Winners
2026
Edouard Asselin
Edouard Asselin is a professor of materials engineering at the University of British Columbia and industrial research chair in hydrometallurgy. His research focuses on aqueous processing of metals, with particular emphasis on sulfide leaching, corrosion, electrochemistry, and sustainable extraction technologies. He has led numerous industry-supported research programs spanning copper, zinc, and emerging critical metal systems, and works closely with global mining and metallurgical partners to translate fundamental insights into industrial practice.
Dr. Asselin has authored over 150 technical publications and is widely recognized for his contributions to understanding passivation and redox processes in hydrometallurgical systems. He is also an inventor on numerous patents related to metal extraction technologies. He is a past president of the Metallurgy and Materials Society (MetSoc) of CIM and served on its board of directors for over a decade.
Through his academic and industry engagements, he remains actively involved in advancing practical, low-impact processing solutions for the minerals sector.
2026
Kristian Waters
Kristian Waters has been a faculty member in the Department of Mining and Materials Engineering at McGill University since 2009, where he currently serves as associate professor and chair. His research focuses on mineral processing and separation techniques, including froth flotation, magnetic separation, and gravity concentration. He is also a licensed professional engineer in Ontario.
Before joining McGill, Waters was a postdoctoral research associate at Imperial College London, where his work explored the separation of fine mineral particles through flotation using colloidal gas aphrons and particle tracking in froth flotation cells via the positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) technique.
Waters holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, a Master of Science in Instrumentation and Analytical Science from the University of Manchester, and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering with German, also from the University of Manchester.