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WILLIAM HENRY GAUVIN
1 913-1 994
WRITTEN BY TERRENCE W. HOFFMAN
SUBMITTED BY THE NAE HOME SECRETARY
WILLIAM HENRY GAMIN, dedicated educator, world-renowned
engineer and researcher, and champion of the coordination
of university-industry-governmental research in Canada, cried
on June 6, 1994, at the age of eighty-one.
Dr. Gauvin was elected to the National Academy of Engi-
neering as a foreign associate in 1987; he was a founding
member of the Canadian Academy of Engineering in 1986.
Bill, as he was affectionately known, was born in Paris,
France, of an English father and a French mother. After his
father died, his mother remarried and later as a teenager Bill
requested that his surname be changed to that of his stepfa-
ther. This explains why he has English Christian names and a
French surname.
His early education was in London, Paris, and Brussels. He
received all his university education in chemical engineering
and physical chemistry at McGill University, obtaining his
Ph.D. in 1945. During his Ph.D. studies he was a lecturer in
the Chemical Engineering Department at McGill.
After two years in industry he returned to be an associate
professor of chemical engineering at McGill and remained so
until 1962. During this time, he was an active consultant to
the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada; in fact, he
became the head of its Chemical Engineering Division in 1957
and so maintained major responsibilities in these two institu
109
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110
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
lions. During this time, he developed applications for his in-
vention, the Atomized Suspension Technique (AST). This is
a high-temperature spray system, which was used primarily to
pyrolize waste from pulp and paper processes.
It was during this period at McGill that he attracted a large
number of Ph.D. students, whose fundamental studies in fluid
mechanics and heat and mass transfer related to the need for
a better understanding of the AST process and other aspects
~1 ~_
of the oulo and paper industry. {lis studies of high-tempera
1 1 ~ ,_ ~ ~ ~ 1 ~ \
ture gas-solid systems (he referred to them as pseudo gases)
led him to study the transfer processes and chemical reactions
in thermal, plasma jets, particularly in metallurgical applica-
tions. He has been considered a pioneer in obtaining a
fundamental understanding of thermal plasma systems.
In 1961 he founded the Noranda Research Centre in Mon-
treal and was its first research manager and later its director of
research and development until 1983. During all this time, he
was a senior research associate (directing doctoral thesis re-
search) at McGill University. He has coauthored more than
190 technical papers in the fields of electrochemistry, high-
temperature heat and mass transfer, fluid mechanics, and
plasma technology; he also holds numerous patents in high-
temperature chemical processing and technology of thermal
plasma jets. He has directed the research of more than fifty
graduate students.
Bill Gauvin was a staunch supporter and an active member
in professional societies. He had membership in nineteen dif-
ferent societies at one time or another covering the chemical
engineering, pulp and paper, metallurgical, engineering, and
research management fields in Europe and North America.
He served as president for many of them.
Bill was also invited to serve on many government scientific
advisory committees, including the National Research Coun-
cil of Canada (NRC), the Science Council of Canada, le
.
.
Conseil de la Politique Scientifique du Quebec, Hydro Que-
bec's Institut de Recherche en Energie, Advisory Committee
on Nuclear Safety, and the Industrial Materials Research Insti-
tute of the NRC. In these capacities, he played a major role in
shaping scientific policy in Canada since the early 1960s.
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WILLIAM HENRY GAUVIN
111
His illustrious academic and industrial career has been rec-
ognized by academic, government, and professional
institutions. He received four honorary doctoral degrees and
sixteen prestigious medals from Canadian and European pro-
fessional societies (in many cases their highest awards). He
was elected an honorary fellow in Canadian and U.S. societies
and won many prizes for best scientific papers. He was the
recipient of the Izaak Walton KilIam Memorial Prize (Cana-
da's highest award) and the Prix du Quebec. He was also
awarded the Companion of the Order of Canada by the Cana-
dian government.
It is important to realize that much of his reputation as a
researcher was established during the 1950s and early 1960s-
a time when research funds were scarce, Canadian university
professors were underpaid and overworked, and research was
done not "because of" but "in spite of" the academic environ-
ment in Canada. Bill Gauvin worked hard at establishing
industrial connections and relating his fundamental research
to industrial neecis, so that he could finance all his research
activities. This often meant that he had to work in different
research fields simultaneously.
Bill Gauvin was highly respected by his peers and graduate
students alike for his technical knowledge, his strong sense of
professionalism and integrity, his enthusiasm for cloing re-
search and acquiring knowledge, and his "joie de vivre"
attitude toward life in general. He represented that dedica-
tion, enthusiasm, desire to learn, and sense of professionalism
to which all students should aspire. It was ant! continues to be
a source of real pride for all his students to be known as "one
of Bill Gauvin's boys," as a Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy professor once referred to me.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
william henry
