COANDA - Key Persons
Alex leads our corporate business development initiatives, develops our strategies and oversees their execution including all of our marketing, branding, and communications. He has managed our brand for over 15 years, taking it from its early years through to maturity and its re-imagining under the Tetra Tech umbrella.
He holds a B.Sc.(Hons) in Engineering Product Design from London South Bank University, England. His experience spans over two decades of engineering R&D, business development and marketing experience ranging from in-house OEM equipment product development, to the fast-paced environment of one of London's largest product design studios, and brand management for a number of well-recognized companies across a multitude of industries. Alex's portfolio includes the design of complex mechanical systems such as HVAC equipment, consumer electronics, medical products, and commercial vehicles, with a focus on creative problem solving, design for manufacturing and commercialization. He has also been involved in marketing and web design since Web 1.0 in the mid 1990s.
In addition to his Business Development role, Alex continues to act as a technical subject matter expert, assisting and mentoring engineers working on client projects. His expertise encompasses all aspects of R&D projects' lifecycle, bringing ideas from concept to reality through the applied use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Engineering (CAE) including 3D modeling, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation, fabrication and commissioning, and bringing products to market.
Since he joined Coanda's Burnaby team in 2007, Alex has been heavily involved in equipment design and the development of several fluidized beds, large scale multiphase systems, water channels, and numerous smaller projects. He is registered as a Professional Engineer with EGBC.
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We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Clara Gomez as Senior Vice President,...
Our ongoing commitment to providing rapid turnaround to support our client programs relies on the...
Our Cleantech brochure features a general overview, the expertise and capabilities we can offer clients...
Dr Rigby's background is in experimental physics. She received both her undergraduate physics degree and graduate DPhil degree (Ph.D. equivalent) from the University of Oxford, UK. Her doctoral research focused on experimental laser-plasma physics, investigating the role of magnetic fields in astrophysically relevant plasmas, resulting in "Nature Physics" and "Physics of Plasmas" journal publications. She is experienced at experimentally diagnosing fluid-like turbulent plasmas using a variety of laser-based diagnostics.
Her experience with instrumenting and troubleshooting complicated experiments lends itself well to Coanda's instrumentation needs where bespoke is the norm. Her strong mathematical and computational background have been applied to a variety of projects at Coanda, from wildland fire prediction to performance analysis of an industrial process.
Alex joined Coanda Burnaby in 2018 and is now part of the data science and instrumentation groups.
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How to understand a model To better interpret machine learning (ML) models, we can use...
Why should you trust predictions made by a machine? Frequently machine learning (ML) models are...
Andrew is a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he obtained a Bachelor of Applied Science with the Thermofluids option. He continued his studies at UBC in the field of fluid dynamics and combustion, and obtained his Master of Applied Science degree, primarily focusing on the study of jets and stratified natural gas combustion, gas mixing visualization techniques, and the reduction of hydrocarbon and NOX emissions from internal combustion engines.
Since joining Coanda in 2008, Andrew has been responsible for the management of experimental R&D programs in a broad range of industrial fluid dynamics areas, including gas-solids fluidization, multi-phase flows, feed nozzle development and optimization, mixing, and separation. He has also overseen the development and commissioning of new experimental techniques and apparatus for research programs aimed at new technology development.
Andrew is currently leading Coanda's Experimental and Physical Modeling group, he is a member of Coanda's Project Management Office (PMO), and is a professional engineer registered with EGBC.
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Anita obtained her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta.
She brings industrial experience across a variety of fields including HVAC, aeronautical, biomechanical and heavy industrial thermal applications.
Her background includes research and development, thermal and mechanical design, manufacturing as well as analysis and implementation. In addition, her experience includes managing both technical and financial aspects of research projects and writing technical reports and proposals.
Anita joined Coanda in 2011.
Dr Bara received his BSc in Civil Engineering and his MSc and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Prior to joining Coanda, Barry was a Senior Technical Specialist with Syncrude's R&D's Mine Closure Research Team. Over his 30+ years with Syncrude he worked on a wide variety of projects covering key operational areas of mining, extraction, upgrading and tailings. With the growing need for innovative solutions in oil sand tailings management his focus was devoted to tailings treatment, reclamation and environmental issues starting in 2010.
