Gordon Wilson, PhD, PEng, PGeol
Contact
Professor, Faculty of Engineering - Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept
- wwilson2@ualberta.ca
Overview
Area of Study / Keywords
Geotechnical Centre Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
About
Dr. Wilson is NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Oil Sands Tailings Geotechnique.
Dr. Wilson is currently the Principal Investigator of the Oil Sands Tailings Research Facility (OSTRF) located in Devon, Alberta. He brings over 25 years of industrial experience to his practice in advanced mine waste management and unsaturated soil mechanics. He has extensive work experience as a consulting engineer and has maintained a strong industrial focus through his research programs.
Dr. Wilson is involved in mine waste management systems for numerous sites worldwide. He has also served as a specialist consultant to several large international mining companies such as the well-known ARD Risk Review recently completed by Rio Tinto. In addition, Dr. Wilson recently served as the lead author responsible for the chapter on Prevention and Mitigation in the Global Acid Rock Drainage Guide prepared for International Network for Acid Prevention.
Dr. Wilson has developed extensive programs in soil cover systems for mine waste management and long-term closure of tailings and waste rock. He led the development of the comprehensive numerical model ‘SoilCover’ (under the Canadian MEND program) for the prediction of soil cover performance. In addition, he was responsible for the benchmark research programs for predicting and monitoring of the performance of the cover systems at the Equity Silver and Kidston Gold Mines. Dr. Wilson is currently engaged in large scale-up experiments for waste rock at the Grasberg and Antamina mines to investigate various mitigation techniques as well as a new and innovative research program for the blending of tailings and waste rock (Paste Rock) to produce new high-strength sealing materials for mine waste management systems.
Courses
CIV E 684 - Engineering Geology and Terrain Analysis
Information sources in engineering geology and terrain analysis, elements of the geology of sediments and glacial geology. Glacial and periglacial land forms. Photogeology and airphoto interpretation applied to geotechnical engineering. Case histories based on specific materials and regional problems.
ENV E 434 - Environmental Geotechnics
Design of soil waste containment systems; stability of natural slopes, engineered cuts and embankments; earth pressure theories; design of retaining structures and pressures on buried pipes; settlement of earth containment structures and foundations; load-carrying capacity of foundations; design for filtration, separation, containment, and reinforcement using geosynthetics. Prerequisites: CIV E 381 and ENV E 251.