Jonas, John Joseph ²

  General Notes:

Born in Montreal and graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering in 1954. He later attended Cambridge University on an Athlone Fellowship and received a Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Sciences in 1960. On ret urning to Montreal, he began teaching “mechanical metallurgy” at McGill and built up a research laboratory that includes a number of specialized testing machines and is particularly well equipped for experimental investigations in the field of hig h temperature deformation.

Dr. Jonas is known internationally for the ground breaking studies that he and his students and colleagues have carried out at McGill on the hot rolling behaviour of metals. Their work has resulted in major improvements in the understanding of th e softening processes involved in steel processing; these have led to more accurate computer models for the control of industrial rolling mills. They have published over five hundred technical papers dealing with the scientific and engineering asp ects of metal shaping and forming. They have received numerous awards for this work, including the Réaumur and Gold Medals of the French Metallurgical Society, the Hatchett Medal and Award of the Metals Society (U.K.), the Dofasco and Alcan Award s of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Gold Medal of the Canadian Metal Physics Association, the Michael Tenenbaum Award of the American Institute of Metallurgical Engineers, the Hunt Silver Medal of the US Iron and Steel Societ y, the Barrett Silver Medal of the American Society for Metals, the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award (Germany), and the Sawamura Award of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan. Professor Jonas has been elected a Fellow of the American Societ y for Metals, the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. officer OC He is an Honorary Member of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan and of the Indian Institute of Metals . He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1993, a Chevalier of the Order of Quebec in 2000, and received the Quebec prize for science (Prix du Québec - Marie Victorin) in 1995. He has served as a visiting professor in a number of countrie s, including Argentina, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R.

In 1985, Dr. Jonas was appointed to the CSIRA/NSERC Chair of Steel Processing at McGill, a position which was funded jointly by the Canadian Steel Industry Research Association and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. I n this capacity, he worked closely with the Canadian steel industry, and collaborated in the solution of a number of important processing problems. Dr. Jonas also holds the Birks Chair of Metallurgy and is Co-Director of the McGill Metals Processi ng Centre. He and his colleagues have been granted five sets of international patents associated with steel rolling, three of which have been assigned to the sponsoring companies.

Professor Jonas served on the Quebec Science Council (Conseil de la science et de la technologie) from 1987 to 1990, and as Chairman of the AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) R&D Advisory Panel in 1992 and 1993.

John married Holly Higgins.