Biography
Educated in the UK, Robin Drew is Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering and was appointed Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University from 2008-2013. Prior to joining Concordia, he was Professor of Materials Engineering at McGill University where he was Chair from 1999-2007 and on faculty since 1984.
His own research interests are in advanced materials and he is internationally renowned for his work on metal foams, metal-ceramic composites(mostly MMCs) metal-ceramic interactions and joining processes. He is author and co-authored of over 200 papers on metals, ceramics, metal-ceramic composites and the fundamentals of metal-ceramic interactions and joining and has contributed chapters to several books and conference proceedings. He has served on a number of international advisory and organizational committees forconferences and symposia and has been an invited speaker at many international meetings.
In 2006 he received a Fellowship from the Metallurgical Society of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metals and Petroleum (CIM) for his outstanding contributions to materials science and engineering education. He was elected in 2006 as a member of the World Academy of Ceramics (Japan/Italy), being one of only three living Canadians to have received this prestigious award. He took up an Overseas Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, UK in 2008 where spent part of his sabbatical leave. In the same year, he became a Fellow of the UKInstitute of Mining, Metals and Materials Institute (FIMMM) and was also awarded the prestigious MacDonald Young award of the American Society forMaterials (ASM International). He received the Canadian Materials Physics Award in 2009 and is a past Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE) (2010-2017) and most recently (2013) was inducted as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada (FEIC). He is a Registered as a Professional Engineer of Ontario.
Research areas
Research in advanced materials: porous materials, foams, metal-ceramic composites, metal-ceramic interactions and joining processes.
Research Summary
My research expertise is in advanced materials, primarily specializing in ceramics, metal-ceramic interactions, composites, joining, foams as well as biomaterials. My publication record is extensive, having published over 200 journal and conference articles, and my current Thomson-Reuters ISI and Google Scholar h-index are 27 and 33, respectively. I have a steady and successful granting history having graduated many masters and PhD students who have gone onto successful careers themselves in either academia or industry across the globe. Throughout my academic life, I have maintained strong contacts with national and international companies as well as collaborating with several research groups both nationally and internationally, notably Mexico and the U.K.
I have held many grants over the years including NSERC: Discovery (continuously), CRD and Strategic Projects and FQRNT, mostly as PI but also as a team member. The following provides a list of topics that I have worked on over my research career spanning over 35 years:
- biomaterials
- aluminum and ceramic foams
- ceramic and metal matrix composites
- aluminum and titanium
- powder metallurgy
- non-oxide/metal ceramic joining
- joining and brazing
- fundamentals of metal-ceramic interactions
- melt extraction of oxide fiber ceramics
- metal and ceramic coatings
- processing and properties of nitride ceramics and oxynitride glasses