You might find this listing of my graduate
students a useful guide to the kind of geomorphology we have done here in the
Physical Geography Program over the last four or so decad es.
Present Graduate Students
Natalie Helmstetter
Natalie is a PhD candidate who
completed her earlier university studies in Germany. She joined
the
Rivers Group in March, 2003 and continues working part-time on the
sedimentology
and
internal architecture of Fraser River bars using GPR imaging. She
currently works as a professional geomorphologist for EBA Engineering
Consultants, Vancouver BC.
Past Graduate Students
Greg Bauch
Greg came to SFU from the now
University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) near Vancouver. He
worked on the hydrologic and geomorphic changes on Squamish River
(1950-2006) for his thesis and was awarded an MSc from SFU Geography in
2009. Currently he works as a professional geomorphologist for O'Conner Associates Environmental Inc., Vancouver.
Tami Nicol
Tami has an MSc (2008) with me
from
SFU Geography via her BSc from U. Alberta via U.Manitoba.
She examined
the geomorphology and migration behaviour of confined meandering rivers
in Alberta and BC and graduated MSc in 2008. She worked
at Northwest Hydraulics Consultants (NHC) as a professional
geomorphologist before leaving to undertake a PhD on the fluvial
geomorphology of some Chinese rivers under the direction of Gary
Brierley at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Don Reid
Don has an MSc (2005) from SFU
Geography via his BSc in Geography, SFU. He examined the
hydraulic
geometry and flow resistance in small steep headwater channels in the
Chilliwack
Valley. Some of the very interesting results of this study are now published in ESPL & in Geomorphology. He continues to work for BC Hydro
as a fluvial geomorphology specialist.
Derek Ray
Derek has an MSc from SFU
Geography
via his BSc in Geography at McGill and several years of technical work
with Northwest Hydraulics (NHC), a Vancouver environmental/engineering
company. His research project at SFU involved establishing the fluvial
geomorphology of alluvial-fan distributary channels in several pristine
catchments in the Queen Charlotte Islands. He continues to help
NHC
make money as their resident fluvial geomorphologist and one day will
write
a paper based on his research or retire, whichever comes first.
Colin Wooldridge
Colin, an honours graduate
from
SFU, obtained his MSc from SFU in 2002. He worked on the
geomorphology
and sedimentology of Fraser and Squamish river bars using
ground-penetrating
radar and other tools. Results of his work were published in the
Journal of Sedimentary Research in 2005.
He worked for Encana in the oil patch (Calgary) as a petroleum
geologist until recently. Tragically, Colin died in November
2007 in a climbing accident in Alberta. He is greatly missed by many.
Kevin Tabata
Kevin has a BSc from the
Department
of Geography, University of Victoria and obtained his MSc from SFU in
2002.
He worked on the geomorphology of secondary channels in the anastomosed
reach of the Columbia River near Golden and a paper (in ESP&L)
describing
his results on "interachannel" hydraulic geometry and flow efficiency
was
published in 2004. He now works as a professional geomorphologist in the hydrogeomorphic consulting
industry (for Geomorphic Solutions) in Ontario.
Channa Pelpola
Channa is an honours graduate
from the Environmental Sciences Program at Carleton University.
His
MSc project at SFU involved using sequential aerial photography, and
bathymetric
and GPR surveys to specify the growth rate of the Fitzsimmons Creek
delta
developing into Green Lake near Whistler, BC. The results of this
study have been accepted for publication in Geomorphology. Channa
completed his program early in 2001 and initially worked as an
Environmental
Officer with the Resort Municipality of Whistler, BC. He was for
a number of years employed as a river geomorphologist with Jacques
Whitford, a
Vancouver-based
environmental consulting company but recently moved to a new
international professional appointment in the UK.
Csaba Ekes
Csaba obtained his first
degree
in geology from the University of Budapest in Hungary, and his MSc in
sedimentology
from the University of Reading in the UK. He started his doctoral
program with me in Geography at SFU in Fall 1993 and graduated in
Spring
2000. His thesis research involved an examination of ground-penetrating
radar-signatures of a variety of unconsolidated sediments in known and
unknown modern environments of deposition. He collected data on
avalanche
deposits, debris-flow deposits, fluvial deposits (bar and sheet
sediments)
as a calibration device in order to interpret the radar stratigraphy of
the Cheekye Fan near Squamish, British Columbia.
