Dr. Chad W. Sinclair

Professor

B. Eng., Ph.D (McMaster)

Office: FF 411

Research and Teaching Interests

Prediction of microstructure and properties of engineering alloys through the use of experiments and modelling, predicting the correlation between the structure of alloys, at the microstructural and atomic scale, and their mechanical behaviour

Biography

I studied Materials Engineering at McMaster University, obtaining my B.Eng. in 1997 with a minor in the “Theme School for New Materials and Their Impact on Society”. The innovative Theme School concept pioneered at McMaster was far ahead of its time and has very strongly influenced my teaching philosophy . Following graduation, I continued on to Graduate school, obtaining my Ph.D. in Materials Science under the supervision of Prof. J. D. Embury and G. C. Weatherly. My Ph.D. work sought to understand how we can tailor the strength of metallic nanocomposites through the control of crystalline interfaces. This involved the growth of model materials via directional solidification, mechanical testing of these materials and finally detailed microscopy using transmision electron microscopy. I was also a regular user of the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre at Chalk River, later being involved as a member of the Beamline development team for the VULCAN beamline at the SNS at Oakridge National Laboratory. Following my Ph.D. I changed research direction, becoming a Post Doctoral Fellow jointly at the UGINE-ALZ (now APERAM) Stainless Steel Research Centre and INP Grenoble (France) under the supervision of J.-H. Schmitt and Y. Brechet. During this period I worked on topics related to the processing and properties of ferritic stainless steels, including the phenomenon of ridging. In 2002 I joined the Department of Materials Engineering at UBC as an Assistant Professor. My research at UBC focuses on prediction of microstructure and properties of engineering alloys through the use of experiments and modelling. In particular, my current focus is in predicting the correlation between the structure of alloys, at the microstructural and atomic scale, and their mechanical behaviour.

Resources

See the Sinclair Group Website for a detailed description of my research interests and links to recent publications