ENGINEERING Edition
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in Focus FALL/WINTER 2005 ENGINEERING edition THIS ISSUE 3 Alumni Profile: Andrew Benedek 4 Academic Spotlight: Environmental Engineering Engineering for and Design 9 Mining Success the Environment 10 Meet the New Dean 11 Students on Top Please return undeliverable mail to: 12 Rhodes to Iran Retour des envois non-livrés à : Faculty of Engineering 13 News from the Faculty 3450 University St., Room 20 Montreal, QC, Canada H3A 2A7 Canada Post Corporation Publications Mail Agreement # 40613662 Faculty of Engineering Newsletter Fall/Winter 2005 n a g Office of Development and E n e w Alumni Relations O Frank Dawson Adams Building McGill University 3450 University Street, Room 20 Dear Graduates and Friends, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2A7 Tel.: (514) 398-1371 Fax: (514) 398-7696 n my first months as the Dean of Engineering I www.mcgill.ca/engineering have been impressed and touched by the warmth of Ithe welcome I have experienced. Dean of the Faculty Dean Christophe Pierre My first job on campus has been to learn my way Christophe Pierre around McGill; the Faculty of Engineering is a large enterprise with plenty to discover. What is evident, however, even at this early Writer / Consulting Editor Patrick McDonagh stage in my deanship, is the tremendous commitment from faculty, alumni, students, support staff and administration – a sign of a great, thriving institution Copy Editor/ Editorial Advisor with strong foundations. Helen Dyer, McGill has a well-earned international reputation. The professors and technical staff DAR Communications are top-notch and the students are outstanding. The Faculty has an excellent, collegial research environment, with vibrant interdisciplinary activities across departments Editorial Board Christophe Pierre and with other Faculties, such as Science, Medicine, Dentistry and Management. But Patrick McDonagh the world of engineering – in professional activity as well as university education Terry Tobin, Director of Development and research – is changing rapidly, and we must work hard, not just to keep up with Robyn Ouimet, Development and the pack, but to place ourselves at the leading edge. Alumni Relations Associate So what can we expect from the future? Naturally, our engineering education Proofreader will continue to cover the core areas. But we must also develop strategic interdisciplinary Michael Bourguignon areas such as advanced materials, micro- and nanotechnology, biomedical engineering, DAR Communications and environmental design. This edition of In Focus describes new research in environ- mental engineering and design – just one area where society is relying upon us to Photographs drive technological innovation. Ensuring that we have the necessary resources to attract Owen Egan Nicolas Morin and retain outstanding faculty members and graduate students to McGill will be another Jack Goldsmith priority. We must also continue to build collaborative relationships with local and inter- Bruce Field national industry. More intensive recruitment activities in high schools and CEGEPs will help us to fortify our undergraduate student body, while community outreach strate- Layout gies will raise awareness, among potential students and the general population, of just Instructional Multimedia Services what it is we do in our disciplines and why our activities are important to a prosperous Special thanks to all volunteer society. Our work is cut out for us, but we are in a very good starting position. photographers. Please direct comments I had the pleasure of meeting some of you when I attended summer and fall events. and inquiries to I look forward to hearing from you over the coming months and to meeting more [email protected] of you as I settle into my position as Dean. Front cover: Viviane Yargeau, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering (photo by Owen Egan); insets are (from the top) cryptosporidium, e.coli, and biofilm (by Dennis Kunkel Microscopy), Christophe Pierre all part of the research of Nathalie Tufenkji, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering (see page 5) Alumni Profile: ANDREW BENEDEK n 1980, Andrew Benedek, BEng(Chem)’66, left his position as a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton to form Zenon Environmental Inc., a company that would develop and market a new approach to water treatment called membrane technolo- gies. “Everybody in the world thought I was crazy,” he says. Since then, however, the skeptics have come onside. Today, membranes are seen as a critical strategy for purifying water with microbial parasites not treatable by other means. And as the technology has advanced – in no small part thanks to Zenon’s research and development effort – membrane technology has Ievolved from being a small, niche application to performing a broad range of services on a large scale. It has proven to be one of the most effective ways to purify drinking water, treat wastewater and produce high-quality