University-industry research partnerships
Queen’s University | Oceans
Key facilities
The Coastal Engineering Lab (QCEL), operated by the Department of Civil Engineering, it the largest hydraulics laboratory in Canada. It houses three 45m long wave flumes, a large wave basin, three river simulator flumes, a rotating fluids table, 20m3 landslide flume and two other water channels.
The QCEL is also home to the Queen’s River and Estuarine Morphodynamics Research Facility for fundamental and applied research in a broad range of water areas including: River Engineering, Lake Dynamics, Coastal Engineering, Water Supply Systems, and Landslides.
Major collaborations
Towards a Sustainable Fishery for Nunavummuit: Queen’s researchers received $5.6M in cash and in-kind support from Genome Canada and multiple other organizations to develop a science-based fishing plan for arguably the last unexploited fishery in the Northern Hemisphere, creating opportunities for employment and economic benefits for Nunavut along with greater food security.
Queen’s researchers received $9.5 M in funding for a large-scale project combining Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge and leading edge genomics to track the impact of climate change on polar bears.
Surface waves, hydrodynamics and geological processes in coastal environments: Queen’s researcher Dr. Ryan Mulligan received an NSERC discovery grant to advance the understanding of complex and interconnected physical and geological processes in coastal environments.
Researchers
Dr. Ryan Mulligan, Civil Engineering, is focused on understanding the physical forces that cause changes to coastal regions and the ways in which coastal systems respond
Dr. Virginia Walker, Biology, works to understand the molecular basis of stress resistance, with applications from predicting the impact of nanoparticle-containing food on our gut microbiota, to understanding the consequence of climate change on Arctic organisms.
Dr. Yuxiang Wang, Biology, aims to understand the mechanisms that animals, primarily fish, use to achieve metabolic balance under different natural environment conditions and physiological states.
Dr. Stephen Lougheed, Baillie Chair in Conversation Biology, works to understand the origins of vertebrate biodiversity from single landscapes to entire species assemblages.
Dr. Leon Boegman, Civil Engineering, uses both experiments and field-scale numerical models to understand how wave-generated currents resuspend sediment material in lakes and coastal oceans.
Special programs and work integrated learning initiatives
- Canada-China Exchange Field Course in Aquatic Biodiversity & Environmental Assessment
- The Queen’s Undergraduate Internship Program (QUIP) provides students with a 12-16 month work experience.
- Office of Partnerships and Innovation provides services related to research partnerships and technology transfer activities.
Partners
- Genome Canada