Csaba's published research includes: Friele, P., Ekes, C. and Hickin, E.J., 1999. Evolution of Cheekye fan, Squamish, British Columbia: Holocene sedimentation and implications for hazard assessment. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 36 (12) 2023-2050 and Ekes, C. and Hickin, E.J. 2001. Ground penetrating radar facies of the paraglacial Cheekye Fan, southwestern British Columbia. Sedimentary Geology, 143, 199-217.
Csaba currently is works in Vancouver as a consultant and GPR specialist. He recently sold his first company (Terraprobe) and is developing his second enterprise (Sewervue), built on a remote GPR survey system for evaluating the condition of underground pipes.
Alan Paige
Alan obtained his BSc in the
Physical Geography Program at the University of British Columbia. He
then
spent some time acquiring valuable experience in the environmental
consulting
industry in Vancouver before returning to university studies as an MSc
candidate with me here in SFU's Physical Geography Program. He
graduated
in 2000 and after several years consulting in the industrial geoscience
community in Vancouver moved into the field of financial consulting.
Alan completed a very interesting study on the seasonal regime of bed elevation on Squamish River, north of Vancouver. Among other things he found that channel scour moved through his study reach as a series of pulses (pulse scour) or waves on a time scale far longer than that associated with significant fluctuations in discharge. Very interesting stuff that is now available in print (Paige, A. & Hickin, E.J. 2000 Annual bed-elevation regime in the alluvial channel of Squamish River, southwestern British Columbia. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 25, 991-1009).
Mariette Prent
Mariette came to our MSc
Program
in Physical Geography via a B.Sc. from the Department of Geography at
McMaster
University in Hamilton. She completed a very interesting study on
the seasonal regime of bedforms on a reach of Lillooet River north of
Vancouver.
As far as we know her data set is the first of its kind (based on an
entire
hydrologic year plus some) and you can read about her findings in
Geomorphology.
Mariette the geomorphologist is also a musician and bakes great cookies! She presently lives in a place called Ontario and works as a professional geomorphologist with a consulting company there at the same time as she manages a young growing family.
Jonathan Gibson
Jonathan obtained his first
degree in London, England and joined the graduate program at SFU in
1991.
He and another student, Scott Babakaiff, worked together on different
projects
in the estuary of Squamish River. They became great friends in the
process
of completing two important field studies.
Jonathan examined the sedimentological gradient from the fluvial to estuarine environment of Squamish River with the aim of identifying diagnostic environmental indicators. The results of this study represent an important contribution to the literature on estuarine floodplain facies (check out Gibson, J. and Hickin, E.J. 1997. Inter-and supratidal sedimentology of a fjord-head estuary, southwestern British Columbia. Sedimentology, 44, 197-220).
After Jonathan graduated in 1994 he worked as a professional geomorphologist with SNC Lavalin in Vancouver before starting his own consulting business to support his passion for writing (short stories and novels, not consulting reports!). The artist and scientist coexist in his present publishing endeavours which he is pursuing in London, England. Recently he was appointed to a university position as an environmental scientist in the UK.
Scott Babakaiff
Scott came to the SFU Graduate
School in 1991 with a BSc in geography from UBC; he graduated from our
program in 1993. He then worked for an environmental consulting company
in the BC Interior for several years and returned to Vancouver in 1997
to set up his own consulting practice in stream restoration work. Scott
is registered with APEGBC as a professional geoscientist (P.Geo) and
has
worked here in BC and in Australia. He is now a civil servant
(professional
geomorphologist) with the BC Ministry of Water Land and Air
Protection.
Scott's MSc thesis was
concerned
with surface flow structures (boils) in Squamish River estuary and how
they relate to bedform characteristics. His research was presented at a
major conference in the UK and published in a recent book on flow
structures
(check out Babakaiff, C.S. and Hickin, E.J. 1996. Coherent flow
structures
in Squamish River Estuary, British Columbia, Canada, In P.J. Ashworth,
S.J. Bennett and S.J. McLelland (Eds), Coherent Flow Structures, Wiley,
Chichester, 312-342).
Rene Leclerc
Rene was the first SFU
graduate-student
expert in the use of ground-penetrating radar. He completed in
1995
an M.Sc. with me on the internal architecture and radar facies of the
floodplain
of the meandering South Thompson River near Kamloops, British
Columbia.
