2023 Jarislowsky Fellows: Tarek Abdel-Galil, Melina Laboucan-Massimo and Afshin Matin

Dr. Tarek Abdel-Galil is an electrical engineer and Sustainable Energy Expert with 30 years’ of experience. He has managed and conducted many long-term planning investigations, generation interconnection assessments, and engineering and feasibility studies. He has strong background and experience in sustainable energy, electricity market regulation, transmission network studies  

He has participated in developing the long-term transmission vision for BCH, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Abdel-Galil has participated in several energy planning studies for several utilities and communities and is currently  the lead SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) for major infrastructure projects to decarbonize the oil and gas industry through the use of HVDC (high-voltage direct current) technologies, international interties for renewable energy trades, development of renewable energy zones, green hydrogen generation and off-shore wind development. Dr. Abdel-Galil is registered P. Eng. and Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 

Melina Laboucan-Massimo is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta. Melina is the Founder of Sacred Earth Solar and Co-Founder and Senior Director at Indigenous Climate Action. Melina is the inaugural fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation where her research focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. She is the host of a TV docu series called Power to the People which profiles renewable energy in Indigenous communities across the country. Melina holds a Master's degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy. As a part of her master's thesis Melina implemented a 20.8 kW solar project in her home community of Little Buffalo which powers the health centre in the heart of the tar sands.

Afshin Matin is a power engineer with around 30 years of work experience with private and public organizations. He graduated with a master's degree in power systems from University of London and earned a second master’s degree in organizational behaviour. His early career was in power system planning with a utility company focused on transmission planning. He then worked with a major power equipment supplier on transmission equipment sales. A consulting engineering firm was his next stop that involved industrial distribution systems design. His later career was with the Government of Canada; first with the National Energy Board on electricity export/import permitting and international power lines, then with the Department of National Defence on specifying and procuring electrical generation and distribution equipment, and finally with ECCC on industrial process GHG emission estimations for the Canadian national inventory report. In the last six years with ECCC he supervised a unit engaged with electricity sector air emission regulations. This was followed by leading a new unit responsible for system integration studies on renewables, nuclear, and other low emitting and storage resources.