Dr. Delatolla mobilized his engineering research group during the pandemic to develop a method to measure SARS-CoV-2 viral genetic signal in wastewater. He was the first in Canada to do so, and one of the earliest in the world to develop a method to measure SARS-CoV-2 in wastewaters. He was also able to modify his method during the pandemic to produce daily, real-time SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance data for Ottawa Public Health. His engineering group was the first laboratory in the world to provide daily, real-time wastewater surveillance data to a public health unit and Ottawa Public Health has used the wastewater signal produced to measure disease incidence in the city.

Building on this success, Ottawa Public Health and the province of Ontario directly actioned the wastewater data in Ottawa to initiate stricter restrictions in the city to prevent transmission of COVID-19. More recently, they are using the wastewater signal as a leading indicator of disease levels in the city of Ottawa.

Citing success in Ottawa, Dr. Delatolla’s work has been expanded across Ontario via the provincial Wastewater Surveillance Initiative (WSI), with the SARS-COV-2 wastewater signal now being used as a leading indicator of disease in the province. Dr. Delatolla has worked together with the Ontario Science Table to conceive the provincial initiative and trained numerous laboratories in the program on how to measure COVID-19 in wastewaters.

Dr. Delatolla has also adapted and applied SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance to First Nation communities, long-term care facilities, correctional facilities, and campus residences, dramatically expanding the impact of the discovery.

Cory Jones is Anishnaabe from the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation. He has spent the past 25 years at Neegan Burnside Ltd. working with Indigenous communities and clients on projects spanning water and wastewater treatment, infrastructure, facility development and management and renewable energy.

In his role at Neegan Burnside, Cory works with his team driving transformational improvements and providing workable and sustainable engineering solutions to benefit First Nations communities. The results of his and his teams’ efforts have improved the quality of life of thousands, while also increasing awareness of the infrastructure concerns in these communities.

With the experience he and his team have gained over the years, Cory has participated in projects such as the Wataynikaneyap Power Transmission project which is bringing reliable power to 17 remote First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario. Cory has personally worked with over 150 First Nation communities throughout Canada primarily on improvements to water and wastewater infrastructure.

Cory’s dedication to advancing the engineering profession has made him and his team a respected and sought-after resource for First Nations projects. Cory embraces the importance of training and employing locally as a means of community development, as well as continuously looking for opportunities to employ Indigenous talent.

Cory demonstrates his commitment to the engineering profession by being an active member of the Association of Professional Engineers, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists, the Association of Professional Engineers & Geoscientists of Manitoba, and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta. Cory has also participated in speaking about his experiences and raising awareness of the need for engineering solutions that work with the knowledge and practices of the Indigenous perspective with students at the high school and university level, as well as numerous local community groups.

Dr. Daolun Chen is a world-leading expert in the field of materials science and engineering as well as a prolific researcher with a history of sustained, groundbreaking research spanning over 25 years.

He has authored more than 440 refereed research papers, with most of them published in top-rated journals (361) and presented at premier conferences (87), plus more than 210 non-refereed papers, abstracts, and research reports, including an invited “Advanced Engineering Materials Hall of Fame” article.

His research findings have not only garnered significant attention but are also in use in industry for the design and life prediction of automotive components and the development of new materials and processes. One of his seminal works is now called by others a method bearing his name – a rare achievement.

The Council of Canadian Academies twice ranked him as “an author of one of the top 1% most highly cited papers in his field worldwide.” and he was also featured in the World’s Top 2% Scientists List in a study published by Stanford University.

His exceptional body of research has notably advanced materials engineering, culminating in the production of safer, lighter, and more durable materials for load-bearing structural components and systems; this provides new methods for clean manufacturing, yielding significant energy efficiency benefits.

Dr. Chen has also made outstanding contributions to the profession and community as an editorial board member of 28 highly-regarded international journals; co-chair or committee member of 90+ conferences/symposia; and committee member of several learned and professional societies including the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

A Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Dr. Kibret Mequanint is an internationally renowned innovator and scholar at the nexus of chemical and biomaterials engineering, life sciences, and translational medicine. His discoveries span multiple areas of biomedical engineering, including radiotherapy dosimeters for accurate radiation dose measurements, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, bio-inspired tissue adhesives for treating trauma and battlefield injuries, and injectable biomaterials. His leadership in developing the first truly non-diffusing 3D gel dosimeters significantly strengthened Canada’s position as a key player in the end-to-end quality assurance of radiotherapy. He has also made significant contributions to environmental sustainability, developing hexavalent chromium-free industrial coatings. Several of his discoveries have been licensed and commercialized, thus positively impacting human health.

