UOIT confers its first-ever PhD graduates at 2011 convocation

OSHAWA, ON - In an academic year that has seen the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) mark a substantial number of major milestones and celebrate the openings of new buildings and key infrastructure, 2011 will also be remembered for another remarkable achievement in university history. At UOIT's convocation ceremony on June 3 at Oshawa's General Motors Centre, two Mechanical Engineering PhD candidates, Abdussalem Abuadala and Mehmet Fatih Orhan became the university's first-ever doctoral degree recipients.

"This is a remarkable time in UOIT history as we confer our first doctorates at the conclusion of our eighth academic year," said Dr. Richard Marceau, provost and vice-president, Academic. "Many long-established universities have taken decades to develop graduate programs, let alone confer their very first doctoral degrees. This achievement underscores how UOIT is focused on fulfilling its mission which includes advancing the highest quality of learning, teaching and research, while providing market- and career-oriented programs which are innovative and responsive to the needs of students and employers."

Appropriately, UOIT's first PhD graduates are students of the first doctoral program ever recommended for approval by Academic Council. In 2008, following the program's subsequent approval by the Board of Governors, the Ontario Council of Graduate Studies confirmed that UOIT's Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) would be the first faculty to offer a PhD program, in Mechanical Engineering. Since that time, UOIT has added six other doctoral programs (Applied Bioscience; Computer Science; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Materials Science; Modelling and Computational Science; and Nuclear Engineering).

Dr. Abdussalam Abuadala earned his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Al-Fateh University (AFU) in Tripoli, Libya in 1985. His career spanned a number of positions before he completed his MSc at AFU in 1996. His PhD thesis, prepared under the supervision of Dr. Ibrahim Dincer, professor, FEAS, is entitled Investigation of Sustainable Hydrogen Production from Steam Biomass Gasification.

"I had learned through colleagues that faculty members at UOIT interacted with leading researchers and experts and that the laboratories were equipped with cutting-edge technologies," said Dr. Abuadala. "I was also encouraged by the availability of financial assistance through teaching opportunities, scholarships and bursaries, so I enrolled in the PhD program in January 2009. I achieved the program objectives through a combination of advanced course work, independent research, seminars, mandatory workshops and research publications."

Dr. Mehmet Fatih Orhan's PhD thesis is entitled Conceptual Design, Analysis and Optimization of Nuclear-based Hydrogen Production via Copper-chlorine Thermochemical Cycles. Following his MASc in Mechanical Engineering studies at UOIT and then during his PhD studies, the university opened its multi-million dollar Clean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL) where he has been part of the team that is researching hydrogen production from nuclear energy using thermochemical water splitting.

"It is an honour for me to be one of UOIT's first-ever master's degree recipients in 2008 and now doctoral degree in 2011," said Dr. Orhan. "The first time I heard about UOIT was from one of my favourite professors at the University of Gaziantep in Turkey where I completed my bachelor's degree. This professor was coming to UOIT for a year as a visiting researcher in Mechanical Engineering and he was attracted here because of how quickly the university's faculty had become well-known worldwide. This reputation for research excellence is as true today as when I arrived here in 2007 as a first-ever graduate student at UOIT. But UOIT also stands apart for being a university where you are known by name and everyone is welcoming, supportive and helps you adapt. As an international student, I appreciated this warmth and certainly liked not feeling like a foreigner here in Canada."

In addition to his research work, Dr. Orhan has also been deeply involved as a teaching assistant in the fields of thermodynamics, heat transfer and fluid mechanics. He says the best part of his UOIT experience has been meeting so many different people and learning new things. He'll also remember being part of the championship team in the Intramural Soccer League. He plans to continue his academic studies and teaching here in Canada or in Turkey.

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About UOIT

As an innovative university, UOIT delivers a leading-edge learning environment that uniquely combines academic knowledge, research opportunities, hands-on skills and a vibrant student life. UOIT's more than 7,400 undergraduate and graduate students are taught by professors who are experts in their fields from around the world. As Ontario's first laptop-based university, the university offers a diverse array of challenging undergraduate and graduate degree programs through its faculties of Business and Information Technology; Education; Energy Systems and Nuclear Science; Engineering and Applied Science; Health Sciences; Science; and Social Science and Humanities. UOIT's commitment to research excellence has resulted in millions of dollars in grants and awards, including seven Canada Research Chairs. To find out more, visit www.uoit.ca or call 905.721.8668.

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Bryan Oliver
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Ontario Tech University
905.721.8668 ext. 2209
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