Skip to the content of the web site.
neil thomson

Dr. Thomson is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a member of the Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Research Group.

His research interests focus on subsurface contaminant fate, risk and uncertainty analyses, and the remediation of soil and ground water systems through the use of field investigations, laboratory experiments, and numerical models. He also has an interest in non-point source pollution, specifically in the areas of agricultural and storm water runoff impacts on subsurface environments.

Dr. Thomson teaches a number of undergraduate and graduate courses including: Fluid Mechanics, Water Quality Engineering, Advanced Mathematics, Hydrology, Environmental Chemistry, Contaminant Transport, Finite Element Methods, Numerical Methods for Environmental Applications, and Water Quality Management.

In 1999 he was awarded the Sir Sanford Fleming Teaching Excellence Award for recognition of an exemplary record of outstanding teaching, concern for students and a commitment to the development and enrichment of engineering education at Waterloo. In 2005 he received an Outstanding Performance Award from the University of Waterloo for outstanding performance in teaching and scholarship. In 2008 he was awarded the Faculty of Engineering Distinguished Performance Award.

He has provided expert technical assistance to numerous consulting firms on topics that include: conceptual groundwater model development; groundwater flow and fate analysis; model selection, development, calibration and sensitivity; and remedial alternative selection and system design. Dr. Thomson is a featured lecturer in short courses in North America and the UK, and is a member of the Canadian Water Network.