Dr. Wellen is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Ryerson University. Chris is an environmental scientist whose work focuses on the intersection of hydrology and biogeochemistry in human dominated environments. His work has focused on agricultural, urban, and surface mined areas, but the essential questions are typically: How do natural processes and human modifications to a watershed interact to transport water and materials? What are the effects on instream and downstream ecosystems, and how are these effects likely to change in the future?
Dr. Wellen received a PhD from the University of Toronto in 2013 focusing on comparing the phosphorus export dynamics of urban and agricultural watersheds. His postdoctoral work at McMaster University focused on the role of surface mining in affecting selenium release from watersheds. His subsequent postdoctoral work at the University of Waterloo focused on improving the numerical analysis of watershed data from agricultural systems. Dr. Wellen received an MSc in GIScience from McGill University and a BSc in Water Environments and Ecosystems from McGill University’s School of the Environment.
Sohom Mandal (PhD, EIT) Post-Doctoral Fellow Sohom is a post-doctoral fellow, working from September 2018. He is leading the regional watershed modelling project. He is investigating relationships between land-use, features of the landscape and nutrient concentration. He received PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. He has expertise in climate change impact assessment, watershed modeling, and water quality modeling.
Bhaswati Mazumder PhD Student Bhaswati joined the team after completing MSA at Ryerson. Her research focuses on chloride pathways in watersheds due to road salt applications. Current research interests include legacy chloride due to long term road salting in urban and urbanizing catchments, chloride retention in soil, and water quality modelling.
Sanjay Rasiah Masters Student, Research Assistant Sanjay joined the Wellen lab as a research assistant in January, 2018 and began his M.Sc. degree in the same year. His research focuses on cold regions hydrology, agricultural stewardship, and nutrient load management. The goal is to provide insight into cold regions hydrological field research methods, ultimately to apply the knowledge to watershed stewardship in the Northwest Territories, Canada.
Larissa Gospodyn Masters Student Larissa joined the lab in May, 2018 as a research assistant, before beginning her MASc degree in the following fall. Larissa's research focuses on nutrient flow pathways in agricultural landscapes. Using isotopes as tracers to infer flow pathways, she hopes to examine whether dominant nutrient pathways can be determined.
Hannah Burdett Masters Student Hannah joined the lab in May, 2018 as a research assistant, before beginning her MSA degree in the following fall. Hannah's research focuses on modelling precision agriculture through statistical and spatial analysis
Jung Lee Research Technician Jung's work focuses largely on supporting the development of a regional scale hydrological and water quality model of the agricultural portions of Southern Ontario. Additional work focuses on the logistics associated with the coordination of a research laboratory.
Eleonora Gagliardi Undergraduate Research Assistant Eleonora joined the lab as an undergraduate research assistant in May 2018, helping with data implementation and field sampling. Her undergraduate research project currently focuses on the implementation of social-ecological systems framework in peri-urban farm regions in Ontario. Her goal is to better understand how social and physical geographies of peri-urban areas in conjunction with municipal and national policies have an impact on soil health.
Alexander Pardy Masters Student, Research Assistant Alex’s MSA work is focused on understanding long term change in agricultural landuse and land management in Ontario using GIS.
