Graduate Student Welcome and Information Session:
Sunday, October 19 ♦ 14:30
- 16:00 ♦ Provinces II Room
The session will begin with a greeting from Milena Sejnoha, MCIC, CSChE
President. You will then have the opportunity to hear details of the activities planned for grad students and
to learn about the research environment in Ottawa. We will have two guest speakers, Zakiah Kassam of Plasco
Energry Group Inc., who will discuss the company's research and vision, and Dr. Emily Moore, MCIC, who will
discuss her experiences and career as a chemical engineer.
Zakiah Kassam
Zakiah A. Kassam holds a Chemical Engineering degree from McGill
University and a Master of Environmental Engineering degree from the University of Calgary. She worked
extensively in the energy sector prior to pursuing an MBA at the University of Toronto. Her work experience
includes research in environmental bioengineering, process design for the oil and gas sector, and
environmental consulting. She is currently Manager of Technical Marketing at Plasco Energy Group.
Plasco Energy Group Inc.
Plasco Energy Group Inc. is a private Canadian waste conversion and energy
generation company based in Ottawa, Canada. Plasco builds, owns and operates Plasco Conversion System
facilities that use proprietary world-leading technology to convert municipal household, commerical or
industrial waste into green power and other valuable products. The company has more than 125 employees from
engineering to plant delivery and is growing fast. Led by an experienced team of senior executives Plasco
knows how to deliver successful projects that earn the support of the whole community.
Dr. Emily Moore, MCIC
Emily
Moore completed her BSc in Engineering Chemistry at Queen’s University in 1992. She then
studied Physical Chemistry at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, completing her doctorate in Gas Phase Reaction
Kinetics in 1996. In 1997, she joined the Xerox Research Centre of Canada as a research
scientist. In 2003, Emily was promoted to Principal Engineer, and in 2006 was appointed an Area Manager
in the Scale-up Engineering group. Her main focus at XRCC was the scale-up of Xerox’s
Emulsion Aggregation toner technology, a wet chemical method of manufacturing toner. In her last years
at XRCC, Emily also initiated a pilot project on microreaction technology. Emily holds seven US Patents
with several more pending. In 2008, Emily moved to Hatch, a consulting engineering company in the metals,
mining, energy and infrastructure sectors, as the Director of Technology Development.
Emily
has served as a member of the NSERC Advisory Committee on University Industry Grants and is Director of
Outreach and Student Affairs for the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering. Emily has three children who
keep her busy outside of work, but she still tries to find time to garden, run, bike and cross-country
ski.
