Prospective UNBC undergrads: click here for UNBC research opportunities with funding (Undergraduate Research Experience Award, International Student Research Award, Research Project Awards, NSERC – Undergraduate Student Research Award)
Prospective visiting students: check Mitacs globalink programs. For undergraduate students, click here. For graduate students, click here.
Current members
Season Maharjan: Season just started his PhD study at UNBC on geotechnical/seepage aspect of tailings storage facilities. Season holds a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Tribhuvan University in Nepal. Season is co-supervised by Prof. Dziedzic.
Ai Ling Yong: Ai Ling just started her PhD study at UNBC on the geotechnical/InSAR aspect of tailings storage facilities. Ai Ling holds a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Ai Ling is co-supervised by Prof. Dziedzic.
Addisu Guaddie Dagnew: Addisu just started his PhD study at UNBC on the water resources aspect of tailings storage facilities. Addisu holds a master’s degree in Environmental Analysis and Management from the University of Bologna in Italy. Addisu is primarily supervised by Prof. Dziedzic and co-supervised by me.
Cornelius Edjah: Cornelius just started his master’s study, and his MASc research topic is rock mass stability in open-pit mines. Cornelius has a BSc in Geological Engineering from the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana.
Emmanuel Oteng: Emmanuel is conducting his master’s research on pit wall deformation prediction using field monitoring data and machine learning. Emmanuel has an BSc in Geological Engineering from the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana.
Alumni
Huan Yu: Huan completed her Ph.D. research on the creep indentation of shale formations from Western Canada, under the co-supervision of Dr. Jianhui Zhou. Huan is now an Engineer-in-training with an engineering consulting firm in BC.
Noor Fatima : Noor was Mitacs Globalink summer research intern at UNBC and she was from the NED University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan. Research topic: Internal erosion in hydroelectric dams using advanced computational simulations. For details about Mitacs Globalink, click here
Dr. Yan Wang: Dr. Wang was a visiting professor from the Qingdao University of Technology. Dr. Wang conducted research on geomaterials stability and BIM in underground mines and tunnels.
Gaoyang Hu: Gaoyang was a visiting Ph.D. student from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, co-hosted by Dr. Dwayne Tannant at the University of British Columbia. Gaoayng conducted research on CFD-DEM simulations of granular materials.
Leila Alaouafi: Leila was Mitacs Globalink summer research intern at UNBC and she was from the University Tunis El Manar, Tunis. Research topic: Temperature effect on rock mechanical properties of Canadian gas shale. For details about Mitacs Globalink, click here
Kamran Hassani: Kamran completed his master’s research on mineral precipitation in geothermal. Kamran is now a PhD student with Simon Fraser University.
Hassan Ahmadian: Hassan conducted his master’s research on coupling the fluid-solid interaction for simulating grain migration in fluids with LBM-DEM, under the co-supervision of Dr. Jueyi Sui. His thesis title is ‘Simulation of irregularly shaped particles using coupling method of lattice Boltzmann and discrete element modelling’. Hassan now works as an Engineering EIT in Prince George.
Dorsaf Lagha: Dorsaf was a Mitacs Globalink summer research intern at UNBC and she studied Geosciences Engineering at the University Tunis El Manar, Tunis. Research topic: Laboratory testing on Canadian gas shale rock with advanced instrumented indentation test. Dorsaf will start her Master’s studies at ETS, Montreal, Canada. For details about Mitacs Globalink, click here
Dongzi Liu: Dongzi was a visiting Ph.D. student from the China University of Geosciences, co-hosted by Dr. Dwayne Tannant at the University of British Columbia. Dongzi conducts research on reservoir landslides and their stabilization with piles. Dongzi now is an Assistant Professor at Xi’an University of Science and Technology in China.
Venkata Siva Ramakrishna ANNAPAREDDY: Siva was a visiting Ph.D. candidate at UNBC supported by a Mitacs Globalink Research Award. He studies geotechnical engineering at the University of Queensland in Australia and conducts research on soil internal erosion.
Zhongjun Ma: Zhongjun (Mason) was a visiting Ph.D. candidate from the Southeastern University in China, co-hosted by Dr. Dwayne Tannant at the University of British Columbia. Mason conducts research on thermal-treated rock breakage.
Yang Zhang: Yang was a Mitacs Globalink summer research intern at UNBC and he studies geological engineering at the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan). Research topic: Identify sand proppants for use in engineered fractures of enhanced geothermal systems. Yang is now a PhD student at the China University of Geosciences.
Tadd Mao: Tadd was a research assistant working on digitizing rock surfaces with a 3D laser scanner. Tadd is now an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto.
Hritwik Ranjan: Hritwik was a Mitacs Globalink summer research intern at UNBC and he studied petroleum engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (ISM), Dhanbad. Research topic: Shale gas production from Montney formation using data mining and machine learning. For details about Mitacs Globalink, click here
Drew Gilchrist: 3rd-year undergraduate student in environmental engineering (won UNBC Undergraduate Research Experience Award). Research topic: creep deformation of sand at high compressive stresses. Drew delivered a research presentation at the GeoNiagara national conference.
Diego Sanchez: 2nd-year undergraduate student in UNBC-UBC environmental engineering (won UNBC International Student Research Award). Research topic: Identify proppants for use in engineered fractures of enhanced geothermal systems. Diego published a journal paper as the first author in Geomechanics and Geophysics for Geo-Energy and Geo-Resources. Click here for the publication.
Zach Peng: 1st-year undergraduate student in civil engineering. Zach helped Drew with conducting creep deformation of sand at high compressive stresses.
Cedar Kang: 2nd-year undergraduate student in UNBC-UBC environmental engineering. Cedar helped Diego with mixing mortar samples and preparing soil samples.
Joana Gaspar: 1st-year undergraduate student in civil engineering. Joana helped Diego with preparing soil samples and performing sieve analysis.