His research results were recently published (check out Leclerc, R. and
Hickin, E.J. 1997. Ground penetrating radar stratigraphy of a
meandering
river floodplain, South Thompson River, British Columbia:
Geomorphology,
21, 17-38).
Rene now works as a professional geomorphologist in the Sacramento office of Northwest Hydraulics, a Canadian-based environmental engineering company.
Henry Sichingabula
Henry obtained two graduate
degrees with me as a Commonwealth Scholar on two occasions separated by
several years (MSc, 1986; PhD, 1993). His M.Sc. thesis examined
the
character and causes of channel changes on Squamish River, particularly
those related to a major flood in 1984 (check out the published account
in Hickin, E. J., and Sichingabula, H.M., 1988, The geomorphic impact
of
the catastrophic October 1984 flood on the planform
of
Squamish River, southwestern British Columbia: Canadian Journal of
Earth
Sciences, 25, 1078-1087 and Hickin, E. J., and Sichingabula, H.M.
1989. Discussion : The geomorphic impact of the catastrophic
October 1984 flood
on the planform of Squamish River, southwestern British
Columbia.
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 26: 337).
Henry's doctoral thesis is concerned with the character and controls of suspended- sediment concentration and discharge effectiveness in Fraser River, British Columbia. His results from this investigation have been published in the journal Hydrologic Processes.
Henry is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Zambia in Lusaka, Zambia.
Olav Lian
Olav completed his MSc with
me in 1991 and went on to the PhD program in Geological Sciences at the
University of Western Ontario. Olav was an SFU undergraduate (major in
Physics, minor in Physical Geography) who, after graduation, worked for
several years in Professor Dave Huntley's thermoluminescence Laboratory
at SFU. But he contracted the research bug and came to the
Physical
Geography Program for his M.Sc. work on the Late Pleistocene history of
Seymour Valley, British Columbia. This work combined field
studies
in Quaternary geology and geomorphology with TL dating to yield a very
interesting new look at the Quaternary history of southwestern BC (you
can check out some of our published results in Lian, O. and Hickin,
E.J.
1993. Late Pleistocene sedimentary history of Seymour Valley, North
Vancouver,
British Columbia: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 30, 841-850 and
in
Lian, O. and Hickin, E.J. 1996. Early postglacial sedimentation of
lower
Seymour Valley, southwestern British Columbia. Geographie Physique et
Quaternaire,
50 (1), 95-102).
Olav obtained his doctorate in 1997 and was, until recently, the Director of the Thermoluminescence Laboratory at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. He moved on to a Lecturership at Royal Holloway, University of london, England but has now returned to Canada as a faculty member of the Department of Geography at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
Greg Brooks
Greg completed his PhD with
me in 1991. He undertook an ambitious study (my fault!) of
the Holocene sediment budget of the Squamish River basin. The
study
was challenging but very successfully executed and it contributed
greatly
to our understanding of the Holocene geomorphic history of this major
coastal
river valley. His several discoveries included evidence of
impoundments
of Squamish River and a "pseudo-tephra", a volcanic ash related to the
collapse, as opposed to eruption, of a dormant volcano (Mt Cayley) in
the
basin about 5000 years ago. For an account of some of this research
check
out Brooks, G.R. and Hickin, E.J. 1991. Debris avalanche
impoundments
of Squamish River, Mount Cayley area, southwestern British
Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 28: 1375-1385
and
Brooks, G.R. and Hickin, E.J. 1996. The origin of a tephra-like bed
near
Mount Cayley volcano,
southwestern British Columbia,
Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 32 (12) 2040-2045.
Greg is a Geological Survey of Canada Research Scientist with the Terrain Sciences Division in Ottawa.
Gary Brierley
Gary came to the SFU Graduate
Program from Durham University in the UK. He completed two
graduate
degrees with me, his MSc in 1984 and his PhD in 1989. Both research
projects
were based in the Squamish River valley. In the first study Gary
examined the at-a-site and downstream organisation of gravel clasts in
contemporary point bars (check out some of the results in Brierley, G.
and Hickin, E.J., 1985, The downstream gradation of particle sizes in
the
Squamish River, British Columbia: Earth Surface Processes and
Landforms,
10, 597-606). The second study was a major field test of river planform
facies and architectural-element models, the results of which also
received
good exposure in the journals (for example have a look at Brierley,
G.J.
and Hickin, E.J. 1991. Channel planform as a non-controlling factor in
fluvial sedimentology: The case of the Squamish River floodplain,
British
Columbia: Sedimentary Geology, 75, 67-83 and Brierley, G.J. and Hickin,
E.J. 1992. Floodplain development based on selective preservation of
sediments,
Squamish River, British Columbia: Geomorphology, 4, 381-391).
