Doug Perovic

Imagine a future of “smart materials”, where your car’s bumper remembers its shape and can spring back to form after it’s been destroyed in a crash. Or a world where the wing of an airplane can warn that it’s about to crack.

The future, according to Dr. Dragon (Doug) Perovic, is all about coaxing atoms and molecules to assemble themselves. It’s called nanotechnology – a branch of science dealing with measures so small that they cannot be seen through an ordinary microscope – and it’s arguably one of the hottest areas of science and engineering right now.

Saturday Night magazine recently referred to Perovic as the ‘nabob of nanotechnology’. At 38-years old, he is the chair of the University of Toronto’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (making him the youngest department head at the University). In 2001, the U of T launched its undergraduate nano-engineering option, the first program of its kind to be offered anywhere in the world, with Perovic at the helm.

Perovic is a Post-Doctoral Fellow from the University of Cambridge, U.K, and completed his Ph.D., his Master’s and his B.Sc. in Materials Sciences at the University of Toronto.