Barry is unique in his ability to deeply understand the underlying physics and mathematics of a problem while at the same time being able to translate that knowledge into the practical implementation of equipment design and pilot plant layouts that deliver reliable results.
He has applied this expertise to the design and execution of large and small pilot plant projects as well as bench top experiments related to the development of technologies to enhance bitumen extraction and tailings treatment in the oil sands. Additionally he has also been heavily involved in mathematical and experimental modeling of processes related to the oil sands (e.g. fluid tailings treatments, hydrotransport, froth pipelining, diluent recovery from tailings, CFD applied to cyclones and reactors, transportation of fluid fine tailings in pipelines).
Dr. Bara's extensive career includes hundreds of presentations, publications, technical reports and articles spanning decades of public engagements, as well as twenty-six Canadian Patents, related to the treatment and dewatering of mine tailings, hydrocarbon recovery, oilsands management and water reclamation inventions.
Barry joined the Coanda team in 2023 and is based at our Edmonton location. He has been a registered Professional Engineer with APEGA since 1987.
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With a background in both Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Benny has over 15 years of engineering and 5 years of analytical chemistry experience that includes areas related to developing hydrometallurgical extraction processes, fuel cell system integration, multiphase flashing flows and tailings treatment, as well as the design and optimization of commercial-scale process equipment for the energy industry.
Currently, Benny is a lead project and Engineering manager for Coanda's Edmonton branch. A key focus area during his 10+ years with Coanda has been with oil sands developments through the successful application of fluid mechanics theory and project management skills paired with in depth research, analysis, experimentation, and modeling to establish solutions to a variety of complex engineering projects.
Cedric completed his education in France (Masters from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine in 2003, PhD from the Université de Poitiers in 2006) in the area of industrial chemistry. As an academic researcher in two leading Canadian universities from 2007 to 2017, he developed expertise in multiple technical fields (liquid-phase adsorption, CFD, molecular representations, heavy oil reactions and fouling) through a variety of projects in partnership with the oil industry.
Cedric joined Coanda Edmonton in April 2017 to contribute to chemical engineering research activities across a number of fields and industries including Oil & Gas, Cleantech and Mining. He spearheads the development of Coanda's analytical capabilities, providing innovative solutions and leadership in numerous projects.
Dr Laborde-Boutet has been involved in the experimental thermodynamic characterization of complex slurries, studied the mass transfer of VOC in air stripping processes, established the hydrocarbon fingerprints of biodegraded samples using Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry, and conceived an online photoionization-based sensing technique to determine the VOC content in material samples. Additionally, his development of analytical methods for the characterization of tailings by Gas Chromatography have set up a new benchmark in the O&G industry.
Cedric is continually involved in projects supporting environmental mitigation and remediation, and other Cleantech aspects such as biofuel integration.
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You've likely seen articles defining hydrogen as blue, green, black, yellow, pink, turquoise, or myriad...
Cleantech applications are focused on reducing the impact of energy production on air, water, and...
Job Titles:
- Scientist
- Researcher With an
Daniel is an experienced researcher with an M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta. Daniel has a history in both public and private research organizations with a specialization on bitumen extraction and upgrading projects.
Daniel started at Coanda's Edmonton facility in 2019 and has aided with several projects in method development, data collection, data analysis, physical and numerical modelling, and reporting.
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Derek graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.Sc in Chemical Engineering in the spring of 2018. During his undergrad Derek worked in both private and public fluid tailings research efforts as well as water utility projects. Before graduation Derek spent 8 months at Coanda working out of the Edmonton facility.
Diana joined Coanda in April 2022 as a Chemical Technologist. Her work primarily revolves around research and development, where she has made significant contributions to operating different processes. Her ability to conduct experiments and collect data has led to successful implementation of numerous physical modeling research projects.
Dr Conor Fleming has been a member of Coanda's computational fluid dynamics (CFD) team since 2020. He holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Galway, Ireland, and a doctorate in engineering science from the University of Oxford. In his doctoral research he used CFD to investigate tidal turbine performance in a variety of representative ocean flow conditions.
