About the Invention

"Knowledge of thermal properties, such as heat conduction and heat capacity, are fundamental to every application in materials science," says Dr. Mary Anne White.

Dr. Mary Anne White is a specialist in the thermal properties of materials. After seven years of research and experimentation, Dr. White and her team have developed a new class of heat storage chemicals which absorb waste heat from industrial processes. The goal is to turn the heat storage chemicals into tailored-made materials with particular thermal properties for use in the home building industry and for other uses.

Dr. White is carrying out this research at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she is Killam Research Professor in Material Science and Professor, Chemistry and Physics. Dr. White's research is based on the knowledge that the heat content of a material, once heated, increases. Extra heat is required to melt a material. Dr. White deduced that this added heat could be recovered and later used. The new heat-absorbing chemicals that she has developed stay as a solid form and don't melt or float away when they gain or lose heat, a problem faced by others in the past.

Dr. White and her colleagues are now testing energy efficient materials that have been designed with heat storage properties in a solar home in the Halifax area. The materials will be heated during the day by solar (sun) energy and then the stored heat will be radiated out at night. During this test, Dr. White will be observing the way the materials function such as how they conduct heat, and why they change colours and form.

Dr. White began developing theories more than a decade earier, though she credits the North America energy crisis of the late 1970's as a source of inspiration. Though the process has yet to be patented, Dr. White and her team hope to eventually see the materials they create in wide use insulating homes and applied to other areas.

About the Inventor

Dr. Mary Anne White is considered one of Canada's most influential scientists. She graduated from MacMaster University in Ontario with her Ph.D. and is now Killam Research Professor in Material Science and Professor, Dalhousie University in Halifax Chemistry and Physics.

Dr. White was born in London, Ontario and now lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia with her husband and children. As a researcher, working in her field has made her realize that research can connect to real life, but that making connections come to fruition is hard work. Real progress is long-term progress and despite setbacks, one can't give up.

Looking back over her career, Dr. White feels that she entered her profession at the right time. As a graduate in the mid-seventies, she says that there was great public expression at that time that women could do what ever they put their minds to. In her career, she benefited from the support of her husband and her research group, as well as various funding agencies, such as the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council.