December 20, 2011

Highlights


Prof. Derek J. Fray
The Fray International Symposium on Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment was held in Cancun, Mexico from November 27th to December 1st, 2011 at the Fiesta Americana de Condesa Resort. It was organized in honor of the distinguished work and lifetime achievements of Prof. Derek J. Fray, a well known figure for his deep impact in the materials extraction and processing world, especially for developing sustainable new technologies. Prof. Fray is author of almost 400 scientific papers and inventor on approximately 179 patents arising from 62 families of patents. He is Fellow of some of the most prestigious professional societies around the world. Throughout his career his activity has impacted various fields such as nonferrous, ferrous and nano-scale materials processing; many processing routes including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, chemical vapor synthesis and processing, recycling; and several investigation techniques such as experimental measurements and physical modeling and simulation.

Sustainability and the Role of Science and Technology

The major theme of the symposium was the role of science and technology in the sustainable development of the world and the equally important dimensions of environment, economy and society. The symposium was based on a new "Sustainability Triangle" conceptual philosophy for technical conferences developed by the symposium chair. Each corner of the triangle represents Technology, Politics and Education which should closely interact with each other in order to be effective in terms of sustainability. Consequently the symposium was organized around three plenary sessions as corners of the triangle:
  1. Politics with various politicians reflecting the importance of political framework
  2. Industrial with CEO/Presidents of several major corporations reflecting the role of technology
  3. Academic reflecting the role of education for an engaged society

The Plenary Hall
This is the first time ever when politicians were included in a mostly technical symposium along with CEOs and Academics in order to reflect this triangle of sustainability and the importance of close cooperation.

The above issues were reflected in my opening speech as the chair of the symposium, in which I stressed the importance of technology and sustainable development without reducing the importance of other aspects. This was followed by a special plenary lecture by Prof. Derek Fray with various significant scientific examples from his wide experience on how science and new technologies can help solve the sustainable challenges of the world today.

The VIPs that addressed the plenary sessions of the symposium included:

Plenary I-Political Framework:

Politicians addressing the symposium:

Hon. Janez Potocnik,
EU Environmental Commissioner
Hon Reinhard Butikofer, MP,
European Parliament

HE Stephan Vavrik,
Deputy Head of European Commission in Mexico
Hon Stephan Dion, MP,
Canadian Parliament

Plenary II-Technology:

Corporations Leaders addressing the symposium:

Manuel E. Ramos,
President, Grupo Mexico/Asarco, USA
Mark Caffarey,
Vice President, Umicore, Belgium/USA

Wojciech Kedzia,
Vice President, KGHM, Poland
Krishna Parameswaran,
Environmental Director Grupo Mexico/Asarco

Hans-Peter Behrendt,
Berzelius Metall, Germany
Nobuhiko Takamatsu,
Director General Manager Iron-Making, Nippon Steel, Japan

Plenary III-Academia:

Academics addressing the symposium:

Takashi Nakamura,
President of MMIJ, Japan
Cyro Takano,
Sao Paolo University, Brazil

Yoshio Waseda,
Tohoku University, Japan
K.T. Jacob,
Indian Institute of Science, India

Martin Pech-Canul,
CINVESTAV, Mexico
Mario Sanchez,
University of Conception, Chile

Plenary Gala:


Florian Kongoli
Flogen Technologies Inc. Canada/USA
Fathi Habashi,
Laval University, Canada

Fray International Sustainability Award

In honor of the distinguished work and lifetime achievements of Dr. Derek J. Fray, the new periodic Fray International Sustainability Award was launched during the symposium with the specific goal to acknowledge the work of various personalities or entities among politicians, corporations and academics for achievements especially related directly or indirectly to science and new technologies for sustainable development. During the Gala of the symposium various personalities/entities were honoured with this Award and its respective World Crystal Trophy.

