St. Francis Xavier University

The university contributes manual soil gas and atmospheric gas measurement expertise. The university will also make available roughly $300,000 in gas detection equipment. In recent years, the university has been funded thrice by the Eco-Energy Initiative program.

Dave Risk

Dave Risk, Ph.D. conducts research aimed at improving environmental performance in the energy industry, specifically the detection and reduction of gas leaks in energy developments. Risk is an established international expert on these topics, and has worked with companies, regulators, and NGOs across the world. Risk is also a founder of Eosense Inc., a Dartmouth-based instrumentation spinoff company. Risk was recently awarded the St. Francis Xavier University Presidential Research Award and in 2014 was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scientists.

Patrick Withey

Patrick Withey, Ph.D. is an expert in environmental and resource economics. He has recently led several funded research projects on issues such as wetlands management, energy policy, and the impacts of sea-level rise and storm surge. He most recently completed a major project funded by Natural Resources Canada that evaluated net benefits of adaptation options aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change induced sea-level rise and storm surge in Atlantic Canada.

Kim Taylor
Kim Taylor, B.Sc. is a M.Sc. candidate that will be participating in the GaSP campaign under the supervision of Dave Risk and Owen Sherwood. During her undergrad, Kim conducted a research project aimed at creating an on-site technique to measure methane concentrations in groundwater in the Stellarton area. Kim presented her research at multiple conferences and won 2 awards from the Science Atlantic Environment Conference and the St.Francis Xavier University Student Research Day. Kim was also awarded the B.J. Keating Memorial Award for being the top 3rd year geology student at St.FX in 2016.