Subsequently, Conor worked as a tunnel ventilation engineer on road and metro projects in the UK, Middle East and North America, where he gained experience across the project lifecycle from concept design to commissioning. He is skilled at 1D and 3D numerical modeling of thermal comfort and fire safety scenarios, as well as ventilation tracer tests, pan fire tests and tunnel flow rate measurement. He has contributed to several World Road Association technical reports relating to road tunnel ventilation and safety.
At Coanda, Conor specializes in complex ventilation applications including tunnels, underground car parks, buildings and industrial facilities. He also works on a broader variety of multiphase flow challenges relating to mixing vessels, heat exchangers and slurry hydrotransport.
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Abstract The volumetric flow rate in a duct is commonly calculated based on the arithmetic...
Job Titles:
- Adjunct Professor
- Scientist
Dr. Ali Vakil's expertise is mathematical and computational modelling of complex dynamical systems arising from fluid flow and providing solutions through a combination of analytical and computational fluid dynamics techniques.
He has been at Coanda since 2012, conducting computational/experimental research programs on a wide range of multi-phase flows where heat/mass/momentum transfer requires special attention, modelling and analysis.
Ali obtained an MSc in Applied Mathematics at the University of British Columbia, where his work focused on the mathematical modelling and stability analysis of a fluid-solid system.
He obtained his PhD from the Mechanical Engineering Department at UBC, working on three dimensional modelling of multiphase flows relevant to the pulp and paper industry and was involved in development of computer codes to simulate the motion of flexible objects in flow fields (one-way Fluid Structure Interaction).
Prior to that, he obtained an MSc from the Mechanical Engineering Department at Sharif University of Technology, Iran, where he conducted research on the transient phenomenon in hydropower plants transmission lines using the method of characteristics approach.
Dr. Vakil is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC, Vancouver campus, where he co-supervises graduate students and teaches senior-level undergraduate courses
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This post was originally published in three parts which have been combined below. Part 1...
Abstract Volume-of-fluid (VOF) CFD simulations are carried out to provide a full description of the...
Job Titles:
- Scientist & Radiation Safety Officer
After completing his undergraduate in physics theory at McMaster University, Dr. Christian Veenstra moved to Vancouver to pursue graduate work at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Blending his passion for hands-on work with his education in theory, he soon joined an experimental group in the process of designing and constructing what has become one of the world's foremost systems for Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES), and also played a key role in the development of a new technique combining spin-ARPES with circularly polarized light that has been able to measure electronic properties previously not accessible to science.
Dr. Veenstra has continued this passion at Coanda since 2013 with our instrumentation team where he's had opportunity to use and build his experience across a breadth of areas - everything from developing protocols for safe and effective use of x-rays and radioactive materials as our Radiation Safety Officer, to designing/building custom instrumentation right down to the PCB, implementing new machine learning algorithms in synthetic instrumentation, specifying, installing and troubleshooting instrumentation, as well as data analysis and mathematical modelling.
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In the course of setting up cutting-edge industrial experiments Coanda has acquired a number of...
Coanda's instrumentation team is dedicated to getting the most out of our physical modeling experiments....
Abstract In many industrial applications, non-intrusive measurements of visually opaque processes are key to understanding,...
Dr. Clara Gomez obtained her Master of Science and Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC) working on experimental and computational modeling applied to mixing of complex non-Newtonian fluids.
Her work was related to industrial mixer designs of unconventional geometry used in pulp and paper manufacturing. Through her graduate education, Clara acquired significant expertise on the rheological characterization of complex fluids, scale up and scale down of mixing processes, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations for mixing applications involving these types of materials, and experimental validation of CFD simulations through advanced measurements such as particle image velocimetry (PIV).
Since joining Coanda in 2010, Clara has worked on a wide range of projects related to non-Newtonian fluids flow including mixing applications, pipeline transport and process scale up. Clara has also worked on numerous other research projects focused on mixing, rheology, flocculation, coagulation, fluidization, process engineering amongst many others.
