Our Team.

Howard Alper currently spearheads the initiative by the Governor General of Canada (Head of State) aimed at promoting global recognition for Canadian research excellence. He is chairs the Canvassing Committee for the initiative. He is also Distinguished University Professor at the University of Ottawa. His basic research spans organic and inorganic chemistry, with potential applications in the pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and commodity chemical industries.

From his research, Alper has discovered new reactions using homogeneous, phase transfer, and heterogeneous catalysis (e.g. clays, dendrimers). He has also used chiral ligands in metal catalyzed cycloaddition and carbonylation reactions, and succeeded in preparing valuable products in pharmacologically active form. He has published 551 papers, has thirty-seven patents, and has edited several books.

Alper is a recipient of numerous prestigious Fellowships including the E.W.R. Steacie (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, NSERC, 1980‑82), Guggenheim (1985‑86), and Killam (1986‑88) Fellowships. Major awards to his credit include the Alcan Award for Inorganic Chemistry (1986), Bader Award for Organic Chemistry (1990), Steacie Award for Chemistry (1993), all of the Canadian Society for Chemistry. The Chemical Institute of Canada has presented Alper with the Catalysis Award (1984), the Montreal Medal (2003), and the CIC Medal (1997), its highest honour. He also received the Urgel‑Archambault Prize (ACFAS) in physical sciences and engineering.
In 2000, the Governor General of Canada presented him with the first Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal in Science and Engineering. The following year, he was given the National Merit Award for contributions to the Life Sciences. Two years later, he received the Le Sueur Memorial Award of the Society of Chemical Industry (U.K.). In 2004, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India, in 2006, an Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Institute of Canada, and in March 2013, was made an Honorary Foreign Member of the Chemical Society of Japan(CSJ), the first Canadian ever to be so honoured by the CSJ. He was also elected a Honorary Member of the Colombian Academy of Sciences in 2011, and of the Mexican Academy of Sciences in 2009.

Alper has served on a number of NSERC committees (e.g. Committee on Research Grants), and as Chair of Boards and Committees including the Partnership Group for Science and Engineering (PAGSE), Council of Canadian Academies, Canadian Research Knowledge Network, and the Steacie Institute of Molecular Sciences, among others. He was also Visiting Executive at the International Development Research Centre during 2006-2010.

In 1996, Alper was appointed in 1996 as a Titular Member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities, and in 2003 as a member of TWAS-the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999, and in 2002 he received the award of Officer, National Order of Merit, by the President of the Republic of France. In 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal. In 2014, President Napolitano of the Republic of Italy, bestowed the award of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic to Alper, He was named President of the Royal Society of Canada for a two-year term commencing November 2001, and was its Foreign Secretary from 2004-2010. In 2004, he was elected to a three-year term as Co-Chair of the InterAmerican Network of Academies of Science (IANAS). In December 2006, he was elected Co-Chair of IAP: The Global Network of Science Academies, for a three-year term, and in January, 2010, was re-elected to a second three year term as Co-Chair. In 2010, he was also appointed to the U.S. National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for International Science and Engineering, to the Science Advisory Committee of the World Economic Forum, to the Board of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences-Next Einstein Initiative, to the Advisory Board of the Global Young Academy, and as Vice-Chair of the RIKEN Advisory Council. In 2011, he was elected as Chair of the International Advisory Board of the Knowledge Economy Network headquartered in Brussels. In 2015, he was appointed to the Board of the ambitious Smart Villages initiative. On June 13, 2007, he was appointed inaugural Chair of the Government of Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) which provides advice to Cabinet and the Prime Minister on science, technology and innovation issues, and the Council also issues a State of the Nation reports every two years benchmarking Canada’s performance on a global basis. The inaugural report was released in May, 2009, the second report appeared in June, 2011, the third report was released in May, 2013, and the latest report appeared in 2015. In December, 2012, the Government of Canada reappointed him to a third term as Chair of the STIC. He completed eight years as Chair of STIC by the end of his third term in May, 2015

He is passionate about Canada, research and chocolate.

Emanuela Colombo has achieved both a PhD in Energetic and a Nuclear Engineering MSc at Politecnico di Milano(PoliMI) in Italy where she is Associate Professor and serve at the Department of Energy. She has also been covering the role of Rector’s Delegate to Cooperation and Development at Politecnico di Milano since 2005. She worked for Ansaldo Energia,ABB Research, Fluent (now ANSYS-FLUENT).

She is the scientific coordinator of a number of European projects and international tenders on Green Innovation (Egypt), Sustainable Energy Engineering (Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia), Water Energy and Food nexus (Egypt), Modern Energy services in refugee camps (Lebanon, Somalia, RCA and Colombia) and Capacity Building in Engineering (Tanzania). Over the last decade, she has also been working as expert and advisor for different Italian private players, NGOs and international organisation (UNIDO and AEEP). She is author of more than 120 scientific papers, 56 of them are in scopus or web of science and co-author of the book “Renewable Energy for Unleashing Sustainable Development” by Springer.

Adeola Adenikinju holds a PhD Degree in Economics from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a Professor of Economics and he is also a Research Professor at the Centre for Econometrics and Allied Research, as well as Senior Research Fellow, Macroeconomic Study Group, University of Ibadan. Currently, Adeola is the Director, Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law (CPEEL), a MacArthur Foundation Regional Centre of Excellence at the University of Ibadan that provides multidisciplinary training, research and consultancy in various fields of energy.

Adeola has consulted for many local and international organizations on various energy projects. Such organisations include European Union, United Nations, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), The African Economic Research Consortium, OECD, UNIDO, ECOWAS, GIZ, UNECA, the World Bank, and the National Data Bank, among others. He was one of the Consultants that prepared the First Perspective Plan for Nigeria. He is also involved in the United Nations Project Link that makes economic projection for the Nigerian Economy. Adeola was a Visiting Scholar to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1996 and 2005.

His research interests include Petroleum and Energy Economics, Macroeconomic modeling, and Economic Development issues. He has published extensively in reputable Local and International Journals, including the OPEC Review, Energy Policy, Pacific and Asian Journal of Energy, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies, and African Journal of Economic Policy. He is a Life Member, and former Business Manager of the Nigerian Economic Society; Member, African Economic Research Consortium; Member, Association of Third World Studies in Philadelphia and Member, the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) headquartered in the United States. Adeola served as the Vice President (2006-2010) and President (2011-2015) of the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics.

He is currently the Editor, Journal of Economic Management. Between 2005 and2007, Adeola served as a Special Assistant to the Nigerian Presidential Adviser on Energy Matters and Senior Special Assistant to the President, Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 2010-2011.