Academics:


"For Leadership in developing new technologies that contribute to a global sustainable development in the environment, economy and social points of view"


Prof. Derek J. Fray,
University of Cambridge, UK

Politicians:


"For Leadership in developing new advanced public policy frameworks related to the efficiency of mineral and metal resources for a global sustainable development"

Receiving the Fray International Sustainability Award by Dr. Florian Kongoli

HE Stephan Vavrik/Hon. Janez Potocnik,
Environmental Commissioner of European Union
Hon. Stephan Dion,
Member of Parliament, Canada

Hon. Reinhard Butikofer,
Member of European Parliament


Corporations:


"For Leadership in developing and applying new innovative business plans and operation technologies for a sustainable development of the company in the environment, economy and social points of view"

Receiving the Fray International Sustainability Award by Dr. Florian Kongoli

M. Ramos,
President, Grupo Mexico/Asarco
W. Kedzia,
Vice President, KGHM

M. Caffarey, and M. Van Camp,
VP and Director, Umicore
Hans-Peter Behrendt for Reinhard Pullenberd,
Berzelius Metal, Germany

Nobuhiko Takamatsu,
Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan
Ulrich Kerney,
Technical Director, Weser-Metall GmbH, Germany

Javier Hernándes and Rafael González,
VPs-Metals and Chemicals, Industrias Penoles, Mexico

Technical Program

The symposium had a strong technical program dealing with principles, technologies and industrial practice with special emphasis on their effects on the sustainable developments of the 21st century. The overwhelming response from the international professional community was reflected in about 500 contributions received from authors and co-authors from 80 countries all over the world, which made this symposium a record in its class. Papers by primary authors represented the following 56 countries given alphabetically: Albania, Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia Germany, Hungary, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea North, Korea South, Kosovo, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Zambia. The biggest contributor countries were China, Japan, Russia, Mexico, USA, UK, Brazil and India.

Zdenek Kunicky,
Director, Kovohute
Me. Migen Dibra,
International Lawyer

Manuel A. Martinez,
General Supervisor, AHMSA
Onofre Monge and Maria.T. Certucha
University of Sonora
The program covered a wide range of topics in depth. The papers were presented in 72 sessions divided in the following symposiums:

Social Program

The participants enjoyed several magnificent social functions which included:

The welcoming cocktail and sited dinner on Sunday evening held in the outside swimming pool area under special artificial lighting, where the attendees enjoyed a variety of Caribbean food and a magnificent outdoor Caribbean dancing show on the stage built especially for the symposium in between the swimming pools.

The Gala held on Monday evening in the Ballroom where the participants enjoyed a special three course dinner with specialties prepared specifically for the attendees by the hotel chef as well as the magnificent Michael Jackson Show. At the end of the show the attendees had the opportunity to have an individual picture taken with "Michael Jackson".
Pool-Area Cocktail, Dinner and Caribbean Dancing Show
Ballroom Gala with Michael Jackson Show
Beach Area Cocktail, Dinner and Mexican Dancing Show


The Tuesday evening cocktail and sited dinner held in the sand by the ocean occupying the entire beach area in front of the hotel under magnificent artificial lighting. Here the attendees enjoyed a variety of Mexican food as well as a magnificent Mexican Dancing Show on the stage built especially for the symposium in the sanded area in front of the ocean. Many attendees will not forget the pictures they took with the dancers with colorful costumes at the end of the show.

Attendees also enjoyed individually three a-la-carte fine restaurants (Italian, Mexican & Asian) and various optional shows included in the package, diverse evening/nights activities in the Cancun center as well as a range of post-symposium tours.

Sponsors

The symposium was organized by FLOGEN Star OutreachTM (www.flogen.org), a non-profitable international organization dedicated to bringing to the world-wide society level of acknowledgement of various science, technology and engineering persons or entities for achievements related to global sustainable development. It was sponsored by a record number of about 240 organizations all over the world, the biggest number ever of sponsors for any symposium held globally.

The following prestigious global corporations were financial sponsors of the symposium:

Platinum: Gold: Silver: Bronze: The complete list of financial supporters and organizational sponsors at: www.flogen.com/FraySymposium/?url=Sponsors

Attendees' Satisfactory Rate

A poll among the attendees after the symposium showed an overall satisfactory rate of 96%

Thank You Note

As the chair and organizer of the symposium, I would like to sincerely thank corporate and organizational sponsors, co-chairs and international committee members, authors and co-authors, FLOGEN Board, Claude Tetom and other FLOGEN colleagues as well as my wife Migen, son Davis and his grandmother Tina.

As the editor of these Proceedings I would like to sincerely thank Ellouise McGeachie, Claude Tetom and other colleagues of FLOGEN for their great help.
Dr. Florian Kongoli
Chair and Organizer
Fray International Symposium
Nov. 27th - Dec. 1st, 2011
fkongoli@flogen.com