In addition to her role as Coanda's leader, she is also our Director of Engineering Science. She is responsible for overseeing our five engineering science discipline teams: Advanced Mathematics & Data Science, Chemical Process Engineering, Advanced Instrumentation & Software, Experimental modeling, and Computational Fluid Dynamics; supporting the delivery of research projects for clients across many industries.
Clara recently concluded a 4-year term as President of the North American Mixing Forum (NAMF); an active academic and industrial group that promotes scholarship, research and education in the field of mixing; where she serves in the research and education committees.
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Burnaby, BC - Coanda Coanda Research is excited to announce that one of its lead...
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Principal Scientist
Over his extensive career, Dr. Darwin Kiel has become one of Canada's leading practitioners in the field of industrial fluid dynamics. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, and his Ph.D. in Engineering (Fluid Dynamics) from the University of Cambridge, England; after which he joined Nova Corporation in Calgary as a Senior Research Scientist. He went on to found Coanda Research & Development Corporation in 1995.
The broad spectrum of Dr. Kiel's knowledge and expertise includes mathematical analysis and physical modeling of single and multi-phase flows, non-Newtonian systems, slurry transport and flocculation, atmospheric dispersion and fluidization, with particular depth of personal specialization in the areas of buoyancy driven flows and turbulence. He holds numerous patents in the fields of gravity separation, advanced optical measurements, polymerization and tailings management.
In addition to his decades of industrial experience, Dr. Kiel has also been an active member of academia, previously serving as Adjunct Professor at both the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University.
Darwin's collaborative approach to solving complex industrial problems is reflected in his recruitment of top scientific and engineering talent, and in Coanda's core business approach which is to mobilize highly creative and interactive relationships with customers that deliver the results industries need.
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To our valued clients, customers, contractors and suppliers: Like most of you, Coanda Research and...
Our Physical Modeling team's white paper has been published by the Canadian Society for Chemical...
Job Titles:
- Scientist
- Adjunct Professor at the UBC Faculty of Applied Science
Dr. Ehsan Zaman joined Coanda's Burnaby office in 2018 bringing with him several years of experience in computational modelling of natural and industrial fluid dynamics phenomenon and problems. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia (UBC) working on optimizing the hydrocyclone separation performance through computational modelling for use in the pulp and paper industry.
Ehsan has experience working on projects with applications in a variety of industries including pulp and paper, environmental, mining, and oil & gas. These projects entail knowledge of fluid dynamics and heat transfer subjects including rotational flows, multi-phase flows, free surface flows, flow in porous media, and phase change.
Dr. Zaman is also an Adjunct Professor at the UBC Faculty of Applied Science, where he teaches engineering design courses to undergraduate students on the Vancouver Campus.
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Job Titles:
- Lead Scientist - Instrumentation
Since joining Coanda in 2011, Jeff's main focus is the development of novel measurement systems and instrumentation, in order to track the movement or concentration of a specific phase or tracer material in multiphase systems for the physical modelling research programs undertaken in our laboratories
Jeff's instrumentation development career began working in a variety of laboratories resulting in publications in "Physical Review Letters" and "Physics Today". During his graduate studies Jeff was the lead developer in the state-of-the-art ARPES (Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy) system while earning publications in "Nature Physics" and "Physical Review Letters" for synchrotron-based measurements.
Jeff heads our Electronics & Instrumentation Group, and is based at our head office in Burnaby.
This post was originally published in four parts which have been combined below. Part 1...
Dr. Konstantin Pougatch joined Coanda in 2012 bringing extensive engineering experience, most of it related to the development of mathematical models for complex industrial fluid mechanics problems.
He obtained his Master of Science degree from St. Petersburg State Technical University in Russia and continued to work in the aerospace industry research on the hypersonic aircraft cooling system development. Before joining the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of British Columbia (UBC) as a Senior Research Engineer, Konstantin developed a novel burner for high-efficiency boilers using both experimental and numerical approaches for an HVAC company.
As a member of the Industrial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) group at UBC, Konstantin developed a numerical code for solving multiphase and multicomponent flows in curvilinear geometries while acquiring his Ph.D. degree. The code has advanced capabilities in simulating particle break-up, coalescence, continuous phase transition and many other features and was applied to analyze industrially-relevant problems.
