A professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering has received the University of Waterloo's most prestigious academic honour.
Dr. John McPhee, the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Biomechatronic System Dynamics, was named a University Professor at this week's Board of Governors meeting — a designation recognizing exceptional scholarly achievement and international pre-eminence. Waterloo awards the designation to at most three faculty members each year.
McPhee is a leading expert in system dynamics who has pioneered the mathematical development of graph-theoretic modelling, launching the highly impactful field of multibody system dynamics. His advances in symbolic computing and simulation were commercialized by Maplesoft and are used by thousands worldwide to accelerate the design of complex mechatronic systems, with applications spanning hybrid electric vehicles, exoskeletons, rehabilitation robots, and sports engineering. He received the Professional Engineers Ontario Gold Medal in recognition of his impact.
A co-architect of Waterloo's mechatronics and biomedical engineering programs and former executive director of the Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research, McPhee has supervised more than 125 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have become academic leaders and innovators in emerging technologies. He co-founded two journals, including the flagship Multibody System Dynamics, and three international technical committees devoted to the field.
McPhee is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Engineering Institute of Canada.
