Media Releases

Top industrial researcher joins University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies to support research on reducing environmental impact of aviation

January 23, 2012

TORONTO, ON – Dr. Sam Sam­path, who has more than 35 years of expe­ri­ence con­duct­ing research and devel­op­ment toward reduc­ing the envi­ron­men­tal impact of avi­a­tion, has joined the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Insti­tute for Aero­space Stud­ies (UTIAS). On Jan­u­ary 24, Sam­path will be for­mal­ly named the NSERC/ P&WC Indus­tri­al Research Chair in Avi­a­tion Gas Tur­bine Combustion/Emissions Research and Design Sys­tem Opti­miza­tion, a posi­tion made pos­si­ble thanks to the gen­er­ous finan­cial sup­port of the Nat­ur­al Sci­ences and Engi­neer­ing Research Coun­cil of Cana­da (NSERC) and Pratt & Whit­ney Cana­da (P&WC).

In his new role, Dr. Sam­path, along with UTIAS Pro­fes­sors Ömer Gülder, Clin­ton Groth, and Adam Stein­berg, will help to cre­ate the pre­em­i­nent group in Cana­da, and one of the top groups in the world, work­ing on com­bus­tion research in avi­a­tion. The Inter­gov­ern­men­tal Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (IPCC) esti­mates that avi­a­tion is cur­rent­ly respon­si­ble for approx­i­mate­ly 3% of man-made car­bon diox­ide emis­sions, and the avi­a­tion indus­try is seek­ing to cut those emis­sions in half by 2050.

Dr. Sam­path worked as a senior com­bus­tion researcher at Pratt & Whit­ney Cana­da, a glob­al leader in the design and man­u­fac­ture of air­craft engines. He holds 14 U.S. patents and has pub­lished more than 35 research papers. He is a Fel­low of the Cana­di­an Acad­e­my of Engi­neer­ing and has been a mem­ber of numer­ous gov­ern­ment and indus­try orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the IPCC, the Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness Avi­a­tion Asso­ci­a­tion, the Canada/India Envi­ron­men­tal Com­mit­tee, the Cana­di­an Avi­a­tion Envi­ron­men­tal Work­ing Group, and the Green Avi­a­tion Research and Devel­op­ment Net­work. Dr. Sampath’s envi­ron­men­tal impact stud­ies for the IPCC con­tributed to its receiv­ing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

The addi­tion of Dr. Sam­path fur­ther strength­ens the research under­tak­en at UTIAS that seeks to reduce the impact of avi­a­tion on the envi­ron­ment. That focus is a strate­gic direc­tion for the Insti­tute, which is the pre­mier aero­space engi­neer­ing depart­ment in Cana­da and among the best in the world.

“Our objec­tive is to estab­lish UTIAS as the world’s top research cen­tre focused on reduc­ing the envi­ron­men­tal impact of avi­a­tion. This Exec­u­tive Indus­tri­al Research Chair pro­gram sub­stan­tial­ly strength­ens UTI­AS’s research efforts toward this end and reflects its com­mit­ment to col­lab­o­rat­ing with Cana­di­an indus­try to improve the com­pet­i­tive­ness of the Cana­di­an aero­space sec­tor,” states Pro­fes­sor David Zingg, Direc­tor of UTIAS and Cana­da Research Chair in Com­pu­ta­tion­al Aero­dy­nam­ics and Envi­ron­men­tal­ly Friend­ly Air­craft Design.

“At NSERC, we are proud to be mak­ing invest­ments in peo­ple who are pur­su­ing some of the most ambi­tious and cre­ative ideas in the world,” said Dr. Suzanne Forti­er, Pres­i­dent of NSERC. “Dr. Sam­path is a high­ly respect­ed leader in the field of com­bus­tion for avi­a­tion gas tur­bine engines. His nov­el research pro­gram will bring crit­i­cal advance­ments for the devel­op­ment of green air­craft engines.”

Mem­bers of the press are wel­come to cov­er the for­mal announce­ment of Dr. Sampath’s appoint­ment. The details are as fol­lows:

Date:               Tues­day Jan­u­ary 24, 2012

Time:              6:00p.m.

Loca­tion:        The Lec­ture Hall

Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Insti­tute for Aero­space Stud­ies

4925 Duf­ferin Street, Toron­to (Map: http://g.co/maps/ffbnk)

 

Speak­ers will include Dr. Sam­path, Pro­fes­sor Zingg as well as Dr. Suzanne Forti­er, Pres­i­dent of NSERC, and Dr. John Saabas, Pres­i­dent of Pratt & Whit­ney Cana­da. To con­firm your atten­dance, please con­tact Liam Mitchell (416–978-4498 | liam.mitchell@utoronto.ca).

 

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Liam Mitchell
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions & Media Rela­tions Strate­gist
Fac­ul­ty of Applied Sci­ence & Engi­neer­ing, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Office: 416–978-4498
Email: liam.mitchell@utoronto.ca
Web: www.engineering.utoronto.ca