A Lifetime Achievement award was established by the CFD Society of Canada in 2005 to recognize individuals who have made outstanding time-enduring contributions to computational fluid dynamics in Canada. The contribution can be in the form of important advancements in the state-of-the-art of computational fluid dynamics, and/or significant impact on the use of CFD in Canada through research, teaching or innovative industrial practice. Since the intent of this award is to recognize lifetime achievements, it is anticipated that this will not be an annual award. Recipients of the award are selected through a nomination procedure and the award is presented at the Society’s annual conference.
More details on the nomination procedure.
Past recipient 2014: Prof. Dominique Pelletier
Dr. Dominique Pelletier was granted the Lifetime Achievement Award of the CFD Society of Canada in Toronto, Canada at the 23rd Annual conference of the Society in June of 2014.
Dr. Pelletier holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal, a Master’s in Applied Mathematics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and a Doctorate in Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, also from Virginia Polytechnic. He started his academic career in 1984 as an Adjunct Assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech, and has held an academic position at École Polytechnique in Montreal since 1987. He has also held a Tier I Canada Research Chair since 2001.
Dr. Pelletier has made outstanding and lasting contributions to CFD in Canada through his teaching, graduate student supervision, and research. Since 1984, Dr. Pelletier has published 93 papers in top international journals, and a further 220 papers in refereed conference proceedings. The most important characteristic of his papers and his research generally is their high standard of rigor and care. Dr. Pelletier has conducted focused research for the past 25 years, leading to papers of extremely high quality. By concentrating in some specific areas, such as adaptive finite elements and sensitivity equations, he has been able to gain a deep understanding of these topics and hence to make significant contributions to these fields. This is evidenced by his numerous invited presentations on adaptivity, sensitivities, and verification and validation. As a result of the rigorous approach he has taken to tackling these subjects, he has made lasting contributions.
Dr. Pelletier has also made important contributions to CFD in Canada through his teaching and supervision. He has solely supervised 34 graduate students and co-supervised several more. Graduates from his group are extremely well educated, hold positions at companies such as Alstom Power, Bombardier, Calspan, and Pratt & Whitney Canada. Two are now Professors at Polytechnique, one is at the Canadian Space Agency, and two are at the National Research Council’s Industrial Materials Institute.
Dr. Pelletier’s substantial contributions are well recognized internationally, as evidenced by his interactions with École centrale de Nantes, France, Virginia Tech, and with P.J. Roache, arguably the leader in the field of verification and validation in CFD.
Dr. Pelletier brings an important and unique perspective to CFD in Canada. He has a tremendous record of accomplishments and contributions to the Canadian CFD community and for this he was granted the Lifetime Achievement Award of the CFD Society of Canada in June 2014.
Past recipient 2006: Prof. Wagdi Habashi
Prof. Fred Habashi was honored with the Life Time Achievement Award of the CFD Society of Canada at the annual conference in July 2006.
Wagdi (Fred) Habashi entered Cairo University at the age of 16 and completed two years of mechanical engineering before coming to Canada, where he completed his studies at McGill University in 1967 first in the Engineering Faculty, meriting the British Association Medal of Lord Rankine. He obtained a Master’s degree at McGill and a PhD at Cornell in Aerospace working on the Finite Element Method. After two years at Cornell, Fred accepted an Assistant Professorship position at the Stevens Institute of Technology. Fred then spent 25 years at Concordia where the University’s dynamism and flexibility allowed him to create a unique connection with industry, most notably Pratt & Whitney Canada where he maintained an office from 1977 to 2001 and with whose staff he has published over 90 technical papers, spanning, 2D, quasi-3D, and fully 3D potential, then Euler, then Navier-Stokes multistage turbomachinery. In 2000, Fred moved to McGill where he established a CFI-sponsored supercomputer center (CLUMEQ), as well as an NSERC-Bombardier Industrial Research Chair in Multidisciplinary CFD.
Professor Habashi is the author of 240 scientific papers; he is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics and co-Editor of other book series. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Dr. Habashi is a co-founder of the Canadian Society of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CSCFD) and a co-founder of CERCA, and was its Industry Director from 1992-95. Professor Habashi is also Honorary Professor of TongJi University in Shanghai. He has received numerous scientific and technology transfer awards, among them the E.W.R. Steacie Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Technology Achievement Award of Pratt & Whitney Canada, the University Research Award of Concordia University, and the Cray Gigaflop Award for the fastest computer code in the world.
Dr. Habashi is the founder of Newmerical Technologies International, developing software and providing services for multi-disciplinary applications of Computational Fluid Dynamics. NTI’s innovative in-flight icing simulation software is currently used at major aircraft, helicopter and jet engine companies around the world. He is also co-founder with Captain Gary Wagner, and Chairman, of Scientific Aircraft Accident Analysis (SA3), retained by major law firms and aviation insurance companies to use science as a forensic tool in aircraft accident investigation.
Dr. Habashi was granted the Lifetime Achievement award of the CFD Society of Canada in July 2006.
Past recipient 2005: Prof George Raithby
The inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award of the CFD Society of Canada was presented to Dr. G. D. Raithby at CFD2005 in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Dr. Raithby obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1967 and subsequently held a post-doctoral position in Germany. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo in the 1969. In addition to his outstanding academic research, Dr. Raithby was renowned for his exemplary teaching and was awarded a Distinguished Teacher Award by the university. His teaching style ensured that students would obtain a deep and profound understanding of the subject being taught. As a researcher he pioneered and advanced the technology and understanding of CFD in several key areas. This resulted in the development of software of sufficient robustness, accuracy and efficiency to tackle problems of substantial engineering interest. In the mid-1980’s Dr. Raithby founded the company Advanced Scientific Computing (ASC) Ltd. to allow for commercialization of the software, thus bringing CFD into Canadian industry. This business is currently owned by ANSYS Inc., but is still run as a separate business entity with head office in Waterloo. Dr. Raithby retired from the University of Waterloo in 1996 and is currently a Distinguished Professor Emeritus.