Terri-Jane Yuzda













NEWSMAKERS


New to APEGGA Members Inducted
Into Academy of Engineering



Dr. Claude Lajeunesse, P.Eng., president of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, recently welcomed 24 new members to the academy, including two from the ranks of APEGGA, Dr. Francis Hartman, P.Eng., and Dr. Gerard Lachapelle, P. Eng.

Dr. Hartman of the University of Calgary is a world authority in project management and currently holds a prestigious chair in the subject. Over the past 30 years, he has gained a wealth of technical administrative, financial and managerial experience in high technology and related projects in North America, Europe and the Middle East, covering more than $50 billion worth of capital projects.

During the last six years, Dr. Hartman has published 11 books or chapters within them and 50 papers, and was the keynote speaker or presenter at more than 100 national and international meetings. He also supervised more than 30 master's degree and PhD students.

Dr. Lachapelle, also of the University of Calgary, contributes significantly to the development and dissemination of satellite-based navigation technology in Canada and around the world. He has played an important role in the successful training of a score of technical experts.

Through his innovation research and technology transfer activities, he has provided leadership for Canada to be recognized for excellence in this new technology. His pioneering work related to the Global Positioning System, a complex constellation involving 24 satellites, is used throughout the world.


NAIT Honours Stream-Flo's Duncan McNeill

NAIT President Dr. Sam Shaw recently recognized Duncan McNeill as the 2003 Distinguished Friend of the Institute. Mr. McNeill's businesses - permit-holders Stream-Flo Industries Ltd. and Master Flo Valve Inc. - are leaders in the design and manufacture of specialized oil field equipment.

In December 2000, Mr. McNeill and his wife Verda made gave $1 million to NAIT in recognition of the institute's leading role in Alberta's economy. The gift provided funding for the new state-of-the-art NAIT HP Centre for Information and Communications Technology and created an endowment fund for scholarships.

"Duncan McNeill has been a great ambassador of NAIT over the years," said Dr. Shaw. "His life as an industrial pioneer, successful entrepreneur and principled philanthropist make him a superb role model for Albertans."


Industrial Chair Awarded

Dr. Jim Haslett, P.Eng., of the U of C was recently awarded the first industrial chair in iCORE's new Industrial Chair Establishment Program and a total of $1 million from the iCORE Industrial Chair Establishment Grant to develop a research team. Dr. Haslett will lead a research program called the Wireless Science and Technology Initiative in direct collaboration with TRLabs and its industrial sponsors, and concentrate on the development of advanced radio frequency integrated circuits for next generation wireless products.


More Recognition, Support
For Light Up The World

Dr. Dave Irvine-Halliday, P.Eng., has been awarded a Rolex Award for Enterprise, the Tech Museum Award and the University of Calgary President's Internationalization Achievement Award. These awards will honour and help fund the volunteer-driven Light Up The World Foundation and its continued passion to provide inexpensive and energy-efficient lighting systems to homes, schools and temples in some of the world's poorest, most remote villages. It will also help consolidate LUTW's organizational structure so it can attract more sponsors.

Dr. Irvine-Halliday founded LUTW after a 1997 trip to a Nepalese village, where he saw how the lack of lighting was impacting children's ability to read and learn at night. He won the APEGGA Community Service Summit Award in 2000, and was featured in a PEGG article in October 2000.


Hydrate Researcher Receives Award

Dr. Raj Bishnoi, P.Eng., of the U of C's Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, was honoured with a major award this summer by the Gas Processors Association, in international organization based in Tulso, Okla. Dr. Bishnoi, a former Summit Award winner, was presented with the Donald L. Katz Award for his outstanding research and educational contributions to the global industry.

Natural gas hydrates, such as the massive discovery off the coast of Vancouver Island this summer, are an important future energy source in may parts of the world. Dr. Bishnoi and his colleagues' substantial research contributions are in the thermodynamics and kinetics of natural gas hydrates.

"When I first stared this research, people used to ask me, 'Why in the world do you want to work in the thermodynamics and kinetics of gas hydrates? No one uses these things.' " he says with a grin. A few decades later, Dr. Bishnoi is enjoying and award-winning career, and a steady stream of research contracts with energy firms from around the world.



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