Laurentian to offer natural resources PhD

Beginning in January 2005, Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont., will offer students a doctorate degree in natural resources, with three fields of specialization: mining engineering; process engineering; and robotics, automation and advanced technologies in mining.

The Ontario Council of Graduate Studies approved the PhD program, which will be Laurentian’s third doctoral program and the first of its kind in northern Ontario. One student has been accepted into the program, and Laurentian believes as many as five full-time and several part-time students will be registered by January.

As Laurentian’s president, Judith Woodsworth, explains: “Laurentian is in the heart of a significant mining camp, surrounded by major wood processing facilities and a vibrant and growing cluster of natural resources industries. Northern Ontario is a unique natural laboratory in which considerable technological expertise has developed over time and in which further work will be done to improve natural resources processing and environmental stewardship.”

The PhD program in natural resources engineering will be taught primarily by professors from Laurentian’s School of Engineering, with help from research engineers working in the University’s Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corp. Several adjunct professors appointed by industry and government will also be involved.

Greg Baiden, director of the School of Engineering, says the PhD program will benefit from the success of the university’s existing master of engineering program. “We have witnessed the steady development of our engineering graduate program and of the faculty associated with it,” he explains. “This experience and the acquisition of funded research chairs have enabled the school to acquire the high level of research and teaching expertise to offer the PhD program.”