New faculty members

New faculty member

joins mining department

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE: “I enjoy teaching ,” says Queen’s Mining Engineering Professor Julián Ortiz. “I also enjoy the research: coming up with a hypothesis, trying to work towards answering a question. And, I like developing things like new software algorithms for modelling.”

Queen’s Mining Engineering Professor Julián Ortiz joined the faculty at The Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining earlier this year. He brings strong expertise in teaching, openpit operations, and mathematical analysis.

Ortiz earned his PhD from the University of Alberta in geostatistics expertise in the development of physicsbased control algorithms for sustainable chemical processes.

Hudon earned his PhD in chemical engineering from Queen’s in 2010. He then did two years of post-doctoral work at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and three years more at Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

“The main problems we’re investigating now are related to ensuring safe operation and optimal performance of sustainable chemical processes,” he says. “We’re trying to solve problems in the long term that occur in the daily operation of chemical process systems. It’s pertinent to clean energy production, wastewater treatment and renewable fuel production.” before spending a little more than a decade at the University of Chile. He says coming to Queen’s represents a new experience for his family and a fresh environment in which to continue his work.

Oritz’s main area of research interest is

ChemEng welcomes

newest faculty member

Chemical Engineering Professor Nicolas Hudon joined the Faculty earlier this year. He brings

geostatistics, particularly how the branch

WELCOME BACK: “I did my PhD here; I loved it then, I love it now,” says new Queen’s Engineering Professor Nicolas Hudon. “It’s a grea t place to live, study, and do resear ch. The collaborative spirit is quite nice.”

Hudon also works on a team that’s developing models and control algorithms for the experimental Tokamak Plasma Fusion Reactor. It’s a $14-billion USD, multinational project under construction in France. The idea is to produce thermonuclear fusion power by using magnetic fields to confine superhot plasma in a toroidal-shaped reactor. Imagine abundant, clean energy from something like Tony Stark’s arc reactor.

“This process is very hard to model and very hard to understand, but the online control and optimization techniques of statistics can be applied to orebody estimation. The work helps mining engineers decide where—and where not—to dig or blast when searching for the richest ore. It makes mining operations cheaper and efficient, and it and minimizes environmental impact by helping engineers avoid areas where there is little or no ore to be mined.

“I try to assess what resources are available at mining projects from a very limited amount of information, usually from drill holes,” he says. “I apply statistical analysis to those data, take into account the spatial context and geological setting, and I try to model the orebody.”

Ortiz will be settling in, teaching, and learning the landscape at Queen’s for the first semester. He’s already looking for graduate students interested in his area of study.

He has some advice for students considering graduate studies or careers in mining. “Commodity prices go up and down, but the requirement for mining products never stops,” he says. “Career options in mining engineering are very wide with lots of opportunities for developing yourself in different areas. If you enjoy a challenge or are interested in adventure, it’s a very interesting career to follow.”

we’ve developed allow us to estimate, observe, and operate that kind of system,” says Hudon. “It’s a very interesting problem we’re dealing with in my group.” He’ll also be recruiting graduate students.

“I’m looking for graduate students with an interest in math,” he says. “Any students with a good understanding of physics or chemical engineering are what I’m looking for at this point. The goal of the group is to focus on industrial processes”