Geo Engineering

M.A.Sc, Ph.D

Unique in North America, the GeoEngineering program is a collaboration between faculty members at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College. Drawn from four engineering departments at the two universities, the GeoEngineering Centre’s members are dedicated to advancing knowledge in geotechnical, geohydrological, geochemical and geosynthetics engineering.

The program links four accredited graduate programs to provide shared learning experiences with interdisciplinary content:

• Civil Engineering (Queen’s)
• Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering (Queen’s)
• Mining Engineering (Queen’s)
• Civil Engineering (Royal Military College of Canada)

We bring together students from a variety of backgrounds to take advantage of unique facilities and the biggest GeoEngineering faculty in North America and engage in cross-disciplinary training and close partnerships with industry leaders.

Master’s and doctoral students are eligible to apply once they have been accepted into one of the four member programs.

On graduation, students who participated in this program are identified as having specialized training in GeoEngineering and can become involved with the engineering of earth and rock structures such as those associated with foundations, slopes, deep excavations, tunnels, solid waste landfills, buried infrastructure and contaminated ground.

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"My experience at Queen’s was wonderful. The professors were all very experienced and well-known, so there was no shortage of expert advice. And there were a lot of resources that stretched beyond the research. I made contacts in industry and got a great job."

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Degrees Offered / Length of Program

• M.A.Sc.: 2 years
  
• Ph.D.: 3 or 4 years

On your transcript it will note that this is the degree with specialty in GeoEngineering.

Method of Completion

• Master’s students: course work and project, or course work and thesis
• Ph.D. students: course work and thesis 

Participate in the GeoEngineering Seminar graduate course; these seminars feature presentations from faculty members, graduate students, visiting practitioners and researchers, one afternoon each week, exposing students to examples of research and practice in different areas of GeoEngineering. This course appears as an extra course on your transcript. Participation is for two terms for the Masters, and four terms for the doctoral degree.

Take one GeoEngineering course from outside your home department; at least 20% of selected coursework must be in GeoEngineering from your home program, and at least 20% from a program outside your home program.

Research degree (doctoral and research masters) students undertake their thesis project in one or more of the GeoEngineering sub-fields. Coursework masters students choose a coursework degree project in one of these sub-fields.

Supervisors and Fields of Study

Prospective graduate students are encouraged to contact the professor or professors whose research interests most closely match their own.

HydroGEOlogy
The hydrogeology group focuses on the behaviour and remediation of contaminants in groundwater, with specific applications in fractured rock, fractured clay, and unconsolidated porous media.
Researchers: Kent Novakowski, Bernard Kueper, Kevin Mumford

GEOtechnical
Research work includes studies on shallow and deep foundations, tunnels and deep excavations, pipes, culverts and other buried infrastructure, and geotechnical earthquake engineering.
Researchers: Richard Bathurst, Richard Brachman, Mark Diederichs, Jean Hutchinson, Steve McKinnon, Ian Moore,  Kerry Rowe, Greg Siemens, Andy Take, Nicholas Vlachopoulos

GEOenvironmental
Research areas include subsurface NAPL contamination and remediation, geochemistry of mine tailings, and geosynthetic barrier systems.
Researchers: Richard Bathurst, Richard Brachman, Jean Hutchinson, Heather Jamieson, Bernard Kueper, Kevin Mumford, Kent Novakowski, Kerry Rowe, Nicholas Vlachopoulos

 

GEOmechanics
Research examines rock mass strength and yield response, the design of surface and underground works for mining and tunnelling, long term stability of abandoned mine workings, the design of underground support, the numerical simulation of soil and rock response to stress and to blasting, and mining induced seismicity.
Researchers: James Archibald, Richard Brachman, Mark Diederichs, Jean Hutchinson, Steve McKinnon, Ian Moore, Kerry Rowe, Greg Seimens, Andy Take, Nicholas Vlachopoulos

 

GEOsynthetics
Research includes studies on reinforcement to enhance the stability of walls, foundations, tunnels and embankments, on the use of geomembranes and geosynthetic clay liners to limit contaminant migration from municipal and hazardous waste landfills and as barrier systems for hydrocarbon contaminated soils, and on new and repaired pipes and manholes.
Researchers: James Archibald, Richard Bathurst, Richard Brachman, Ian Moore, Kerry Rowe, Andy Take

 

GEOchemistry
Research includes studies of the long-term stability of mine waste including kimberlite tailings, acid rock drainage and arsenic-rich gold mine tailings, subsurface NAPL contamination and migration, and groundwater tracer migration studies.
Researchers: Heather Jamieson, Bernard Kueper, Kevin Mumford

Employment Opportunities

Graduates from our program have gone on to rewarding careers in academia, engineering firms, environmental agencies and other public and private sector employers. Some of the many organizations they have worked for include:  AECOM, Brunswick Mining & Smelting, Conostoga Rover & Associates, Ltd., EMS Inc., Falconbridge Ltd., Golder Associates, Hatch Mott MacDonald, Imperial Oil, Inco Limited, Kidd Mine, Motorola, Noranda ltd.

Funding Information

For information on funding, please consult your home department.  Additional funding is available through the Conetec Grad Award.

 

Admission Requirements

• Enrol in one of the four home departments with a thesis supervisor connected with the GeoEngineering Centre. Satisfy the coursework, thesis and other requirements of the specific member (home) program in which you enrol.
• Obtain and complete GeoEngineering enrolment form from the website and return to Graduate Assistant.

Program Profiles

• Abdul Chehab (alumni) - researched axial load distribution and history for HDPE Pipes...
• Andrea Lougheed (alumnist) - researched strength of deeply corrugated metal culvert....
• David Elwood (alumnist) - experimented in mud loss during directional drilling...
• Heather McLeod (alumnist) - researched ground movements....
• Hongwei Xia (alumnist) - researched mud loss during direction drilling...
• John Cholewa (alumnist) -  researched response of solid and adjacent water...
• Jianfe Ye (alumnist) - researched downdrag from vertical risers to...
• Nancy Ampiah (alumnist) - researched the effect of wrinkles on strength of cast...