A resounding success for the 15th edition of the International Aluminium Conference (INALCO) which took place last October 11th to 13th, at the Centre des congrès de Québec! More than 250 participants from 14 countries attended the event to learn about recent applied research results on aluminium in Québec and elsewhere in the world. Besides being sold out, the event achieved a first in terms of conferences presented – 77 in total – including about 15 conferences presented by graduate students.

The program, rich in diverse technical content on aluminium applications in the transportation and civil structures sectors, was made possible thanks to the scientific committee presided by Mario Fafard, in charge of the Infrastructure and bridges working group at AluQuébec and member of the REGAL. Mr. Fafard has done an outstanding job which had extraordinary impacts for the event and the two organizations that co-organized INALCO 2023.

INALCO… to be followed!
To keep the momentum, it is with great pride that during the closing of INALCO 2023, the event’s organizers have announced the implementation of a permanent scientific committee destined to prepare the other editions of the event which takes place every two or three years. “It may seem surprising but despite the 15th edition of INALCO, no such committee existed beforehand which meant starting anew with each edition! This is great news for the viability of the event which is appreciated by academics, researchers, industrials and key actors of the aluminium industry”, rejoices François Racine, Chief Executive Officer of AluQuébec.

This permanent scientific committee is made up of 12 members from nine countries:

First of all, the mandate of this new committee will be to determine the location of INALCO’s next edition. Second of all, they will have to find prestigious keynote speakers to prepare an attractive program for a 16th edition as enriching as this 15th edition. “As president of this new committee, I am already enthusiastic to get to work and I am convinced that with such an international committee, we will be able to find excellent researchers and guest speakers from around the world in the best interest of the next edition’s participants”, mentions Nicolas Boissonnade.

Furthermore, in parallel to the event, the 20th REGAL Student Day took place which concluded with the awarding of scholarships for master’s and doctoral students. Alyaa Bakr, Liying Cui and Esmaeil Pourkhoshid, all doctoral students of the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, were awarded a bursary of $3000, $2000 and $1000 respectively. “I am very proud of all the participants who have submitted a scientific poster to present their research on aluminium. I am particularly delighted to see that times are changing since this year, for the first time, two out of the three recipients are women!” concludes Houshang Alamdari, Director of the REGAL, who warmly congratulated all the grantees.

Some photos of the event

The participants of INALCO 2023 were able to attend 77 technical presentations on aluminium. Here are a few of the speakers :


Shimaa El-Hadad - Egypt


Yonglin Ma - Mongolia


Ronald Ziemian - USA


Christina Radlbeck - Germany

Besides the technical presentations, INALCO 2023 welcomed 7 keynote speakers, including :


Vincent Christ, ELYSIS


Félix Lapointe and Philippe Gosselin, Ferreol Skis


The Honorable Rosa Galvez, senator, surrounded by Houshang Alamdari and Mario Fafard, president of INALCO’s scientific committee.


Geir Ringen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

A panel on international perspectives for aluminium in bridges gathered six panelists from six different countries.

The REGAL Students’ Day which took place in addition to the Conference, held its annual Posters Competition. Congratulations to the three winners, two of which are women!