Chris Pelow at his lab

After more than four decades in metrology and materials characterisation, Chris Pelow is retiring this April. We sat down with him to reflect on a career spent building world-class labs, chasing better measurements, and always thinking outside the box.

A Conversation with Chris Pelow

There's a kind of knowledge that only comes with time: an instinct for when a measurement is off; an eye for equipment that will hold up under real-world pressure; a feel for what a lab actually needs versus what looks impressive on paper. Chris Pelow has spent 44 years developing exactly that kind of knowledge, and the industry is quietly better for it.

Chris began his career in 1982 at Alcan International's R&D facility in Kingston, Ontario, fresh from the Mechanical Engineering Technology programme at St. Lawrence College. What started as a role in mechanical testing quickly evolved into something more specialised: developing surface topography measurement techniques to support Alcan's sheet rolling plants across the world.

"I established a world-class metrology lab at the R&D centre," he says, with the matter-of-fact confidence of someone who has done the work and knows it. The instrument list from those years reads like a catalogue of the field's best: WYKO profilometers, Solarius LaserScan systems, Mahr Perthometers, Atomic Force Microscopes. Each one chosen deliberately, each one put to serious use. For Chris, acquiring the right tool was never about prestige but about solving the problem in front of him as reliably as possible.

For three decades, he carried that expertise across facilities in Europe and the United States, training operators, working in roll grind shops, and helping Alcan (and later Novelis) develop engineered surfaces for can, foil, and automotive markets. It was hands-on, travel-heavy, deeply technical work that demanded both precision and adaptability. When the company restructured, he took that accumulated knowledge somewhere it was needed just as badly: Kingston Process Metallurgy (KPM).

Building the lab, again

Starting over, in a sense, might have felt daunting. For Chris, it was familiar territory.

"Part of my duties when I started at KPM was to establish a world-class metrology lab," he explains. The scope grew quickly. Beyond surface characterisation, his responsibilities expanded to include microscopy analysis, sample preparation, scanning electron microscopy with a TESCAN system, and tensile testing with an Instron. He became central to building out KPM's broader Characterisation Lab; the kind of facility that could support serious, varied research rather than a fixed roster of routine tests.

KPM had been growing fast, taking on larger pilot projects across sectors including rare earth extraction. The challenge, as Chris describes it, was making sure the lab could keep pace: the right equipment in place, ready for non-routine analysis, capable of supporting method development on the fly. It's the kind of environment where you can't afford to be caught out, where a gap in capability at the wrong moment can stall an entire project.

Consistency, in that context, isn't just a nice-to-have. A measurement taken on a Tuesday needs to mean the same thing as one taken on a Friday, regardless of who is running the instrument or how much pressure the team is under.

Finding the right tool

That need for consistency is what led KPM to the Bettersizer 2600.

Chris Pelow using Bettersizer 2600

Particle size analysis had become increasingly critical to KPM's rare earth extraction work; a field where the physical characteristics of powders at each stage of a process can be the difference between a successful outcome and a failed one. The team needed an instrument that could deliver reliable, repeatable results without becoming a bottleneck.

It's a measured endorsement: exactly what you'd expect from someone who has spent a career evaluating instruments on their merits. No hyperbole, just the confidence of a professional who has seen enough equipment to know what reliable looks like when he sees it.

What four decades teaches you

We asked Chris about the highlights of his career and he returned, twice, to the same theme: building the labs.

"Establishing a world-class metrology and characterisation lab for both Alcan/Novelis and KPM has been one of my significant highlights," he says. Not a single discovery, not one landmark project, but the sustained, deliberate work of creating environments where good science can happen consistently, year after year. It's the kind of contribution that doesn't always make headlines, but that everyone who works in a well-equipped, well-run lab quietly depends on.

His advice to early-career researchers reflects the same philosophy: "Use what you learn in academia as a foundation for a successful career in industry, and don't be afraid to think outside the box."

It's simple, but it's earned. But so does the willingness to go beyond it when the work demands something new. After 44 years, Chris Pelow has done both, consistently, and the labs he leaves behind will keep doing good work long after he's gone.

Chris Pelow retires after 44 years in metrology and materials characterisation. We wish him well, and thank him for sharing his story.