Meet our Faculty, Professor Elena Zabolotnii

Prof. Elena Zabolotnii has practiced engineering since 2011 across Canada. She has been a professional engineer since 2013. On her doctoral research at the University of Alberta, she focused on the 2014 failure of the Mount Polley Tailings Storage Facility in British Columbia, Canada.

Prof. Zabolotnii’s research interests span the fields of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. Her vision is to live in a world where tailings dam failures are history. Hence, her three primary research relates to:

• Mechanisms responsible for the asynchronous mobilization of shear resistance (e.g. stiffness incompatibility, loss of confinement/compaction/density) and the risk of progressive failure in slopes associated with these;
• Alternative ways of storing mine tailings (i.e. in stacks as opposed to tailings dams).
• Numerical analysis in geomechanics.

Prof. Zabolotnii worked in the government, consulting and with operators. Her previous projects are within the fields of construction, transportation, environmental and geotechnical engineering.

Some of the projects Elena was part of are:

• The rehabilitation of the section of TransCanada Highway in Regina City where she completed its structural pavement design
• The construction of the International Richardson Grain Terminal in North Vancouver where she is involved with the construction of its steel reinforcement
• The construction of the OPG’s Atikokan Generating Station where she is involved in the construction of the eco-fuel (biomass) storage facility

“Not all engineering jobs are as glamorous as the projects listed above but they are no less fun,” according to Prof. Zabolotnii. For example, one of her best engineering experiences was running a field testing programme at the gravel pit supporting the construction works on SK’s Highway #6.

Prof. Zabolotnii now joins us at Carleton University as an assistant professor in the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department. As part of her work, she seeks to integrate into her teaching and research initiatives that would help increase the Indigenous representation in engineering.

In her rapidly vanishing spare time, Elena practices fibre arts, skates and rollerblades. She is a cat person but thinks that dogs are great, so long as they are experienced in short bursts…