Research Team

Dr. Renato Macciotta is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta. His areas of practice and research include risk engineering and safety assessments for natural and human-made slopes, mining structures, transport operations, dam structures and operations, ground hazards and reclamation. His expertise also includes the geomechanical characterization of rock and soil masses, slope failure mechanisms and monitoring, rock fall detachment and trajectory analysis and remote monitoring techniques. His work integrates his technical skills with risk engineering principles for the design and operation of engineered systems and structures.

Dr. Michael Hendry is a Professor at the University of Alberta and Director of the Canadian Rail Research Laboratory (CaRRL), where his research integrates geotechnical engineering, railway infrastructure performance, and ground‑hazard risk management. His work focuses on the behaviour of soft and complex soils under heavy axle loads, long‑term subgrade performance, and the development of field and laboratory methods to characterize peat, clay shales, and other problematic geomaterials. He has advanced industry understanding of vertical track deflection, subgrade stiffness, and the mechanisms driving long‑term deformation in muskeg foundations, producing tools now used by railways to evaluate track quality and mitigate derailment‑related risks. Dr. Hendry also leads national research on landslides, rock falls, freeze–thaw processes, and other geohazards affecting linear infrastructure, integrating InSAR, fiber optics, UAVs, GPS networks, and geotechnical instrumentation to improve monitoring and hazard forecasting—contributions that helped the University of Alberta earn two consecutive World Centre of Excellence designations for landslide research. He has supervised more than 40 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and authored over 85 refereed journal papers and 100+ conference publications, contributing significantly to the advancement of railway engineering and geomechanics in Canada and internationally.

Dr. David Elwood is an Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. His research focuses on the characterization of hard, overconsolidated soils and soft rocks (argillaceous formations) for a variety of applications, including slope stabilization, foundation design and tunneling applications. Furthermore, he has designed instrumentation and monitoring programs for a wide variety of geotechnical projects including, slope stability, embankment construction, tunnel excavation, and temporary support systems for deep excavations. His particular area of research is the in-situ determination of stiffness in ground and how this information can be translated to geotechnical design.

Dr. Jonathan Aubertin is an Associate Professor at École de technologie supérieure.  Dr. Aubertin is passionate about geosciences and geotechnical engineering, and collaborates with stakeholders in mining, construction, and tunneling.  With hands-on experience across North America, he bridges academia and industry through practical teaching, innovative research, and training skilled professionals.  Dr. Aubertin’s expertise includes rock mechanics, mining geotechnics, remote sensing, and hoist system management, fostering a solutions-driven vision to address industry challenges with confidence.