Awards

Frank Ajersch is now Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique after a teaching career in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department. On graduating from McGill University (B. Chem. Eng.,1963), he joined the Noranda Research Centre as one of its first employees involved mostly in copper smelting and converting process developement. He was then persuaded by Professor J. M. Toguri to continue graduate studies at the University of Toronto on the kinetics of copper smelting reactions (M.A.Sc.,1968, Ph.D. 1971). After a post doctoral fellowship at the University of Grenoble in the Laboratoire de thermodymanique et physico-chimique metallurgique (LTPCM), he joined the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique where he became department chair in 1989.

His research activities have covered a wide range of subjects, including oxidation of liquid and solid sulphides, reduction of iron and ilmenite ores, developing mathematical models of heterogeneous gas-solid reactions, as well as high temperature oxidation of alloy and stainless steels. More recently his research focuses on the rheology and forming characteristics of semi-solid aluminum and magnesium alloys, and presently directs the Thixomoulding Laboratory at the National Research Council - Industrial Materials Institute in Boucherville ,QC., developing rheological models of metallic slurries and testing the mechanical properties of cast components formed in the semi-solid state. His continuing contribution to the steel industry since 1990 has led to a better understanding of the continuous galvanizing process for sheet steel .These studies, sponsored by the International Lead Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO) and participating industrial partners, have led to significant and original contributions on the analysis of the zinc coating reaction, the formation of particulate intermetallic phases, and the numerical simulation of the flow, heat and mass transport in an industrial galvanizing bath. Much of this work was done in collaboration with the diagnostics and the modeling groups at the NRC-IMI. These and previous studies have resulted in more than 120 technical papers in refereed journals and international conferences. He has participated in numerous Metallurgical Society of CIM committees in the past and has been elected as Life Member of CIM.