3 November 2015 – U of A Faculty Talk: Rylan Lundgren

24 February 2016 – U of A Faculty Talk: Sarah Styler

12 May 2016 – Annual General Meeting at U of A Faculty Club

The University of Alberta’s Department of Chemistry is hosting a Symposium Marking the Accomplishments of Professor David R. Bundle this July 16 & 17. Details can be found on the event poster. There’s also an article posted by the U of A’s Faculty of Science on his career and accomplishments.

On June 20, members of the CIC Edmonton Section’s executive held their annual retreat to plan events for the following year. We are always seeking new members to participate in planning events and activities to promote chemistry in the Edmonton region with us! (And it’s actually lots of fun!)

Here are two photos of the folks that made it out:

The CIC Edmonton section’s Annual General Meeting will be held May 5^th, 2014 at the U of A Stollery Executive Development Centre, Business Building, 5th Floor, Room 504.
(Note: Not at the Faculty Club this year!)

The schedule is as follows:

6:00 PM Networking
6:30 PM Dinner
7:00 PM AGM
7:30 PM Guest speaker: Prof. João Soares (UofA Chemical & Materials Engineering)
8:30 PM Conclusion / Networking

Dinner Menu
Salad: Caesar, Greek, or Creamy Pasta
Sides: Garlic mashed potato, Steamed vegetables, Baby bok choy
Main course options: Roast beef  OR Chicken bordon bleu OR Vegetarian option*
*(Please note in your RSVP if you plan to have the vegetarian option)
Dessert: Unknown

Cost: $30 for members; $35 for non-members; $20 for students

RSVP to Lucio Gelmini <gelminil@macewan.ca> to reserve a spot. Deadline for RSVP is May 1^st, 2015. 

ABSTRACT
The Importance of Polymer Reaction Engineering in Developing New Polymer Products
Polymers are statistical materials that cannot be uniquely characterized only with average molecular properties; rather, one needs to quantify their molecular architecture by measuring their distributions of molecular weight, chemical composition, short and long chain branching.
Several of these distributions are determined instantaneously using polymer chemistry principles, but the cumulative properties of the polymer exiting the reactor depend on reactor configuration, reactor type, and mode of operation. These additional variables impart additional variability to the molecular architecture of polymers and determine their final properties. Polymer reaction engineering combines polymer chemistry fundamentals, reactor engineering principles, and mathematical modeling techniques to quantify how these factors affect polymer properties.
In this presentation I will discuss how polymer reaction engineering principles are needed to develop new polymer products. I will illustrate these principles in two areas related to my research at the University of Alberta: polyolefins and polymer flocculants for oil sands tailings remediation.

Biography of Prof. João B.P. Soares, PhD, FCIC, P.Eng.:

João Soares received his bachelor’s degree from Federal University of Bahia (Salvador, Ba, Brazil), and his master’s degree from the State University of Campinas (Campinas, SP, Brazil), both in Chemical Engineering. Before moving to Canada, he worked during four years as a research and development engineer for Pronor, COPENE, and Polibrasil (Brazil). He did his PhD thesis under the supervision of Professor A.E. Hamielec, in the Department of Chemical Engineering at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada) and joined the faculty in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 1995. On July 1, 2013, Professor Soares joined the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta as the Campus Alberta Innovation Program Chair in Interfacial Polymer Engineering for Oilsands Processing. In 2014, Professor Soares became Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Advanced Polymer Reaction Engineering.

Prof. Soares published more than 180 articles in referred journals, written 12 book chapters, and is the author (with Timothy McKenna) of the book Polyolefin Reaction Engineering published by Wiley-VCH in 2012. He has offered 27 public and 22 in-house industrial short courses all over the world in his areas of expertise. Professor Soares is also a co-organizer in two main international polyolefin conferences: The International Conference on Polyolefin Reaction Engineering (INCOREP), and The International Conference on Polyolefin Characterization (ICPC).

Professor Soares is the Editor-in-Chief for the Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering. He is also a member of the Executive Advisory Board of Wiley-VCH Macromolecular journals and responsible for the coordination of Macromolecular Reaction Engineering.

Professor Soares is a Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, and a Professional Engineer in the Provinces of Ontario and Alberta. He is the recipient of the Premier’s Research Excellence Award (2000), the Union Carbide/Dow Innovation Recognition Program (2000, 2001), and the Syncrude/CSChE Canada Innovation Award for contributions to Chemical Engineering under the age of 40 (2001). He consults for several polyolefin-manufacturing companies in Canada, USA, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Research Interests: 1) polymerization reactor engineering for Ziegler-Natta, metallocene, late transition metal, free-radical and living free-radical polymerization, 2) water-soluble polymers for oil sands technology, 3) polymer microstructural characterization and fractionation, 4) mathematical modeling of polymerization reactors and polymer microstructure, and 5) in-situ polymer nanocomposites.

Map to the UofA Business Building:

Cafe CIC presents: Honey, It’s All About Bees

Come and enjoy that sweet sticky carbohydrate of your childhood. Honey is more than just a cloying treat on bread. It is one of the world’s most adulterated foodstuffs. An excellent professional development event brought to you by the local section of the Chemical Institute of Canada.

Our guest is Prof. Leonard Foster of the Centre for High Throughput Biology, University of British Columbia.

Six different types of honey will be available for tasting.

Date: March 24th, 2015 6:30 PM
Location: Concordia University
Hole Academic Centre, 7128 Ada Boulevard, Edmonton, AB T5B 4E4 (Map)

Cost:
$5 for students
$10 for CIC members
$15 for non-members

Just a photo from the Executive’s meeting in December. Lots of neat events being planned for the winter months, including the Cafe CIC, our January talk, and more!

CIC Edmonton executive December planning meeting