Shahria Alam – Professor
For the past six years, Dr. Shahria Alam has been extensively involved in research related to smart materials and their structural applications, seismic rehabilitation of deteriorated structures, and performance based design of reinforced concrete, prestressed concrete, and masonry structures. He is a winner of many awards and scholarships, and his research contribution has been recognized by various professional bodies and institutions. Prior to join at UBC-Okanagan, Dr. Alam has worked in several industrial projects while working as a structural engineer for Halcrow Yolles (Toronto) and JNE Consulting Ltd. (Hamilton, ON). Few notable projects are Canadian Museum for Human Rights, City Center Las Vegas, and Burlington Performing Art Centre, Burlington, ON and several steel structures for US Steel Canada and Praxair Canada Inc. Currently Dr. Alam is involved in several industrial projects in BC.
Mohammad Arjmand – Assistant Professor & Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Advanced Materials and Polymer Engineering
Dr. Mohammad Arjmand is an assistant professor, and the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Advanced Materials and Polymer Engineering, at UBC Okanagan. He received his PhD from the University of Calgary with a focus on electrical conductivity, electromagnetic interference shielding and dielectric properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube / polymer nanocomposites.
Dr. Arjmand leads the Nanomaterials and Polymer Nanocomposites Laboratory (NPNL).
His expertise focuses on the synthesis and engineering of various carbon-based nanomaterial structures, including graphene.
Michael Benoit – Assistant Professor
Michael Benoit is an assistant professor of manufacturing engineering in the School of Engineering at The University of British Columbia (Okanagan campus). His research interests relate to material processing and industrial metallurgy.
Dr. Benoit received his PhD and BASc degrees from the University of Waterloo. As a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow, he investigated the development of crack-free Al alloys for additive manufacturing at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.
His industrial experiences include performing field trials at Dana Canada Corporation’s R&D facilities during his PhD, as well as internships at Titan Medical Inc., Ontario Power Generation, Ambri Inc., and Thapar University in India.
Lukas Bichler – Associate Professor, Associate Director of Research and Industrial Partnership, Principal Researcher of Cleantech Hub
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.
Dr. Bichler established two laboratories at UBC focusing on multi-process approach to materials development: Metalcasting Laboratory for Advancement of Magnesium and Aluminum Alloys, and the Spark Plasma Sintering Laboratory for Advanced Ceramic, Metallic, Nano and Functionally-Graded Materials and Composites.
His expertise focuses on metalcasting, powder metallurgy, materials development and technology transfer.
Joshua Brinkerhoff – Associate Professor
Dr. Joshua Brinkerhoff is an associate professor in UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering and leads the UBC Okanagan Computational Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
Dr. Brinkerhoff’s expertise includes wind turbine aerodynamics and atmospheric boundary layers, as well as fundamental studies in turbulence, laminar-to turbulent transition, and large eddy simulation. His interests also include multiphase and multi-species modelling for clean energy systems, including cryogenics, hydrogen storage, hydrogen safety, and hydrogen blending, all investigated using high-fidelity numerical simulations.
Sunny Ri Li – Associate Professor
Dr. Sunny Li is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at UBC Okanagan campus. His research centers around heat transfer and fluid dynamics involved the thermal management of energy systems, electronics cooling, and recovery of waste heat. Before joining UBC, Dr. Li was a research scientist at the Global Research Center of General Electric, Schenectady, New York. He received his MASc and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from University of Toronto.
Jian Liu – Assistant Professor
Dr. Jian Liu completed a BEng degree in Metallic Materials Engineering at Sichuan University in 2006, an MEng in Materials Science and Engineering at University of Science and Technology Beijing in 2009, and a PhD in Materials Science at the University of Western Ontario in 2013.
Prior to joining UBC in January 2017, he was a postdoctoral fellow in Energy and Environment Directorate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL, 2015-2016), and Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2014-2015). Dr. Liu is the recipient of the prestigious NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2014-2016), a PNNL Alternated-Sponsored Fellowship (2015-2016), the Mitacs Elevate Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (2013-2014), and the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad (2013).
He leads the Advanced Materials for Energy Storage Lab where his research focuses on using new materials design (such as graphene and other carbon materials) for Li-ion batteries and “beyond Li-ion batteries”.
Dimitry Sediako – Associate Professor
Dr. Dimitry Sediako’s career extends over 30 years of R&D in steel, aluminum, and magnesium metallurgy, including 20 years in industry. In his most recent research at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, he has been utilizing unique properties of neutrons, allowing direct stress measurements and phase analysis inside metal parts and components. He collaborates extensively with a number of automotive manufacturers, both OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, enabling new alloys development, stress analysis, and technology optimization for the most challenging applications. A specific focus of his research is stress characterization in automotive, aerospace, and marine powertrain components, as well as in-situ studies of solidification, phase evolution, and high temperature creep in new aluminum and magnesium alloys’ development for the transportation industries. Dr. Sediako is an author of more than 200 articles and a licensed Professional Engineer. In 2014 he was inducted into the Fellowship of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
His expertise focuses on the development and characterization of novel high-temperature aluminum and magnesium alloys for automotive and aerospace applications.
Alexander Uhl – Assistant Professor
Dr. Alexander R. Uhl received his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), Switzerland and Diploma in Nanoscale Engineering from the University of Würzburg, Germany after graduate stays at the University of British Columbia and Uppsala University in Sweden. As a three-time fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington, and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
Dr. Uhl joined the Okanagan School of Engineering at the University of British Columbia in January 2019. With a focus on materials and technologies for solar energy conversion, Dr. Uhl develops printed solar cells, tandem devices, and photoelectrochemical devices for clean and renewable electricity and storable fuels. His devices currently hold the world record for the highest power conversion efficiency for Culn(S,Se)2 solar cells from any non-vacuum process. Dr. Uhl has filed two patents on solution-processed chalcogenide solar cells, is the author of an invited book chapter on perovskite solar cells, and guest editor for the scientific journal Thin Solid Films.
His research focuses on functional materials and devices for photo-voltaic and photo-electrochemical applications that can convert abundant solar energy into clean electricity or storable fuels.