History
History of the Canadian Association for Composite Structures and Materials (CACSMA)
By Suong V. Hoa
The Canadian Association for Composite Structures and Materials (CACSMA) was conceived and founded by Suong Van Hoa in 1988. It received funding support from Industry Science and Technology Canada in the amount of $596,000 for a period of 5 years. The condition of the grant was that the Association would generate an equal dollar amount in activities over the period.
The inaugural meeting of the Association took place in November 1988 at the Holiday Inn in Isle Charron in Montreal. Presiding over the inauguration was Professor Stephen Tsai from Stanford University.
CACSMA was officially registered as a not-for-profit organization with the government of Canada in 1988.
From 1988 till 1992, CACSMA had a Board of Directors which consisted of 12 members. One third came from Industry, one third came from government agencies and one third came from universities.
The chair of the Board was Dr. Robert Fews from Bell Helicopter. Other members were: Sid Monaghan (Pratt & Whitney), Jacques Bonaventure, Suong Van Hoa (Concordia), Raymond Gauvin (Ecole Polytechnique Montreal), Jean Michel Charrier (McGill University), Toan Vu Khanh (National Research Council Canada), Clement Roy (Sherbrooke university), Bill Wallace (National Research Council of Canada), Anthony Stone (Industry, Science and Technology Canada), Claude Lagace (Quebec ministry), and Terry Sutherland (FRE Composites).
From 1988- 1990, the executive committee consisted of: Suong Van Hoa (President), Raymond Gauvin (Vice President), Leslie West (secretary) and Jacques Bonaventure (Treasurer).
From the beginning CACSMA had two full time employees: an Executive Director (Ms. Leslie West) and a secretary (Ms. Sophie Merineau).
The office of CACSMA was at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Concordia University.
CACSMA had a logo and a seal. The logo of CACSMA from 1988 until 2015 is shown in figure 1.
CACSMA organized the first Canadian International Conference on Composites in 1991 in Montreal, The chair of the conference was Suong Van Hoa.
From 1990 till 1994, the President of CACSMA was Raymound Gauvin.
In 1992, CACSMA ran into financial difficulties. The expenses for the full time Executive Director and Secretary were too high. A few members of the Board resigned.
Fortunately, the CANCOM 1993 conference in Ottawa chaired by Bill Wallace made sufficient money to pay the salaries of the Executive Director and Secretary. After that, CACSMA released the Executive Director, and only kept the secretary on a part time basis.
There was some fund left in the grant from the government. CACSMA asked to extend the mandate without any extra funding. It was approved.
For a number of years from 1993 until 2000, the political situation in Canada was in turmoil with a strong separatist movement in Quebec. CACSMA was affected. Raymound Gauvin stepped down as President in 1994, and many people from small and medium companies in Quebec took over the administration. Some of the people were Jean Blois, Rober Guilmette, Germain Belanger, Johanne Denault (National Research Council of Canada). The emphasis was to provide activities related to small and medium enterprises.
In 1999, the administration of CACSMA wanted to close down the Association. Suong V. Hoa (Concordia University), along with Vincent D’Arienzo (Bell Helicopter), Andrew Johnston (National Research Council of Canada), Johanne Denault (National Research Council of Canada) and Xinran Xiao (Concordia University) came and proposed to the CACSMA administration to take over CACSMA, rather than closing it. Both sides agreed.
From 1999 until 2014, the Executive committee of CACSMA consisted of the following: Suong V. Hoa (President), Vincent D’Arienzo (Vice President), Andrew Johnstson (Secretary) and Johanne Denault (Treasurer).
CACSMA adopted a new mode of operation. It has been run entirely by volunteers. Membership fees are collected by participation of functions of CACSMA (such as CANCOM conferences).
CACSMA organized a series on international conferences:
CANCOM 2001 in Montreal, chaired by Suong V. Hoa.
CANCOM 2003 in Ottawa, chaired by Andrew Johnston.
CANCOM 2005 in Vancouver, co-chaired by Göran Fernlund (The University of British Columbia) and Pascal Hubert (McGill University).
CANCOM 2007 in Winnipeg, chaired by Sean McKay.
CANCOM 2009 was organized together with the people at the American Society of Composites. It was in Delaware Center for Composite Materials, Co- chaired by Jack Gillespie and Suong Van Hoa.
CANCOM 2011 again was organized together with the people at the American Society of Composites. It was organized in Montreal. Co-chaired by Suong V. Hoa. Mike Hyer and Ozden Ochoa.
In 2013, instead of another CANCOM conference, the ICCM19 (19th International conference on composite materials), was organize in Montreal, Chaired by Suong Van Hoa and Pascal Hubert.
Suong V. Hoa resigned as President of CACSMA in 2014. Andrew Johnston became President. Mehdi Hojjati became Vice President, and Pascal Hubert was Treasurer.
CANCOM 2015 was organized in Edmonton in 2015. Pierre Mertiny was chair.
CANCOM 2017 was organized in Ottawa in 2017. Lucy Li (National Research Council Canada) and Francois Robitaille (University of Ottawa) were co-chairs.
Andrew Johnston resigned as President in 2019. Pierre Mertiny became President. Lucy Li became Vice President. Peter Richter was Secretary and Pascal Hubert was Treasurer.
CANCOM 2019 was organized in Kelowna in 2019. Abbas Milani (UBC) and Reza Vaziri were co-chairs.
CANCOM 2022 was organized in Fredericton in 2022. Gobinda Saha (University of New Brunswick), Gabriel LaPlante (Université de Moncton), Benoit Landry (Université de Moncton), and Sam Nakhla (Memorial University of Newfoundland) were co-chairs.
Pierre Mertiny resigned as President in 2023, Lucy Li became President. Joanna Wong is Vice President. Garrett Melenka is secretary. Pascal Hubert is Treasurer. Two new executive positions are added in the updated CACSMA TOR – Benoit Landry is Director of Communications and Gobinda Saha is Director of Membership.
CANCOM 2024 will take place in the region of University of Waterloo. John Montesano (University of Waterloo), Garrett Melenka (York University) and Peter Richter are co-chairs.
New CACSMA student awards were created in 2021, including Timotei Centea Memorial Award for Best PhD Thesis, Best Master Thesis Award, Undergraduate Awards
Multiple EDI activities were rolled out after EDI meetings in 2021 hosted by Lucy Li, including the first CANCOM EDI workshop at CANCOM 2022, EDI sessions since 2022, CACSMA mentorship program in 2024.
Figure 1: Logo of CACSMA from 1988 until 2015 (designed by Gabrielle Hubert, daughter of Pascal Hubert).
Figure 2: Logo of CACSMA from 2015-2024.
Figure 3: Logo of CACSMA from 2024.