Innovation Profile: Dr Gord Irons

Director, Steel Research Centre
McMaster University

Dr Gord Irons is Director of McMaster University's Steel Research Centre, a unique industry-led R&D facility that is conducting some of today's most forward-thinking and industrially-relevant research.

Read Dr Irons' Bio

Dr Gord Irons

Dr Gord Irons graduated with a degree in Metallurgical Engineering from University of Toronto.  He subsequently obtained a PhD degree in Metallurgical Engineering from McGill University.  He was employed for one year at Noranda Research Centre. In 1980, he joined McMaster University. He served as the Chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, from 1991 to 1994, and 2002 to 2005. In 1996, he was appointed as the Dofasco/NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Process Metallurgy for a five year term. In January 2001, this Chair was converted to an endowed chair, the Dofasco Chair in Ferrous Metallurgy. Dr Irons is currently the Director of the Steel Research Centre at McMaster University. Dr Irons also serves as the Secretary for the McMaster University Intensive Course on Blast Furnace Ironmaking, the McMaster University Intensive Course on Cokemaking, and the McMaster University Symposium on Ironmaking and Steelmaking.

Professor Irons is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CIM), and a member of AIST, TMS, ASM International, and the Professional Engineers of Ontario. He has won the Best Paper Award from the Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly twice, the Best Paper Award from the Non-Ferrous Pyrometallurgy Section of CIM, the John Chipman Award from the ISS, the Henry Marion Howe Award for the Best Paper in Metallurgical Transactions, and the Alcan Award from CIM. He delivered the AIST Howe Memorial Lecture in 2005 and the AIST Elliott Memorial Lecture in 2007. He was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineers in 2008.