Chairholders
Profile
Grant Chen
Department of Applied Sciences
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
Chair title
NSERC/Rio Tinto Alcan Industrial Research Chair in Metallurgy of Innovative Aluminium Transformation
Chair program
Industrial Research Chairs program
Role
Executive Chairholder since 2008
Summary
Canada is a major aluminium producer and the world’s second-largest exporter of primary aluminium. However, Canada also annually imports a large tonnage of finished aluminium products and loses many opportunities of value creation in this sector. There is definitely a strong need to realign Canada’s strategy in this respect. Transforming a significant portion of this exported primary aluminium into value-added products would inject a major drive into the local and national economy.UQAC recently had the opportunity to further upgrade its research and training potential with the construction of a new research facility (CURAL Laboratory) at the cutting edge of technology. This strong infrastructure, combined with UQAC’s development on aluminium research over the last 25 years in partnership with Alcan, constitute an impressive and sound basis to continue supporting activities in the field of aluminium transformation for many years to come. The Chair program focuses on well-defined research activities on metallurgical aspects of advanced aluminium materials and innovative transformation technologies.
The main objective of our program is to advance the knowledge on metallurgy and material engineering of aluminium alloys with emphasis on value-added products and emerging transformation technologies. It endeavours to generate in-depth knowledge on:
- material and metallurgical aspects of innovative high-value aluminium products;
- transformation technologies of emerging niche applications;
- material characterization of both cast and deformed aluminium products; and,
- microstructural evolution and material properties during aluminium transformation.
Partners
- RioTinto Alcan (Arvida R&D Centre/Centre de recherche et développement d'Arvida)
- NRC/CNRS (Aluminum Technology Centre/Centre des technologies de l'aluminium)
- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC)
- Ministère du Développement économique, de l'Innovation et de l'Exportation (Québec)
- Promotion Saguenay
- La Fondation de l'UQAC
- Conférence régionale des élus (Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean)
Contact information
Department of Applied Sciences
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi
555, boulevard de l’Université
Chicoutimi, Québec
G7H 2B1
Tel.: 418-545-5011, ext. 2603
Fax: 418-545-5012
Email: xgrant_chen@uqac.ca
Website:
http://www.cural.qc.ca