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Dr. Hollander received his MSc in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Applied Physics from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. Over his 25+ year career, Elco held positions at both Shell and Suncor Energy Ltd., varying from technology and front-end business development to field pilot execution and operations management. In his most recent roles, Elco worked on a range of projects covering the key operational areas of oil sands mining, extraction, water and tailings management, focusing on innovative environmental and business performance improvement opportunities in these areas.
Elco has on multiple occasions been able to develop new technologies from initial proof of concept to commercial design and operation. This experience has provided a broad perspective on the definition of viability of a new concept. In practice, technical rigour and robust process scale-up are of equal importance as the ultimate environmental, social, economical, and operational performance of a technology. His expertise enables him to incorporate de-risking of the non-technical aspects in parallel with a technology development scope, substantially increasing the probability of successful deployment of a concept.
In his career, Elco has applied his knowledge to developing bench scale and pilot plant project scopes varying in financial commitment from tens of thousands to over one hundred million dollars. A key part of this is defining the right scale for de-risking of the technical gaps: one can often get information faster and at lower cost with properly scaled-down experimental setups than with large-scale field pilots. He has further been deeply involved in the analysis, data interpretation and modeling of oil sands processing aspects varying from bitumen production impacts and regional air quality assessments to long-term site reclamation considerations.
Dr. Hollander's extensive career includes dozens of presentations, publications, technical reports and articles spanning over two decades of public engagements, as well as fifteen Canadian and international Patents, related to the treatment of oil sands tailings, hydrocarbon recovery, bitumen froth treatment and hydrocarbon logistics.
Elco joined the Coanda team in 2023 and is based at our Calgary location. He has been a registered Professional Engineer with APEGA since 2012.
Eli obtained his B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta in 2008. He has extensive experience in a wide variety of fields including bio-mechanics, light manufacturing and civil forensics. In addition to being a Professional Engineer registered with APEGA, he has also achieved designation as a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator.
Eli joined Coanda in 2013 bolstering the engineering team at our Edmonton location. Since then his experience in mechanical design and fabrication, and his practical problem solving skills has assisted in the delivery of physical modeling research programs.
Ferdinand obtained his B.Sc. degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of Santo Tomas, Philippines and holds a diploma in Instrumentation and Engineering Technology from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. His experience includes semiconductor applications, instrumentation design, and construction trade. At Coanda his focus has been on electrical wiring and assembly of custom instruments and equipment, control panels. Ferdinand joined Coanda Burnaby in 2022.
Javed obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta, where he worked on magnetically targeted aerosol drug delivery to the lung. After graduation, he studied solid particle wetting and interfacial flows using atomic force microscopy at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
He joined Coanda Edmonton in 2018, bringing experience in a variety of fields, including experimental and numerical modelling, oil and gas phase behavior, microfluidics, and instrument design.
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Job Titles:
- Lead Scientist - Chemical Engineering
Kushagra joined Coanda in 2011 bringing with him interdisciplinary experience of mechanical, chemical, and software engineering. He obtained his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alberta focusing on Athabasca Oil Sands extraction, transport phenomena, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.
Prior to coming to Canada in 2006, Kushagra obtained B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (Allahabad) in India and worked for an information technology company - consequently becoming proficient in computer programming.
Kushagra has over 10 years of experience of leading new technology development from laboratory to pilot and commercial scales. Over the years he has worked on variety of projects related to mine waste treatment, solvent recovery, non-Newtonian flows, mixing, separation, and numerical modeling. Kushagra is also instrumental in leading large-scale field-testing campaigns based out of our Edmonton office.
Kushagra is currently leading Coanda's Chemical and Process Engineering group, and is a professional engineer registered with APEGA.
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Leah obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Alberta. She brings experience from synthetic organic chemistry and industrial oil & gas laboratories. She joined Coanda's Edmonton Office in 2017.
Job Titles:
- VP - Business Development
Job Titles:
- Lead Scientist - Mathematical Modeling