Dr. Cathy Ryan

Biography

Cathy Ryan is a Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, where she has been a faculty member in Geoscience since 1997. She holds a BASc (1984) in Geological Engineering from Queen’s University as well as an MSc (1987) and PhD (1994) in Earth Sciences from the University of Waterloo.

She has received community and environmental awards including the 2018 “Peak Scholar” award from UC’s Vice President Research, the 2011 Community Outreach Award from the Faculty of Science, the City of Calgary’s 2008 award for Individual Environmental Achievement in 2008, and Geoscience’s 2019 award for Excellence in Service.

Cathy has worked on a series of Canadian projects that worked with universities in seven Latin American countries to set up applied MSc programs on water resources over the past three decades.  She has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed research publications and also holds the method patent for a Passive Gas Diffusion Sampler. Dr. Ryan’s key areas of research include the fate and transport of free phase gases in the subsurface, groundwater-surface water interaction and water quality, agricultural impacts on groundwater.

Cathy sees a tremendous interest and will on the part of western scientists and academics to respectfully learn from Indigenous partners and work towards reconciliation.