UBC

Why UBC?
Reputation
The University of British Columbia now ranks solidly within the worlds top 35
universities, according to surveys of more than 1,000 institutions. The
Materials Engineering Department contributes to this ranking as a world
leader in Materials Process Engineering. Our Department belongs to a distinct
group of units at UBC that enjoy an exceptional level of research grants and
contracts and our strong performance is due to the outstanding quality of our
graduates and faculty members. There are five Research Chair holders in the
Department: Frank Ko Canada Research Chair in Nanofibrous Materials, Rizhi
Wang Canada Research Chair in Biomaterials, David Dreisinger
Hydrometallurgy Chair, Warren Poole Rio Tinto Alcan Chair in Materials
Process Engineering and Matthias Militzer Dofasco Chair in Advanced Steel
Processing.
Scope
Materials research in the Department emphasizes the development of new
processes and process models primarily for novel materials in the
transportation sector and biomaterials for medical applications. The
Department fosters a strong interaction with industry through their Industrial
Research Chairs. Industrially oriented research is combined with fundamental
studies to advance understanding of the microstructure mechanisms and
resulting properties.
Impact
Materials research in the Department aims at providing materials process
solutions of societal magnitude including light weight materials for the
transportation sector, cleaner and greener metallurgical processes,
engineered materials to replace or repair injured body parts. For example,
Professor Dixon from the Hydrometallurgy Group has developed Galvanox a
new process with the potential to become the method of choice to extract ore
in the 21st century. Under the auspices of the American Iron and Steel
Institute (AISI), Professors Militzer and Poole have developed a hot strip mill
model (HSMM) for advanced high strength steels the model is at the core of
the commercial Integ-HSMM software package that is now used worldwide by
the steel industry. Professors Poursartip and Fernlund are the co-founders of
CMT a spin-off company for process simulation to manufacture composite
parts that are e.g. used in Boeings new 787 aircraft.
Interdisciplinarity
Many of the Departments laboratories and offices for graduate students are
located in the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory
(AMPEL) an interdisciplinary facility on campus that brings together
materials researchers from Physics, Chemistry, Materials, Electrical and
Mechanical Engineering. Having a common home for materials research has
promoted cross-disciplinary projects and provides graduate students with an
interdisciplinary environment that offers unique opportunities in their training
program to become graduates who will be in high demand worldwide for
employment in academia and industry.

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