Mason GhafghaziProfile page
Associate Professor
Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering
- Associate ProfessorFaculty of Applied Science and Engineering, Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering
- 416 978-5972 (Work)
BIO
My research focuses on addressing the practical issues that industry faces when dealing with soils, or soil-like materials that do not have the typical characteristics of clean quartz sands, or plastic clays. I use advanced laboratory element testing, large scale testing, and constitutive and numerical modelling to address these problems.
My research group works on quantifying the response of non-classic geomaterials such as widely graded gravelly soils, tailings and silts. The work starts by characterizing the fundamental behaviour of different materials through element testing in our lab and continues by developing constitutive models, analyzing the problems and validating them through large scale tests. The results are being utilized to analyze field characterization tools such as the Cone Penetrometer, to demonstrate how the interpretation of these tests would be affected by different soil properties. Once the in-situ soil conditions are known, full scale problems, including documented case histories of performance under extreme events are analyzed to investigate the influence of material-specific behaviour on system performance.
Media availability: TV, Radio
My research group works on quantifying the response of non-classic geomaterials such as widely graded gravelly soils, tailings and silts. The work starts by characterizing the fundamental behaviour of different materials through element testing in our lab and continues by developing constitutive models, analyzing the problems and validating them through large scale tests. The results are being utilized to analyze field characterization tools such as the Cone Penetrometer, to demonstrate how the interpretation of these tests would be affected by different soil properties. Once the in-situ soil conditions are known, full scale problems, including documented case histories of performance under extreme events are analyzed to investigate the influence of material-specific behaviour on system performance.
Media availability: TV, Radio
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Toronto, Toronto, CanadaSep 2015 - present
- Project ScientistUniversity of California, Davis, Davis, United StatesOct 2014 - Aug 2015
- Post-doctoral FellowUniversity of California, Davis, Davis, United States2012 - Sep 2014
- Research AssistantUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, CanadaSep 2004 - Sep 2007
NON-ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- Geotechnical EngineerBC Hydro (Canada), Vancouver, CanadaMay 2008 - Jan 2012
- ResearcherGolder Associates (Canada), Toronto, CanadaSep 2007 - Feb 2008
DEGREES
- PhD. - Geotechnical EngineeringUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- MSc. - Geotechnical EngineeringSharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
- BSc. - Civil EngineeringIsfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
AVAILABILITY
- Industry Projects
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
- Media enquiries