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MetSoc Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is composed of MetSoc members and volunteers who are dedicated to supporting the society by assisting in the planning of community activities, webinars, events and conferences.

The Board is made up of three groups:

Executive Board

The Executive Board consists of the Immediate Past President, President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer and Secretary.

Technical Sections

The Technical Sections represent the technical diversity of the metals, minerals and materials community.

Standing Committees

These committees are dedicated to the various services of the society such as membership, students, EDI, publications, etc.

MetSoc Executive Board of Directors

Roki Fukuzawa

President

Specialist, Hatch

Janice Zinck

Immediate Past President

Director – Green Mining Innovation, base/precious metals, and critical minerals

Dimitrios Filippou

1st Vice-President

RioExpert Metallurgist, Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium

Julie Lévesque

2nd Vice-President

R&D project manager, Centre de métallurgie du Québec

Lukas Bichler

3rd Vice-President

Professor, University of British Columbia

Greg Richards

Treasurer

Teck Metals, Retired

Jessica Hiscocks

Secretary

KPM

MetSoc Technical Section Chairs

Brittany MacKinnon

Sustainability

Process Engineer-Pyrometallurgy, Hatch

Cinziana Sist

Hydrometallurgy

Specialist Metallurgist, Hatch

Sumanth Shankar

Light Metals

Professor, McMaster University

Gaofeng Li

Materials

National Research Council Canada

Charlotte Gibson

Minerals Science & Engineering

Assistant Professor, Queen’s University

Elmira Moosavi

Pyrometallurgy

Associate Professor, École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS)

MetSoc Standing Committee Chairs

Daniel Brosig

Business Development

Director, Energy Solutions at Gas Cleaning Technologies LLC

Engin Ozberk

Historical Metallurgy

CIM Fellow

André Phillion

Publications

Director, McMaster University

Sidney Omelon

Student Activities

Associate Professor, McGill University

Georges Houlachi

Membership Services

Hydro Quebec, LTE lab

Audrey Pothier

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)

EIT, Rio Tinto

Roki Fukuzawa is a Specialist at Hatch with more than thirteen years of experience in the design and engineering of off-gas handling systems for metallurgical clients in copper, nickel, zinc and gold industries. She has worked on off-gas projects from conceptual studies to detailed engineering. Roki is the Chair of COM 2023.

Janice Zinck currently works with the Government of Nova Scotia in Geoscience and Mines. Zinck is a former director at CanmetMINING, a research, development and innovation arm of Natural Resources Canada. Janice has more than 25 years’ experience in the leadership of multidisciplinary programs to address mineral resource development-related to environmental and processing challenges. She has been involved in many national and international multi-stakeholder initiatives where she has developed strategic priorities, partnerships and collaborations. She was instrumental in the creation of Canada’s Green Mining Initiative and more recently the national program on rare earth elements and chromite development in Canada.

She has been a member of CIM since 1993 and has been on CIM Council since 2010. In addition, she has served on the boards of the Canadian Mineral Processors, the Metallurgy and Materials Society and the Environmental and Social Responsibility Society of CIM, and currently is a board director for MIRARCO (Mining Innovation Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation). She has been a CIM Branch Chair (Ottawa) and is a CIM Fellow. She is a past CIM Distinguished Lecturer and was profiled as one of 18 “Women of Impact in the Canadian Materials, Metallurgy, and Mining Fields” and more recently, profiled by the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology. 

Janice has undergraduate degrees in geology and chemistry, and a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering. She holds two patents, has published extensively and presented widely on aspects relating to mineral/metallurgical processing and environmental management. More recently she completed an executive leadership program from the Institute on Governance. 

Dimitrios Filippou, Eng., Ph.D. is a metallurgical engineer with extensive experience in metal extraction R&D, process upscaling and optimisation, life cycle assessment and technology strategy development. He holds a Dipl. Eng. from the National Technical University of Athens (1988) and a Ph.D. degree from McGill University (1994). Since 2003, he works for the TiO2 Products Group of Rio Tinto Iron & Titanium. Dimitrios maintains strong ties to professional and research communities. He served as Secretary and Chair of the Hydrometallurgy Section of MetSoc (2009-2016), and he co-chaired the symposium “Pressure Hydrometallurgy 2012.”

Julie Lévesque is an R&D project manager at Quebec Metallurgy Center (CMQ), where she is the leader of the mechanical forming axis. She has close to 15 years of experience in the optimization of forming processes in collaboration with industries in the automotive, aerospace and packaging industry, amongst others.

Julie has been involved in MetSoc since 2017 as the Chair of the Light Metals technical section. She was the chair of the Light Metal Technology – Applications for the Transportation Industry at COM 2018 and a co-chair of other Light Metals symposiums at COM in 2019 and 2020. She is also active in her community, being a Women Ambassador of the Profession for the Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec (Quebec Professional Engineers order).

Dr. Lukas Bichler received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering (specializing in Manufacturing, Materials and Solid Mechanics) from Ryerson University, Toronto. Upon graduation, he received NSERC-Postdoctoral fellowship, tenured at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto. 

RESEARCH SUMMARY: Advanced characterization of materials; New alloy development; Manufacturing processes 

COURSES & TEACHING: Manufacturing processes; Fundamental and advanced topics in materials science; Professional development (law and ethics for engineers)

Greg Richards graduated in metallurgical engineering from the University of British Columbia. He continued with the department, teaching process metallurgy and conducting research in non-ferrous pyrometallurgy. He later moved to Cominco Research, working in their metallurgical research group, and then to the technical services department of Trail Operations, Teck Metals Ltd. He recently retired from his position as superintendent of knowledge management, responsible for developing systems for the capture and transfer of critical business knowledge. He has served as a board member of the Metallurgy and Materials Society of CIM since 2007.

Jessica Hiscocks is a physical metallurgist who has done metallography and research on materials from Aluminum to Zirconium.  Her early work was in solid-state forming, including extrusion and friction stir welding, and her recent Post-Doc used computer simulation to optimize aluminum flow during sand casting.

Her current work involves the development of physical metallurgy services, research, and training at Kingston Process Metallurgy.  She aims to help create a hub of academic and manufacturing relationships in Kingston, promoting light metals and sustainability.

Other fields of interest include the development and promotion of open-source software for metallographic analysis purposes, and studying Japanese.