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Geotechnical News • June 2013
37
WASTE GEOTECHNICS
a great opportunity for the time effect
to be explored. This will eventually
lead to an improved understanding and
theoretical approach to the problem.”
In March 2012, the standpipes were
decommissioned and deconstructed,
and further material testing is cur-
rently underway at the Oil Sands
Tailings Research Facility (OSTRF)
located in Devon, Alberta, with Scott
continuing to train and mentor the
graduate students in their research.
For Jeeravipoolvarn, working with
Scott was the best part of being a
graduate student. “He taught me all
the necessary laboratory skills as well
as tips and tricks to perform different
tasks. He would guide, but not give
the answer – he lets his students form
their own thinking and solve the prob-
lem themselves.”
Along with Jeeravipoolvarn, several
students and colleagues fondly remem-
ber long working days with Scott,
sometimes setting up experiments until
the early hours in the morning. Pollock
says, “For Don, it’s not just a job: he
is extremely interested and passionate
about research. He keeps abreast on
issues that aren’t purely geotechnical
and finds ways to relate them back to
our subject matter.”
Through his research acumen and
passion, Scott has made considerable
contributions to the oil sands industry
and is continuing to help navigate the
way to better understanding oil sands
tailings behaviour.
Acknowledgement
Thank you to Dr. David Cruden and
Roger Skirrow who provided the bio-
graphical information for this article.
Also, thank you to Gord Pollock
and Dr. Silawat Jeeravipoolvarn for
providing additional information about
the history of the standpipe experi-
ment.
A Leader in Geotechnical
Engineering
After graduating in Civil Engineering
from Queen’s University (Kings-
ton, ON) in 1954, Scott joined R.M.
Hardy &Associates Ltd. as a soil
engineer in Kitimat, BC. He contin-
ued his education at the University of
Illinois (MSc 1958, PhD 1964) while
on the faculty of the University of
Waterloo. In 1966, he was appointed
Professor of Civil Engineering and
Chairman of the Department at the
University of Ottawa. He returned to
Hardy as a Principal Consultant and
Associate in 1978, taking the AOS-
TRA Research Chair in Oil Sands at
the University of Alberta in 1980 and
becoming Professor Emeritus in 1993.
At the University of Alberta, he
developed laboratory facilities to
study the long-term, large-strain
consolidation of fine tailings. His
numerical models predicting their
behaviour have become industry
standards. His segregation diagram,
developed in 1984, synthesized
segregation behaviour and led to
the development of non-segregating
tailings, now fundamental to modern
tailings management schemes. He
developed and operated a multi-
million dollar research laboratory to
examine the effects of the high tem-
peratures and stresses produced in oil
sands by the Steam Assisted Gravity
Drainage process. He also initiated
laboratory studies of geosynthetics to
support research on geotextile filters
and geogrid reinforced slopes.
Scott has authored over 100 papers
on geotechnical engineering, resource
geomechanics and geosynthetics. In
addition to editing the first
Canadian
Foundation Engineering Manual,
he
co-authored
Geotextile and Geo-
membrane International Informa-
tion Source
with E.A. Richards. He
was awarded the 1998 Syncrude Oil
Sands Research Prize, an Alberta
Science and Technology Leadership
Award that honours significant contri-
butions to science and technology in
Alberta.
Courtesy of the Geotechnical Society
of Edmonton
Dr. Don Scott with two of his former graduate students Nan Wang (left) and
Silawat Jeeravipoolvarn (right).