Dr Romain Chesnaux is expert in both physical and chemical hydrogeology. His fields of interest and expertise are the following:

• Groundwater management (groundwater quantity and quality assessment)
• Hydrogeology field techniques
• Groundwater vulnerability and sustainability
• Subsurface contamination and transport
• Groundwater remediation
• Groundwater modeling

Most Significant Contributions of Romain Chesnaux to Research and Development and to the industry

Dr Chesnaux has been involved in and has contributed to different research projects as part of his Ph.D. and his postdoctoral fellowship. At the same time, he conducted his own research projects and participated in projects conducted in collaboration with other researchers and consultants. Below is a description of these activities.

- His thesis specifically focused on the problem of cross-contamination between aquifers separated by an aquitard in the vicinity of an improperly sealed pumping well. His doctoral research work resulted in a method for detecting and characterizing hydraulic short-circuits due to a defective seal. The application of this method is critical to the resolution of present-day ground water contamination problems experienced by some cities. The methodology has proven especially useful for protecting ground water resources in confined aquifers from surface-water induced contamination, a situation which is becoming of widespread environmental concern.

- In his post-doctoral position, he modeled nitrate transport in the trans-national Abbotsford-Sumas aquifer in the central Fraser Valley in British Columbia (in collaboration with Environment Canada and the British Columbia Ministry of Environment). Nitrate concentrations above the maximum allowable concentration (10 mg/L NO3-N) have been recorded in many of the aquifer’s wells since the 1970’s because of the application of agricultural fertilizers. The mechanisms involved in nitrate leaching are now better understood because of Romain’s simulation and numerical modeling. Some recommendations can be proposed to farmers to improve their fertilisation practices and management in order to limit the impact of nitrates on the environment.

- As a researcher at Simon Fraser University, Dr Chesnaux also developed groundwater recharge models in fractured rock aquifers for the industry (in an 8-month project with Schlumberger Water Services). This project was funded by Schlumberger Inc.

- Dr Chesnaux also continues to pursue his own research interests, principally aimed at providing practical, applicable and real-life solutions to issues faced by hydrogeologist practitioners (see his publications) in the field. To satisfy this objective, he has developed a net of collaborators in private industry and in government. For example, he is particularly interested in the resolution of problems, real-life applications of new techniques and the communication of these results to practitioners (several researchers and consultants have requested and received the formula developed for calculating ground water transit times in unconfined aquifers, following his first publication in Ground Water). This solution can be very useful is assessing the movement of contaminants in groundwater. He uses his advanced skills in mathematics and his engineering background in seeking to develop closed-form analytical solutions to solve various problems frequently encountered by practitioners. Indeed, such solutions are still useful in direct applications or in the validation and verification of numerical models.

- In the frame of collaboration with other researchers, Dr Chesnaux has been involved in the PARDE project: a joint private-public study of the vulnerability of groundwater to surface water for 12 counties’ pumping wells in the province of Québec. This one-year project was completed with the collaboration of other specialists, including university chemical engineers and staff from the Ministry of Environment of Quebec.

- Dr Chesnaux worked in collaboration with HYDRO-QUEBEC at École Polytechnique de Montréal on the realization of a small-scale physical model to reproduce overpressure observed in dam cores at the « La Grande » complex (James Bay, Québec). These observed overpressures are an important issue because they can threaten the stability of the dam cores.

- Dr Chesnaux publishes in specialized journals dealing with groundwater from both physical and chemical aspects. Primarily interested in an engineering approach, he focuses his publications on journals which are aimed at practitioners. He is also regularly contacted by journal editors to review articles for peer-review publication.

Personal Statement of Dr Romain Chesnaux

Supervisory experience:

Hydrogeology field work: Dr Chesnaux was involved with the supervision of staff in implementing the aquifer of a municipally-owned field (City of Sorel in Quebec). He installed monitoring wells for groundwater sampling and chemistry analysis and also installed pumping wells for the characterization of the physical properties of this aquifer (pumping tests, slug tests and tracer tests).

Communication skills:

Teaching: Dr Chesnaux acted as a teaching assistant and substitute during 3 years in the Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering at École Polytechnique of Montréal. He taught theoretical and applied hydrogeology to graduate and undergraduate students. In 2006 and 2007 he acted as a lecturer at Simon Fraser University (Earth Sciences) where he taught the undergraduate course entitled «Groundwater geochemistry and contaminant transport» (EASC 410) as well as an undergraduate course entitled «Physical Hydrogeology» (EASC 304).

International conferences (see his publications)

Invited speaker: Dr Chesnaux was invited several times by the Ministry of Environment of Quebec to present his doctorate results and his work on the PARDE project. During these discussions and committees, he was called upon to interact with consultants, scientific experts and government staff (mainly environment and agriculture public staff). Following his publication in Ground Water Journal of a solution for ground water transit time, “Golder Associates Ltd.- Montreal” decided to adopt the solution for some of their hydrogeology projects. Dr Chesnaux was thus invited by them to present a workshop to teach their staff how to use the solution.

Scientific communications to the public: Dr Chesnaux participated in a scientific competition where scientists were asked by the National Assembly for Scientific Research of Quebec to present their research project to the public (both written document and oral presentation). Dr Chesnaux was awarded third prize (among 100 candidates) of the «Scientific Communication Competition at the 1st National Assembly for Scientific Research».

Finally, Dr Chesnaux’s Ph.D was nominated and short-listed by the jury for the “Best Doctoral Thesis” award across all disciplines at École Polytechnique de Montréal, for the academic year 2005.

Please click here for his full resume.