News Release

Carleton Professor Junjie Gu Wins 2006 Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award

October 31 , 2006

(Ottawa)--Dr. Feridun Hamdullahpur, Vice-President (Research and International), is pleased to announce that Carleton University assistant professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Dr. Junjie Gu, is the recipient of the 2006 Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award.

This $10,000 award recognizes and supports outstanding young faculty researchers whose academic work is particularly innovative, enhances the learning environment in the department in which they study, and has the potential to be significant to society.

Dr. Gu won the award for his research on low-grade, heat-driven refrigeration systems that will replace mechanical vapour compression refrigeration systems. The new systems will work on low temperature waste heat sources, which are currently an environmental concern and disposed in oil refineries. The more conventional systems typically consume costly electricity and their refrigerants also cause pollution problems. In the oil and gas industry, this new environmentally friendly technology has tremendous implications as it can save electricity, reduce flare emissions and recover waste heat and liquid-petroleum products which will substantially cut down on pollution. The research team is applying for a patent for this research.

Dr. Gu says:  “The award will be used to support one of my graduate students to do a technical and economic analysis of the application of our technology in a real oil refinery plant. I am delighted to see that our research will be applied to the real world, to help solve serious energy and environmental problems.”

Professor Gu is also doing notable research into ultrasound-activated microbubbles that help improve cancer drugs. He is examining whether microbubbles introduced into cancer tissue, and activated with ultrasound, will increase cell membrane permeability to improve the uptake of drugs in tumour cells.

Dr. Gu completed his PhD in Mechanical/Chemical Engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern in Germany in 2000. From 2000-02, he was a Post-doctoral NSERC Research Fellow at the University of Toronto. He joined the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Carleton in July, 2002. He has already received several awards including a 2006 Research Achievement Award from Carleton, a 2005 Recognition Award from SAE, and a German Academic Exchange Service Scholarship from 1995-2000. He has published several articles in noted journals and written a book Simulation of an Adsorption Process for an Activated Carbon Column (original in German, Shaker Verlag, Aachen, Germany). He also has two patents to his credit.

The Petro-Canada Young Innovator Award program has funded over 100 research projects across Canada. The program was created in 1995 and has been established in more than 20 academic centres across Canada. To date, Carleton has conferred eight awards to outstanding young faculty researchers.

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For more information:

Lin Moody

Media Relations Officer

Carleton University

613-520-2600 ext. 8705

Dr. Junjie Gu

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Carleton University

613-520-2600 ext. 5689

Junjie_gu@carleton.ca

(**pronunciation guide gin-gee goo)