Kathryn Franklin, Meerl, P.Eng. Email and Phone Number

I have worked in natural resource projects completing site investigations and terrain evaluations, and tailings dam projects for mining clients, from feasibility to final design and land transition, including site investigation, design and construction support, and project management. I also supported an expert witness to a litigation case. He took a chance on me, a young geological engineer, new to BGC and new to him. Many years later, after interpreting temporal changes in air photos, changes in land use and land quality of multiple properties over 50 years, creating, digitizing, and reporting the method for our analyses, and providing a technical comparison between differing positions from the opposition and ourselves, we went to London, England, to high court. I attended the cross examination of relevant technical experts from the opposition, and provided assistance before, during and after the court proceedings to the barristers and solicitors. Today, this expert witness is my colleague, my mentor, and has become my friend. General project controls and project management tasks, invoicing, change orders, budget tracking, scheduling, scoping and staffing are a par for the course, but, the best part is helping people overcome obstacles and take the next steps. My goal is always asking questions to help reframe the challenge.

As a geological engineering summer student I worked on two main projects, one for the City of Edmonton and the other for Syncrude. I learned what it meant to be a geotechnical consultant in the natural resource industry. Syncrude was the very first mine I visited and worked at; I took samples of mature fine tailings (MFT), supervised MFT ball penetration testing (BPT) for material parameter development and consolidation profiling, and supervised different testing procedures for the MFT while on site. The entire experience fascinated me, by completing these tests we could use these findings to investigate remediation and transition options for oil sands mining. As a geological engineering summer student I could see how as an engineer we could find solutions to challenging projects that could help improve the mining industry.

In the summer of 2010, I worked with Rob Harrap in the Geological Engineering department creating an ArcGIS and airphoto database of Kingston and surrounding area for education and environmental uses in Rob's classes. From there I found historical images of Queen's University and became fascinated with the history. I wanted to share the story of how Queen's University campus changed and entice people to look into how these changes shaped the university to where it is today. I collected historical data, field data, and air photos of the Queen's University campus, and created a 3D model in Google Earth.