Students

I was born in Riva del Garda, in Italy in 1986. Undergraduate degree in Management Engineering (2009) with a thesis on the optimization of picking process at Arcese Trasporti warehouse. Master in Management Engineering (2011) at the University of Brescia in logistic and supply chain management with a thesis on the production and scheduling management at Reynaers Aluminium.

Ph.D. degree in 2015 in Design and Management of Integrated Logistic and Productive Systems at University of Brescia with a thesis on life cycle analysis of innovative energy processes and technologies.

I cover a position of Postdoctoral Fellowship at Geography Department at Queen's University (2015-2019). During this time, I'm involved in a number of projects looking the feasibility analysis of several industrial production processes.

My research topic is the use of the LCSA methodology. The LCSA is a technique used to assess the environmental, economic and social impacts associated with all the stages of a product’s life from “cradle to grave”.

Broadly my research interests lie in understanding human-environmental systems and how improved assessment and management approaches can be used to improve their sustainability.

Specifically I'm interested in finding ways to provide better direction towards the sustainable production of energy, food, and fiber, while also promoting a platform to support policy goals towards securing economies and employment, in the context of improvement in environmental performance and ecosystem values.

Assessing many of the emerging sustainable agroecosystem approaches or bioenergy technologies requires an interdisciplinary approach that requires a technical understanding of physical and biochemical processes, but also socio-economic and community dynamics, environmental assessment protocols, and natural resource management approaches.

My current research in the REDi lab focuses on ways to evolve our spatial and temporal understanding of land-use at local and regional scales as a way to improve decision-making about future land use, energy production, and the policies that may influence them. I am currently working on ways to improve our environmental life-cycle assessment of biomass feed-stocks, particularly as they relate to the types of data we use and the way that we engage with biomass producers and consumers.

Much of the work stems from my Ph.D. dissertation (Queen's, 2017) where I focused on how to improve small-scale data challenges encountered in bioenergy life-cycle assessment (LCA) methods, and used a multi-scalar LCA approach to evaluate the energy and GHG balances of using short-rotation coppice willow as a bioenergy feedstock in southwestern Ontario. The project involved engagement with a range of stakeholders that included industry, private land-owners, and government agencies such as OMAFRA.

As part of the REDI lab, my research investigates Natural Heritage Systems (NHS) within high growth urban areas in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area (Region of Halton), along with current approaches to NHS planning using a case study approach to determine the role of natural features in responding to various climate change scenarios.

By further recognizing the ecosystem services provided by NHS across the landscape my research will serve to inform NHS planning practice.

A Natural Heritage System (NHS) approach to planning considers the importance of maintaining and protecting ecological features in the environment such as woodlands, wetlands, and watercourses. In addition, NHS planning has clear objectives to maintain and protect ecological functions such as water storage and water quality enhancements by features such as wetlands, together with ecological interactions that occur over various scales of time and space.

Further, the role of ecological disturbance mechanisms rounds out the major components considered as part of NHS planning. My research methodology involves not only detailed document analysis but also surveys, interviews and workshops with NHS stakeholders in Ontario.

Jean Blair, MSc, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. As part of the Renewable Energy Development and Implementation (REDI) lab, her expertise lies the areas of bioenergy supply chains and policy analysis within the context of energy system innovation and sustainable energy transitions.

Her Ph.D. work compares the socio-economic and environmental performance of forest bioenergy options for Ontario and is supported by an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell CGS-D scholarship.

In addition to this academic work, Jean plays a role in the implementation of bioenergy projects through her position as Research Associate with Torchlight BioResources Inc. Jean has ten years of experience using ArcGIS – primarily focused on biomass resource analysis.

As part of her MSc in Geography at Queen’s University, Ms. Blair obtained extensive experience researching the characteristics of bioenergy installations that influence project success and failure. This work included numerous interviews with key stakeholders in project development and an assessment of feedstock availability for future bioenergy projects in Eastern Canada.

Ms. Blair is an accomplished writer, with several successful grant and scholarship applications and a growing number of publications on record. Jean holds an MSc in Geography from Queen’s University and a BSc in Biology from Dalhousie University.

I grew up in Prince George, British Columbia, where I also completed my undergraduate degree in physics (minor in international studies) at the University of Northern British Columbia. My interest in sustainable energy development began during that degree, when I started to realize the more abstract approaches of theoretical physics were not to my taste.

