Petr Kuznetsov, Ph.D.

Petr graduated from the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia) in 1995 (in Soil Science and Agrochemistry) and completed his PhD in 1999 (plant-soil interactions). After working as a collection supervisor in the Earth Science Museum (Moscow, Russia), Petr decided to get industry experience and in 2006 joined PeterGaz LLC where he conducted and managed environmental surveys and EIAs for natural gas pipeline construction. In 2010 he went back to academia and joined the Soil Chemistry and Environmental Microbiology Lab (RENR, University of Alberta). Petr took part in a number of projects related to the microbial remediation of oil sand tailings, end pit lakes modeling and the evaluation of acid mine drainage potential of oil sand tailings dry deposits. In 2019 Petr joined Dr. Ulrich's group as a research associate to focus on tailings ponds/end pit lakes water quality improvement. He is also the lab manager of Dr.Ulrich’s research lab.

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Amy-lynne Balaberda

Amy-lynne holds a BSc in Civil Engineering (Environmental Engineering Option) and recently completed her PhD in Environmental Engineering at the University of Alberta. She previously worked on various soil and groundwater remediation projects at Stantec Consulting Ltd. and Enbridge Pipelines Inc., which provided her with a comprehensive understanding of remediation needs from a practical point of view. Her research interests center around developing feasible remediation strategies for persistent contaminants in the oil and gas industry that have otherwise proven to be challenging to remediate. This includes a wide breadth of techniques such as coupling chemical oxidation with biodegradation and in situ bioaugmentation under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Furthermore, Amy-lynne aims to study complex field parameters that are directly related to Alberta and can heavily impact the success of a remediation strategy, such as salt co-contamination. 

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​Anya Batycky

Anya is an MSc student at the University of Alberta studying Environmental Science. She completed her BSc in Environmental Science from Mount Royal University in 2019, where she assisted with research using vascular plant biomimicry for lead remediation. She has worked at the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Nature Alberta, supporting conservation projects and performing habitat assessments. Before pursuing a Master’s Degree at the University of Alberta, she attended field school at Bamfield Marine Science Centre where she conducted research on invasive marine species. Her MSc research involves determining the biodegradation rate and pathway of polyacrylamide in mature fine tailings and developing an analytical technique for measuring this flocculant using High Performance Liquid Chromatography. Though polyacrylamide is commonly used in tailings operations there is still limited knowledge surrounding its biodegradation, making her research significant to Alberta’s oil sands.   

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