2023 Medal Winners | francais

The 2023 CAP Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Industrial and Applied Physics

is awarded to

Michel L. Trudeau

"I am extremely honoured to receive the 2023 CAP Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Industrial and Applied Physics. I believe it highlights the strong relation that exists between basic science, materials development and characterization and industrial applications. It is my hope that this recognition will inspire others to pursue research that bridges fundamental understanding with practical innovations. Lastly, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have supported me throughout my career, with a special recognition to my wife whose unwavering belief in my abilities has consistently motivated me to surpass my own limitations." winner citation

The Canadian Association of Physicists (CAP) is pleased to announce that the 2023 CAP Medal for Outstanding Achievement in Industrial and Applied Physics is awarded to Michel L. Trudeau, Hydro-Quebec, in recognition of his innovative work in new materials development and detailed materials characterization which has resulted in advances in materials synthesis and analytical techniques. His creative and important contributions to industrial and applied physics will benefit the entire community, through the application of this knowledge to the development and understanding of industrial materials. announcement

Over the nearly last four decades, Michel L. Trudeau has made advances in metastable materials and nanomaterials that have resulted in major contributions in many energy related field such as hydrogen electrolysis, hydrogen storage, catalysis, new soft magnetic materials, fuel cells, Li batteries, semiconductor compounds for water splitting and nuclear reactor Zr alloys. He has also contributed to processing technologies like rapid quenching, high-energy mechanical milling, electrodeposition and multilayer coatings. These contributions had always for the central goal to relate the fundamental properties of these materials to their unique composition and microstructures and to their potential industrial applications.

For more than 25 years now, Michel L. Trudeau also played a visionary role at Hydro-Quebec in the development of one of the best industrial materials characterization laboratories in the country with equipment rarely seen for an electrical utility such as an Environmental High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope used for the synthesis and understanding of new battery materials.

Michel L. Trudeau has co-invented 4 patents in energy saving materials, has written 4 book chapters, edited a MRS Bulletin on Energy Related Materials as well as a conference proceeding. He co-authored 199 peer-reviewed research papers that have now been cited more than 8800 times (H-factor of 47). His contribution to the field is well recognized internationally with numerous international collaborations and conference invitations. He co-chaired 8 international conferences on nanostructured materials as well as the first American Physical Society symposium on nanostructured materials in 1991

In 2007 he was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society for “his sustained and highly original contributions to the synthesis of metastable and nanostructural materials and the study of their physical properties, with the emphasis in their uses for improved energy efficiency related applications”. He is also a fellow of the Institute of Physics since 2019. nominator citation

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