process water for a range of applications. After a quarter of a century, Zenon Environmental, which Benedek still leads as Chairman and CEO, has 1,300 employees, offices in 14 countries and customers in more than 40. The company has seen annual growth of 20 to 30 percent, with the profits being reinvested in development, and is now recognized as a world leader in membrane technology. Benedek, who received an honorary doctorate at the June 2005 Benedek has won numerous honours, including the 2004 Engineering Convocation ceremonies, traces his interest in water International Award from the Society for Chemical Industry, treatment to a 1964 summer job during his undergraduate in recognition of his contribution to the industry in Canada studies at McGill. “Back in those days, and abroad, and a Queen’s Golden they had no treatment at all,” he re- Jubilee Medal, awarded in 2002 by the calls. “A brand new chemical plant, Government of Canada. From 2003 to now defunct, on the South Shore of 2004, he was one of the founding Montreal was putting out smelly directors of the Board of the Clean compounds. People were complain- Water Legacy Trust in Ontario. Zenon ing to the Quebec water board, so Environmental has also received its the company decided to hire a stu- share of accolades, including the dent from McGill to figure out the Stockholm Industry Water Award and problem. To make sure they didn’t Canadian online magazine Corporate succeed, they picked the most inept Knights’ top honour as Best Corporate guy in the class, namely me. I might Citizen in Canada in 2002 and 2004. have failed to solve their problem, One expression of the outstanding cor- but I found my cause. I felt it was porate citizenship for which the unfair to allow people to pollute company is noted was the donation and like this, so I started reading up on delivery of water purification equip- pollution. Improving water quality ment to New Orleans in the aftermath became a life-long pursuit.” of Hurricane Katrina. In 1970 Benedek earned his In his speech to the graduating PhD in Chemical Engineering from class of 2005, Benedek identified four the University of Washington in rules for success. The first is motiva- Seattle. He then joined the faculty tion. “Find something you believe at McMaster, where he continued in and pursue it! Put your heart and teaching and research in water soul into it, and over time, magic hap- treatment. During his 10 years at Andrew Benedek pens,” he said. The second trait: McMaster, he became convinced by honesty. “Be honest with everyone, the potential of membrane treatment – and by the benefits of especially yourself,” he stressed. Then one must also be persis- developing the technology within the private sector. “I left tent in developing one’s ideas. And finally, citing Jung and McMaster to start my company and, once I resigned, I had no Goethe, he said, “You have to have faith in life.” Benedek then way of making a living but by succeeding,” he says. “I kept exhorted the young graduates to “go out and make the world making mistakes, but I recovered and learned the hard way how a better place” – a directive that has clearly guided his own to create what is, today, a great business.” activities and successes. ENGINEERING 3 Engineering for the Environment Going Green hen Jim Nicell received his doctorate from the University of Windsor Win 1991, the CBC announced the news: his was Canada’s first formal PhD in Environmental Engineering although, he notes, other people were g h already doing environmental engineering work. Today, in addition to serving c m / a c as Associate Dean (Student Affairs) and professor of Civil Engineering, Nicell . l l i g has been investigating the use of natural enzymes that catalyze reactions to c m t a e treat waste material. He has also collaborated extensively with Chemical t i s b Engineering professor David Cooper to investigate the environmental fate of e w t c e plasticizers, which give plastics their flexibility and workability. “About 200 j o r p million tons of plasticizers are created each year in North America, which m o r f ultimately go into the environment. Studies showed that these were non- e g a m toxic and eventually degraded,” says Nicell. But, as has recently been shown, I some of the most common plasticizers, while non-toxic, are endocrine dis- ruptors – they trick the body into thinking they are hormones, thus affecting Edible Landscapes processes in the development of organisms, such as humans. Some would argue that natural degradation mechanisms should take care of this hen Architecture professor Vikram problem. Cooper and Nicell also found that plasticizers, when exposed to WBhatt looks at a city these days he sees common soil organisms, break down into stable products that are much unused farmland, with agricultural potential more toxic than the original precursors. “By continuously releasing these latent in roadsides, rooftops, trellises and sub- plasticizers into the environment, we could be adding one more element to urban plots.