Pearl Sullivan

Pearl Sullivan was a Professor in the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering department at the University of Waterloo. She was the eighth Dean of Engineering at Waterloo (July 1, 2012-December 31, 2019) and the first woman to hold that post. In addition, Professor Sullivan was the fourth woman across Canada to head an engineering faculty.

Professor Sullivan was a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the United Kingdom. She held a Professional Engineer designation from Professional Engineers Ontario.

In 2004, Professor Sullivan came to the University of Waterloo as a Professor of mechanical engineering and served as Chair of the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering department from 2006 until January 2012. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo, she was a mechanical engineering Professor at the University of New Brunswick, and a Lecturer and Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. She was also the founding Director of Waterloo's collaborative graduate program in nanotechnology within the Engineering and Science faculties. In addition to her many achievements, Professor Sullivan received the Outstanding Performance Award from the University of Waterloo in 2009.

• Mechanics of Composite Materials
• Nano-Composites and nano-materials
• Physical Aging of Polymers
• Adhesives
• Thermal Analysis
• Thermo-mechanical Characterization
• Additive manufacturing
• Long-term Stability of Polymers
• Micro-engineering Measurement of Mechanical Property Data Deviation

• 1990, Doctorate, Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC
• 1986, Master's, Metallurgical Engineering, Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS
• 1985, Bachelor's, Metallurgical Engineering, Technical University of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS
• 1982, Diploma, Engineering, Dalhousie University

• T. Sabiston, P. Pinter, P. Lee-Sullivan, and K. Inal, Prediction of bending in SMC using a single parameter damage model that accounts for through thickness microstructural properties, Composite Structures (accepted 2020) 112377 (PDF co-supervisor). (Submitted in 2020)
• T. Sabiston, K. Inal, and P. Lee-Sullivan, Application of Artificial Neural Networks to predict fibre orientation in compression moulded composites, Composites Science and Technology, 190, 2020, 108034 (PDF co-supervisor). (Submitted in 2020)
• T. Sabiston, K. Inal, and P. Lee-Sullivan, Method to determine the required microstructure size to be represented by a second order fibre orientation tensor using X-ray micro computed tomography to evaluate compression moulded composites, Composites Science and Technology, 182, 2019, 107777 (PDF co-supervisor). (Submitted in 2019)
• Karimi, K., Jabari, E., Toyserkani, E and Lee-Sullivan, P, Highly Conductive Graphene Paper for Flexible Electronics Applications" Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 2018, 29(3):2537–2549 (primary MASc supervisor). (Submitted in 2018)
• Rivers, R. , Marzbanrad, E., Hook, M.D., Lee-Sullivan, P., Zhou, N. and Zhao, B.” , Vitrification during cure produces anomalies and path-dependence in electrical resistance of conductive composites, Composites Science and Technology, Vol 149(8) September 2017,90-99 (primary PhD supervisor). (Submitted in 2017)
• Haghighi-Yazdi, M. and Lee-Sullivan, P., Specific heat capacity of polycarbonate/acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (PC/ABS) blend after hygrothermal aging, Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 2017, 130(3), 2105-2111 (PhD supervisor). (Submitted in 2017)

• Waterloo mourns the loss of Dean Pearl Sullivan
• Pearl Sullivan to step down as dean
• Faculty members and graduate inducted into the CAE