Jad Raad is a 2023 Canada Student Merit Award winner. He achieved this award for obtaining the highest standing of his class in the fourth and final year of his degree. Here is a brief biography of the winner.
Jad Raad was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2001. From a young age, he developed a passion for physics, chemistry, and mathematics and a love for problem-solving. Keen to pursue his interests in his undergraduate education, he chose Chemical Engineering at McGill University.
While at the university, he worked for Professor Philip Servio’s Hydrate Tech lab to reduce unnecessarily high catheter infection rates among patients. He then joined Professor Milan Maric’s polymers group to produce and reinforce polyhydroxyurethanes to avoid the release of toxic phosgene gas in standard polyurethane production. Finally, for his capstone project, he was tasked with designing a baker's yeast plant under the guidance of Donald Beverly and Doctor Norman Peters. His team was selected to represent McGill at the CSChE Zeton Plant Design Competition in Fall 2023.
Upon graduation, he was honoured with the Society of Chemical Industry Merit Award in 2023. He is now pursuing a Master of Engineering at MIT’s Marelli lab for advanced biopolymers where he studies biopolymers as alternatives to existing vaccination methods. He will join Moderna as a research associate in mRNA vaccine manufacturing upon graduation in August 2024.
Visit Blog