Faculty members honoured with prestigious RSC medals

Two Waterloo Engineering professors are receiving medals from the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) for their outstanding research achievements.

Keith Hipel of systems design engineering is the recipient of the 2017 Miroslaw Romanowski Medal and Zhongwei Chen of chemical engineering is the recipient of this year's Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry.

In an announcement made September 19, Hipel and Chen are two of just eight Canadian researchers and scholars who will be presented with 2017 RSC medals for their accomplishments.

Hipel, who holds the title of University Professor, the University of Waterloo’s highest

academic honour, is globally renowned for his pioneering contributions to environmental systems engineering.

Through the development of systems-thinking methodologies for tackling complex physical and societal systems aspects of environmental problems, Hipel is able to arrive at resolutions that are integrative, adaptive and fair to stakeholder groups.

Chen, the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Materials for Clean Energy, is recognized as an outstanding researcher and emerging global leader in the development of electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies. His RSC citiation says Chen is poised to make major and original contributions towards advancing battery, fuel cell and supercapacitor technologies.

More RSC honours for engineering researchers

Earlier this month, the achievements of two other Waterloo Engineering faculty members were recognized by RSC.

Frank Gu, a Waterloo chemical engineering professor, became part of the

2017 cohort of the RSC's prestigious College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

Gu, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Advanced Targeted Delivery Systems, is internationally recognized for his pioneering contributions to nanotechnology engineering, particularly as they apply to targeted drug delivery and water treatment systems.

Weihua Zhuang of Waterloo's electrical and computer engineering department became a new fellow of the RSC Academy of Science.

Zhuang, the Tier I Canada Research Chair in wireless communication networks, has made significant research contributions to resource allocation, distributed network control, and mobile user positioning. Her work has led to advances in engineering solutions, and generated high impacts in the research community.

This year's award, medal and fellowship recipients will be celebrated during the Induction and Awards Ceremony in Winnipeg on November 24.

Founded in 1882, the Royal Society of Canada  comprises the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences, as well as Canada’s first national system of multidisciplinary recognition for the emerging generation of Canadian intellectual leadership, The College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

The RSC’s mission is to recognize scholarly, research and artistic excellence, advise governments and organizations, and promote a culture of knowledge and innovation in Canada and with other national academies around the world.