Working under the supervision of university staff and faculty, I helped UNBC find opportunities to expand the use of their bioenergy facilities, and save money in the process. After graduating, I moved to the far side of the country to pursue my master of environmental studies degree at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

My master’s thesis considered the evolution of Nova Scotia’s policy supports for small-scale (less than 500 kW) tidal energy development, and the fiscal viability of small-scale tidal projects in Canada.

Building on the themes of this work, but shifting regional focus, my Ph.D. research will attempt to answer both the questions of whether there is sufficient tidal energy in Frobisher Bay to help reduce Iqaluit’s diesel, and whether such development would be acceptable or desirable to residents of the region.

My work thus combines physical geography, in the form of hydrodynamic computer modeling of Frobisher Bay, and human geography, in the form of community-engaged research around energy development and its localized benefits. This fits into my broader research interests, which are centered around sustainable energy transitions, regional development of renewable energy-based grids, and the social acceptability of energy projects.

My research explores the techno-economic, socio-economic, institutional and environmental variables that contribute to successful transformation from conventional forest products manufacturing to sustainable biorefining.

Key focuses of this project are: to develop an understanding of why such transitions have not yet occurred to any significant extent in Canada; to provide new insight as to what has not worked; and, to identify new ways to mobilize biorefining as a sustainable revitalisation pathway for Canada’s forest sector.In collaboration with Canmet ENERGY, this project will help advance development of the I-BIOREF biorefining simulation model and apply it in a comparative analysis of at least two forest biorefining transformation sites.

The focus of these case studies will be to identify additional variables which could be added to the model to improve its usefulness and applicability in helping industry and policy makers understand how these factors support or constrain forest bioeconomy transformation in the Canadian forest-products sector. As well, the case studies will focus on identifying a suite of technologies which can fully utilise available forest resources to achieve commercial sustainability, particularly in communities and regions where conventional forest products industries have been shut down.

Charlene is from Hamilton Ontario and completed an undergraduate degree in Fuels and Materials Engineering at the Royal Military College and then went on to a 20 year military career. During her time in the Canadian Armed Forces she worked in research and development, training systems, and base construction engineering.

An advocate of lifelong learning, she earned her MBA part-time at the University of Toronto while working full time at Defence Research Establishment Toronto (formerly Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine), and then undertook a part-time Engineering Master’s degree at the Royal Military College where she studied the impacts of the CANDU nuclear fuel cycle. Her military career took her to CFB Trenton, CFB Kingston, CF Medical Group Headquarters Ottawa and finally to Defence Research Establishment Suffield Alberta.

She retired from the CF in 2008 and switched careers for employment in finance and investments at the Royal Bank of Canada. She has now retired from RBC in order to pursue her goal of completing her PhD in renewable energy, with a focus on small scale hydropower projects in northern Canada.

My research explores the spatial dimensions, trends and potential of the Canadian use of Waste to Energy (WTE) Systems. The goal of this work is to study Kingston and Ottawa's network of WTE facilities and to discover novel policy instruments and private sector incentives to increase the province’s WTE generation capacity.

I am originally from Ottawa, Ontario. I completed my BScH at Queen’s University as a 2006 Loran Scholar and my MES at the University of Waterloo where I studied Brownfield Development. During my studies, I was involved in business start-ups and various initiatives with a core theme of sustainability.

My work includes an Urban Agricultural company in Kingston Ontario and a sustainable construction company that enabled me to participate in numerous off-grid builds and urban sustainability projects.

Alyssa Alexander is a MSc candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. She has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Design from Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from Queen’s University.

Her background is a combination of sustainable building policy, physical geography, environmental studies, municipal planning practices, and geographic information science. She aspires to work in the sustainable resource management field, but she has a particular interest in integrated watershed management and spatial analysis to solve complex community development issues.

Her research focuses on quantifying ecological services at the local watershed scale in order to inform responsible and sustainable growth plans. Her hope is to bridge the gap between earth science, social science, and policy implementation.

My interests outline the physical systems that drive and change the Earth over time. I find them fascinating and beautiful in their complexity. This led to me following the path of studying these systems and finding answers to the many questions I had.

In 2018, I graduated from Nipissing University with a BSc in Physical and Environmental Geography. Along with this, I acquired certificates in Environmental Management as well as Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems.

As part of the REDI lab, my research is based on examining the methods by which the sustainability of renewable energy systems are evaluated. This incorporates both anthropogenic data as well as Earth systems data. I hope to better understand how new variables can be included in the modelling of energy systems and incorporate those towards better resource management techniques.