Professor Cristina Amon, ATOMS Lab director, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Bioengineering, and Dean Emerita of U of T Engineering, has received the 2020 Engineers Canada Gold Medal Award. This is Engineers Canada’s most prestigious honour, recognizing outstanding engineering achievements and leadership in the Canadian engineering community.

A distinguished scholar in mechanical engineering, devoted educator and innovative academic leader, Cristina Amon served as Dean of U of T Engineering from 2006 to 2019. During that time, she established the U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering as a world leader in multidisciplinary engineering research and education while making incredible strides in advancing gender equity, diversity and inclusion.

Under Amon’s leadership, the international profile of U of T Engineering and Canadian engineering programs rose tremendously; the Faculty is now acknowledged as one of the world’s top public engineering schools in all international rankings. This is in large part due to her unwavering commitment to creating innovative educational programming, establishing structures to ensure student success, fostering multidisciplinary research and strong partnerships with industry, and promoting Canadian engineering internationally.

Amon’s research pioneered the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics for formulating and solving thermal design challenges subject to multidisciplinary competing constraints. She has made ground-breaking contributions to concurrent thermal designs, innovation in electronics cooling, optimization algorithms for renewable energy, design of biomedical devices and, most recently, transient thermal management of electrical vehicle batteries and fast chargers.

Cristina Amon has served the engineering profession with distinction and dedication. She was the founding Chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council and the Chair of the Research Committee for the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science, and has served in numerous leadership and committee roles both in Canada and abroad.

Amon has been inducted into the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Royal Academy of Spain, Royal Society of Canada, and National Academy of Engineering, and is a fellow of all the professional and technical societies in her field. She has received the highest honours for Canadian engineers, including the Ontario Professional Engineers Gold Medal and the Engineering Institute of Canada Sir John Kennedy Medal.

“Cristina Amon has advanced engineering education and the engineering profession nationwide through her visionary leadership. She is indeed an inspiring role model,” says U of T Engineering Dean Chris Yip. “On behalf of the Faculty, my warmest congratulations to her on this prestigious and well-deserved honour.”

This story was originally published on the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering News Site on June 11, 2020 by Carolyn Farrell