[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Loutfy_Rafik1.jpg” caption=”Rafik Loutfy has been elected chair of the board of directors of Canadian Light Source Inc. (CLSI), Canada’s national synchrotron research facility. Photo courtesy of Faculty of Engineering.”]One of Canada's leading innovators has been elected chair of the board of directors of Canadian Light Source Inc. (CLSI), Canada's national synchrotron research facility. Rafik Loutfy, director of McMaster University's Xerox Centre for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation, assumed his duties on June 24, 2008.

Loutfy, who has served as vice-chair since February 2007, succeeds former national science adviser Arthur Carty as chair. Mark Sutton, Ernest Rutherford Professor of Physics at McGill University, was elected vice-chair.

“I am very honoured to accept this leadership role for Canada's synchrotron,” says Loutfy. “The Canadian Light Source is a key driver in the continued development of science and innovation in this country.”

Loutfy has more than 30 years of experience as a research, development, business and strategic leader with the Xerox Corporation, where he served in various management positions, culminating with the post of corporate officer and vice-president of the Xerox Research Centre of Canada.

He is the inaugural holder of the Walter G. Booth Chair for Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation at McMaster, and earned a PhD from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from the University of Toronto. He also holds more than 40 patents and published more than 168 articles. Loutfy joined the CLSI board of directors in 2006.

The Canadian Light Source is Canada's national centre for synchrotron research. Located at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, the CLS is a powerful tool for academic and industrial research in a wide variety of areas, including environmental science, natural resources and energy, health and life sciences, and information and communications technology.

CLS operations are funded by the Government of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, National Research Council of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan.