Posted on November 25, 2020
A first-time recipient from the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining, Associate Professor Ahmad Ghahreman has been selected by a jury of his peers to receive the faculty-wide Excellence in Research Award.
The award, which comes with a $10,000 grant to be used to support the recipient’s research, recognizes outstanding contributions by faculty members to the research environment in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Queen’s University. The award is intended to reward faculty for their research leadership and for fostering collaborative growth at the graduate level within the Faculty.
“I am very pleased to receive this award from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science,” said Dr. Ghahreman in an email.
“This is a very special award that recognizes the research achievements of faculty members but I must add that I am most thankful to the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining as well as Queens University, for providing me the opportunity to build my research group. Also, I would like to note that the graduate students are the core of any research work, and I am especially thankful to all my students, those that have always been eager to learn, have been creative in their research, and have delivered excellent research works.” (Read the full statement below).
This year the Faculty of Engineering Excellence in Research Award received nominations for eight candidates from all five departments, the largest competition in recent years, with many very strong candidates.
Nominations were assessed by the Faculty Awards Committee, which included members from all five departments nominated by their departments, and chaired by Associate Dean (Research) Amir Fam.
“Dr. Ghahreman is truly a rising research star with a very strong partnership with industry,” said Associate Dean Fam at the announcement of the award. “He has been leading a very successful research program characterized by multiple projects sponsored by industry, many of which have been leveraged through tri-council funding. This has enabled him to supervise and train a very large group of students and post-doctoral fellows.”
Professor Ghahreman joined the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science in 2014 as assistant professor. He is director of the Hydrometallurgy and Environment Group whose research focuses on the hydrometallurgical processing of resource materials.
A profile of Dr. Ahmad Ghahreman from 2017:
Associate Professor Ahmad Ghahreman comments on the Excellence in Research Award:
I am very pleased to receive this award from the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) at Queens University. Here at Queens University we have a very strong, dynamic and intensive research culture and many of my colleagues are among the best in their fields of research. I am honored to be recognized for research within FEAS.
This is a very especial award that recognizes the research achievements of faculty members but I must add that I am most thankful to the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining as well as Queens University, for providing me the opportunity to build my research group. Also, I would like to note that the graduate students are the core of any research work, and I am especially thankful to all my students, those that have always been eager to learn, have been creative in their research, and have delivered excellent research works.
Canada is a world leader in mining industry and now more than ever we need to build the human capital that we need to maintain our global leadership. My main goal at Queen’s University is to produce the next generation of talented leaders in the field of extractive metallurgy and hydrometallurgy, which our industry desperately needs.
Hydrometallurgy is a multidisciplinary field of research at the merger point of mining engineering with metallurgical and chemical engineering and chemistry. My research mostly focusses on the development of environmentally-sustainable and economically-viable processes and technologies for chemical extraction of metals and minerals. My main metal of interest is gold, particularly because Canada is a world leader in gold extraction. I am also very active in the extraction of critical and energy metals, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth metals, because the electrification of our society and our green development depends on the availability of those metals.