In addition to technology innovation and transfer, he has over 140 publications in high-impact journals, including Nature and Science family research journals. Several of his publications are influential studies that welded the material design space with the biological endpoint – a rare combination that is unique both in depth and breadth.

Outside of Canada, his dedicated strategic initiatives to increasing engineering education capacity in Ethiopia and his work on accessible medical devices for poor and resource-scarce communities to tackle practical challenges as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals have received broad recognition.

For the impact of his research, Dr. Mequanint has been recognized by learned societies and institutions in Canada and abroad. To name a few, he has been inducted a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering as one of the top 2% of bioengineers, a Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and is a recipient of Ontario’s Early Researcher Award.

The Port Granby Project is being undertaken on the traditional and treaty lands of the Williams Treaties First Nations, and more specifically, the Gunshot Treaty signed by the Mississauga nations; these lands are home to Indigenous Peoples from across the province and Canada.

This project is part of the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI), the federal government’s response to the community-requested solution for the cleanup and local, long-term, safe management of historic low-level radioactive waste in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington. Canadian Nuclear Laboratories is implementing the PHAI on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, a federal Crown corporation.

A result of the refining practices of the former Crown Corporation, Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. and its private sector predecessors, the low-level radioactive waste was deposited at the former Port Granby Waste Management Facility (WMF) between 1955 and 1988. The 17.5 hectares site is situated along 400 meters of receding shoreline, 30-meter high eroding bluffs, and porous sandy soils in southeast Clarington on Lake Ontario. The waste was buried at the former WMF in the East and West Gorges, and in 76 trenches located in the flatter areas above the East Gorge and the Central Plateau. It consisted of neutralized raffinate (an acidic by-product from the refining of uranium ores and concentrates containing radium (Ra-226) and various chemicals), calcium fluoride (highly basic waste from uranium hexafluoride production containing various chemicals), industrial refuse (garbage and industrial scrap generated at Eldorado’s processing facilities), mixed chemical waste (miscellaneous waste buried at the site). The waste volume was estimated at 450,000 cubic meters in the planning stages of the project.

This PHAI project in Port Granby involved the relocation of waste and marginally contaminated soil from the former WMF to a newly constructed engineered aboveground mound at the Port Granby Long-Term Waste Management Facility (PG LTWMF) constructed 700 meters northwest of the former site. The mound is designed to isolate the waste from the environment using a multi-layered baseliner and cover system. This multi-component cover system is approximately 2.75 m thick and reduces surface water infiltration through the waste, provides protection of the mound from inadvertent intrusion into the waste, and reduces levels of gamma radiation on the surface of the mound. Monitoring systems were installed within the mound and around the perimeter of the site as part of the management of the waste.

By 2020, over 1.3 million metric tonnes of the historic LLRW and contaminated soils were excavated and safely transported to the new LTWMF via a dedicated internal road. A temporary underpass was constructed under Lakeshore Road so that no waste travelled on public roadways an agreement with the municipality. The entire project was executed following strict environmental, radiation protection and health and safety protocols to assure the safety of workers, the residents and the environment during remediation work.

Significant elements of the project include:

*This was a first-of-its-kind project to be performed in Canada.
*The total value of this project was ~ $273M.
*Approximately 1.3 million metric tonnes of historic chemical and radioactive waste have been removed from the environment and placed for long-term storage in the engineered aboveground mound.
*Risks of contamination of Lake Ontario (due to waste entering the lake from receding bluffs) have been removed.
*This project serves as a baseline for the future development and implementation of long-term low-level radioactive waste storage facilities, in particular the Near Surface Disposal Facility being planned at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories site in Chalk River, Ontario.
*The Government of Canada is reviewing a proposal for a nature reserve on the surplus federal lands surrounding the storage facility in collaboration with local First Nations, the municipality and interest groups.