Mario-Fafard Scholarship 2025-2026

Since 2022, REGAL has been committed to taking concrete actions to increase the number of women among its student members. One of these actions is to encourage new female candidates to enroll in graduate studies (doctoral and master’s with thesis) with a project focused on aluminum. These students are eligible for this $2,000 scholarship.

For the 2025-2026 call for applications, we received 8 applications. Each student was required to demonstrate her past involvement in the community and/or with women; describe her career plan and her vision for the role of women in the aluminum industry; and detail her proposed solutions to address the challenges and obstacles related to the underrepresentation of women in this field. The academic record also accounted for 30% of the evaluation.

Congratulations to the two winners!

The recipient of the Mario-Fafard Scholarship (Master) is Rukayat Olayinka, a student at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, under the supervision of Reza Jafari and the co-supervision of Mathieu Fiset. Her research topic is ” Development and Performance Evaluation of Geopolymer Concrete Incorporated Bauxite Residue for Precast Pipe Applications”. Her academic record is exemplary. Furthermore, through specific examples of support for her female colleagues, she has clearly demonstrated the importance of being attentive to her community to help other female students.

The recipient of the Mario-Fafard Scholarship (Doctoral) is Yinuo Li, a student at McGill University, under the supervision of Raynald Gauvin. Her research topic is ” Systematic Quantification Method on Intermetallic Distribution in Aluminum alloys with Electron Microscopy”. The jury highlighted the excellence of her academic record, her accomplishments as detailed in her career path, and her insights on the importance of raising awareness about the realities of the aluminum sector and supporting their career paths by listening to their experiences to help female students.

The jury wishes to congratulate all the candidates. The quality of the applications evaluated this year was particularly high: the scores were very close. The jury consisted of Julie Lévesque, R&D Manager – Metal Forming and Assembly at the Quebec Metallurgy Centre; Elmira Moosavi-Khoonsari, Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the École de technologie supérieure; and Leticia Marin de Andrade, Metallography Program Manager at Rio Tinto. Congratulations!

Mario-Fafard Scholarship

Within the REGAL strategic cluster, by 2025, women members represented 32% of the REGAL student body, 13% of collaborators, and 14% of co-researchers.

The Mario-Fafard Scholarship aims to encourage women’s participation in metallurgy-related jobs. The scholarship is named in honour of Dr. Mario Fafard, who was a professor at Université Laval for 31 years. His expertise, interpersonal skills, rigor, and leadership were greatly appreciated by the hundreds of graduate students he supervised, the thousands of students who took his courses, and the research professionals under his supervision. He also held an NSERC Industrial Research Chair, partnered with Alcoa. He is the founder of the REGAL Aluminum Research Centre, a defining moment in his career. He was director of the Aluminium Research Centre – REGAL until 2018. Thanks to his sustained efforts and remarkable vision, he enabled the continued growth of REGAL, which is now recognized worldwide.