Marc-Étienne stands in front of a computer on his lab bench at the AST Research Centre.
Marc-Étienne Lamarche-Gagnon, certainly no stranger to higher education, was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Research Council (NRC) and is currently a research officer at the NRC's Automotive and Surface Transportation (AST) Research Centre.
His career began in 2012 when he obtained a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Polytechnique Montréal. Shortly afterwards, he began his master's in fluid dynamics but fast-tracked into the doctoral program when the scope of his work kept expanding. He went on to receive an award for the best thesis, not only in his department but in the entire school! Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Ottawa, he set his sights on the NRC to complete his second postdoctoral fellowship, in simulation and numerical modelling, with the AST Research Centre in Boucherville, Quebec.
At the NRC, Marc-Étienne's work focuses on manufacturing processes that involve cooling, heating and the circulation of fluids, such as casting, which involves fabricating parts by driving a molten material into a mold. Every day, he works on developing numerical models and software to simulate the physics behind these processes and helps design the tools and sensors involved in them. Driven by his interest in fluid and heat transfer phenomena, he's currently working on designing the most efficient cooling channels in molds. The cooling process is done in cycles, and he's looking to find the optimal topology (the shape, position and cross-section) to most effectively remove heat and ensure cooling uniformity.
Marc-Étienne loves that, at the NRC, he can combine fundamental and applied research. "During my previous doctoral and postdoctoral studies, I worked mostly on fundamental research. It's not always easy to find projects that deal with real-life problems, but working at the NRC has allowed me to apply my fundamental knowledge to the industry."
Find out more about the NRC's Postdoctoral Fellowship program and Automotive and Surface Transportation Research Centre.