Mary Wells, PhD, PEng

Mary Wells, PhD, PEng is currently Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo and is the ninth dean since the Faculty was founded in 1957. She was previously Dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Guelph (2017 to 2020).

Prior to her time in Guelph, Wells was a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at Waterloo for 10 years. She received awards for graduate supervision from both the Faculty and the University in 2017.

An accomplished materials engineer, Wells also served as the Associate Dean of Outreach for Waterloo Engineering between 2008 and 2017, and chaired its Women in Engineering committee for many years. She chaired the Ontario Network of Women in Engineering from 2013 to 2018.

Wells began her academic career as a professor in materials engineering at the University of British Columbia from 1996 to 2007, and has worked in the steel industry in Canada and internationally.

The co-author of two books including one on Canadian women innovators and the second on Canadian women in materials, her research focuses on the relationship between processing, structure and properties for advanced metallic alloys used in the transportation sector.

Wells is not currently accepting applications to supervise new graduate students.

• Process modelling
• Hot deformation of metallic materials
• Casting of light metals
• Boiling water heat transfer
• Microstructure/Processing Models
• Automotive
• Digital Factories
• Lightweight Materials
• Structural Crashworthiness
• Additive Manufacturing

• 1996, Doctorate, Metals and Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia
• 1987, Bachelor's, Metallurgical Engineering, McGill University

• ME 340 - Manufacturing Processes
  • Taught in 2017
• ME 738 - Special Topics in Materials
  • Taught in 2017

• Prakash, Paresh and Wells, Mary A and Williams, Bruce W, Hot deformation of cast AZ31 and AZ80 magnesium alloys--Influence of Al content on microstructure and texture development, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 897, 2022
• Abolhasani, Atekeh and Langelier, Brian and Worswick, Michael J and Wells, Mary A and Esmaeili, Shahrzad, Experimental analysis and modelling of natural aging in AA7xxx Al alloys, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 906, 2022
• Gryguc, Andrew and Behravesh, SB and Jahed, H and Wells, M and Williams, B and Gruber, R and Duquett, A and Sparrow, T and Lambrou, M and Su, X, Effect of thermomechanical processing defects on fatigue and fracture behaviour of forged magnesium, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 15(55), 2021, 213 - 227
• Benoit, MJ and Ogunsanya, IG and Winkler, S and Worswick, MJ and Wells, MA and Hansson, CM, Internal Corrosion of Warm Formed Aluminum Alloy Automotive Heat Exchangers, Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance, 30(4), 2021, 2876 - 2889
• Wang, Yu and Zang, Andrew and Mahmoodkhani, Yahya and Wells, Mary and Poole, Warren and Parson, Nick, The Effect of Bridge Geometry on Microstructure and Texture Evolution During Porthole Die Extrusion of an Al--Mg--Si--Mn--Cr Alloy, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 52(8), 2021, 3503 - 3516
• Gryguć, Andrew and Behravesh, Seyed Behzad and Jahed, Hamid and Wells, Mary and Williams, Bruce and Gruber, Rudy and Duquette, Alex and Sparrow, Tom and Prsa, Jim and Su, Xuming, A Method for Comparing the Fatigue Performance of Forged AZ80 Magnesium, Metals, 11(8), 2021

• Dean urges universities to promote STEM diversity
• Dean, lecturer offer advice to engineering graduates
• Honouring the December 6 victims
• December 6 attacker could not hold women back
• New dean named for Waterloo Engineering
• Engineers are 'hidden heroes' in COVID-19 battle

• Not currently accepting applications for graduate students
• Has Approved Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor (ADDS) status