Gary was a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra before moving to Sydney where he joined the School of Earth Sciences at Macquarie University. He recently became Head of the Department of Geography at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He almost got the pronounciation of "G'day" right but now has to start again! Gary has a well-earned international reputation as a leading professional fluvial sedimentologist, geomorphologist and expert in river restoration (the subject of his recent book (with Kirstie Fryirs, Geomorphology and River Management).
Anne Shuttleworth
Anne completed her MSc with
me in 1985. She examined the characteristics of flood-waves
as they are recorded at successive gauging stations along Fraser River.
After graduation she worked as a hydrologist in the environmental
consulting
industry in Vancouver.
George K'Rhoda
George completed his PhD with
me in 1985. He conducted a study of flow structure through
several
continuous channel bends of a physical model of a meandering river
channel.
Part of the study was designed to provide insight into the role of
bend-flow
interaction in explaining the velocity fields in the channel. This
study
was completed in the SFU Experimental Watershed facility (since closed).
George returned to his home in Kenya after graduation and continues to work there as a University faculty member. He presently is Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources in Kenya.
Ken Rood
Ken obtained his first degree
in geography from SFU and completed his MSc with me in 1980. He
examined
the character of velocity fluctuations in several natural streams and
was
particularly interested in the shifts in velocity at longer time scales
(macroturbulence). His interest in macroturbulence and its relation to
sediment transport later led to a field study of these processes in
Squamish
estuary (check out Rood, K. M. and Hickin, E.J. 1989.
Suspended-sediment
concentration and calibre in relation to surface-flow structure in
Squamish
River estuary, southwestern British Columbia. Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences, 26: 2172-2176).
Ken has gained incomparable experience working in the environmental consulting industry in Vancouver for many years as a hydrologist and fluvial geomorphologist and now is a Manager and Partner in Northwest Hydraulics, in their Sacremento office.
Aziz Bhuiya
Aziz completed his MSc with
me in 1980. He conducted a flume study of delta processes and
morphology
in the Geomorphology Laboratory at SFU. He returned to his home
in
Bangladesh via further study in the US and now is a faculty member at
the
University of Dacca.
Robert Gale
Bob completed his MSc with me
in 1978. He examined the channel geometry of two discontinuous
gullies
in the BC Interior using spectral analysis. He went on to
complete
further studies in business administration and is now a senior civil
servant
with the Federal Government in a place called Ottawa.
Gerald Nanson
Gerald came to the SFU
Graduate
School in Geography via a first degree in New Zealand and an MSc from
the
University of Alberta; he completed his PhD with me in 1977. He
contributed
significantly to a very influential and widely cited study of
floodplain
formation and channel migration on the Beatton River in northeastern
BC.
We learned much from each other at this time and retain fond memories
of
this start of a rewarding scientific collaboration and
friendship.
Check out some of this early work in Hickin, E.J. and Nanson, G.C.,
1975,
The character of channel migration on the Beatton River,
Northeast
British Columbia, Canada: Geological Society of America
Bulletin,
86, 487-494 and somewhat later stuff in Nanson, G. C., and
Hickin,
E.J.,1983, Channel migration and incision on the Beatton
River:
Journal of the Hydraulic Engineering,
American
Society of Civil Engineers, 109 (3) 327-337; Nanson, G. C., and
Hickin,
E. J., 1984a, Closure to discussion of "Channel
migration
and incision on the Beatton River",
Journal
of Hydraulic Engineering, American Society of
Civil
Engineers,110 (11) 1683-1684; Hickin, E. J., and Nanson, G. C.,
1984b,
Lateral migration rates of river bends: Journal of
Hydraulic
Engineering, American Society of Civil Engineers,110 (11)
1557-1567;
and Nanson, G.C., and Hickin, E.J.,
1986,
A statistical analysis of bank erosion and channel
migration
in western Canada: Geological Society of America Bulletin, 97,
497-504.
Gerald has a well-earned
international
reputation as a leading professional fluvial sedimentologist and
geomorphologist
and makes his home in eastern Australia where he is Professor of Earth
Sciences at the University of Wollongong.