and Elkamel, A and Simon, L and Abdala, A, Enhanced protective properties and UV stability of epoxy/graphene nanocomposite coating on stainless steel, Express Polymer Letters, 1034, 2016