Dr. Mohamed Lachemi

Mohamed Lachemi’s inspiration to pursue engineering as a career came in a single moment, when the ground shook violently one day in North Africa. Lachemi was a high school student in Algeria when a devastating earthquake struck his small town. The quake killed 4,000 people, and levelled many of the town’s buildings.

In the puzzling aftermath, Lachemi found his life’s quest: ”I had to know why some buildings were standing, and others were completely destroyed. I could see that engineering has the power to save lives.” Thus began Lachemi’s global journey as an undergraduate and graduate student, engineer, university faculty member, internationally-renowned researcher, dean and ultimately president of Ryerson University.

Researching and developing strong, durable and most importantly sustainable concrete has become his research focus. His success resulted in appointment as a Canada Research Chair, and though his position as university president occupies much of his time, he has continued his research, including supervision of graduate students.

A tragic earthquake began Lachemi’s career in engineering, but at Ryerson he has found a home to follow his passion: “Our university community shares a simple but powerful mission—to respond to society’s needs through education and research.”