Laval's very impressive University Campus

A very well known extractive metallurgy academic is Laval University's Emeritus Prof. Fathi Habashi, at 88 years old still very active, travelling around the world giving workshops and seminars, a prolific author of textbooks on extractive metallurgy and its history, and a regular speaker at IMPCs and SMEs. He will be presenting two papers at the IMPC next week.

This morning Fathi and his wife Nadia kindly showed Barbara and me around the Laval University campus.

Laval University (Université Laval) is a French-language, public research university. The University was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Montmorency-Laval, making it the oldest centre of higher education in Canada and the first North American institution to offer higher education in French. The university is ranked among the top ten Canadian universities in terms of research funding.

In 1878, the university opened a second campus in Montreal, which became the Université de Montréal on May 8, 1919. By 1925 Laval had outgrown its location. The Old City was very crowded, making it difficult to add new buildings to the campus and the university moved to Sainte-Foy, west of the Quebec city centre. We were amazed by the Campus, which is a small town accommodating 4000 of the 50,000 students in 12 Faculties, and splendidly equipped with all sports, social and shopping facilities.

Many thanks Fathi and Nadia for a fascinating tour and for the lovely lunch afterwards.

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