Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Science

News and Events

March 14, 2011

Dr. Simant Upreti announced as new Chair, Department of Chemical Engineering

Dean Lachemi is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Simant R. Upreti, P.Eng., as Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, effective July 1, 2011. Dr. Upreti brings considerable academic experience and a strong and committed academic leadership to this position. 

Dr. Upreti joined Ryerson in 2001 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, after receiving his PhD from the University of Calgary. He was tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in 2006. In his early years at Ryerson, Dr. Upreti actively contributed toward the creation of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and the establishment of its PhD program. Since 2008, he has been the Associate Chair of the undergraduate program in chemical engineering. He has served on several committees at the department, faculty and university levels.

Since joining Ryerson, Dr. Upreti has taught five undergraduate courses and seven graduate courses. He also developed a new graduate course on applied optimal control. He has supervised and co-supervised two PhD students, 17 Master's students and 20 undergraduate capstone plant design projects and theses. He is presently involved in the supervision of four PhD students, one Master’s student, and five undergraduate capstone plant design projects. 

Dr. Upreti’s research interests lie in process optimization and mass transport in polymers and heavy oils. Actively collaborating with his colleagues, Dr. Upreti has published 34 refereed journal papers, and has obtained over $900,000 in research funds. His industrial partners have been Imperial Oil, Husky Injection Molding Systems and Xerox Research Centre of Canada. He is currently writing a graduate text – Optimal Control for Chemical Engineers – to be published by CRC press.

Outside Ryerson, Dr. Upreti has helped organize the 2004 International Environmental Conference in Cartagena, Colombia and the 2005 Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference in Toronto. He has served the Ontario Graduate Studies Scholarships Program as Selection Panel Chair for three years, and has been a reviewer for NSERC grant programs and numerous peer-reviewed journals. He serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Open Journal of Petroleum Engineering and of Ryerson’s Student Journal of Automation, Robotics, Mechatronics, and Manufacturing.