Awards

Dr. Alan Plumtree - Distinguished Professor Emeritus, is a founding member of the Materials Science and Engineering Group at the University of Waterloo. He has served on the Board of Governors, the Senate, as Associate Dean of Graduate studies for Engineering, representative of the University at the Council of Ontario Universities, and many other University Committees. Over his 40 plus year career Professor Plumtree has published over 250 scholarly articles in refereed scientific journals and conference publications. He has been active in many other scholarly activities, demonstrating leadership and involvement in Metallurgical and Materials Science journals through service on numerous editorial boards. Recently, he was editor of the Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly and has been involved in the planning and development of several International Metallurgical and Materials Science conferences. Dr. Plumtree's work on the fatigue of metals quantified the relationship between the microstructure and cyclic conditions, allowing the fatigue performance to be described and predicted. He and his co-workers also developed a compact anchor system to grip unidirectional polymer matrix composite rods without causing early failure allowing the high longitudinal strength to reliably attain its full potential in the construction of lightweight decks for bridges. In corrosion science, he is one of the two principal researchers that developed the superposition model for assessing the stress corrosion crack growth rate in gas pipeline steels, giving realistic predictions when compared to field data. His has also consulted for leading local, national and international companies. He is co-designer and constructor of a plastic hand pump that is easy to repair and simple enough for a child to use while providing five litres of clean potable water in a couple of minutes. Today, the 'Waterloo Pump' supplies clean water to millions of people in developing countries.