Professional Background:
Dr. Daniel W. Smith was the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Engineering and a Fellow of the Academy of Science of The Royal Society of Canada. As a Professor of the Environmental Engineering and Science Program at the University of Alberta, he guided over 100 masters and 29 doctorate graduate students to the completion of their degrees and published over 600 scientific and technical articles. Dr. Smith was one of three Co-Directors of the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research and a Co-PI in the Forest Watershed and Riparian Disturbance (FORWARD) Project.
Born in Santa Monica, California, he completed the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in civil/sanitary engineering in California. Following receipt of his doctorate in Environmental Health Engineering from the University of Kansas and 8 years of service for various agencies including the U.S. Public Health Service (military), the University of Alaska (Assistant Professor), Environment Canada (Head, Northern Technology Centre) and R&M Consultants of Alaska (Senior Env. Eng.), Dr. Smith joined the University of Alberta in 1978. Dr. Smith has served in numerous other professional capacities including: President of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering in 1987-88, founder and Co-Editor of the Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science, Associate Editor of Ozone Science and Engineering, chair of several committees including the American Society of Civil Engineers, Cold Region Engineering (twice), Edmonton Drainage Committee, Edmonton Board of Health Solid Waste Review Panels (2) and over 18 technical conferences. He has received many awards including the Rudolph Hering Medal 2002 for the best Journal of Environmental Engineering paper, Elbert F. Rice (1989), Can-Am (1989) and the Harold R. Peyton Awards for Cold Regions Engineering (2004) from ASCE, the Krzysztof Lipinski Aquarina Award from the Polish Association of Sanitary Engineers and Technicians (2004), Keefer Medal (2) and the Environmental Excellence Award from APEGGA (2003). He is also a registered engineer in Alaska, Alberta, California, England and the N.W.T. and a fellow of CSCE (1988), ASCE (1995), EIC (2001), CAE (1997) as well as the RSC (2004). He has worked with several consulting companies and is currently with UMA Engineering Ltd., on a part-time basis.
For several years Dr. Smith’s research focus was on Environmental Engineering issues in cold regions. Water quality, treatment and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, and solid waste management were areas of intense interest. This work lead to the production of three editions of the now titled “Cold Regions Utilities Monograph” published by the ASCE. He has also had an active involvement in water quality modeling in rivers working with Dr. Larry Gerard and Dr. Gordon Putz. Professor Smith has pursued research on the fundamentals of ozone and other advanced oxidation processes for water and wastewater treatment working with Dr. Mohamed Gamal El-Din and others. Original research work on microorganism reduction kinetics and reactor design was developed from a variety of fundamental studies of microorganism reduction using ozone. This was followed by application of a superior reactor model (the backflow cell model) to the process. These two components are having a strong impact on the current research and design approaches around the world. This work has continued into the areas of advanced oxidation processes leading to several advances in knowledge. This work actually started in 1973 with water colour reduction studies in Kotezbue, Alaska.
Dr. Smith’s research in the area of membrane water treatment technology included the study of four membrane units for the Greater Vancouver Regional Water District. He was funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada to study membrane integrity control for water membrane treatment, the City of Edmonton to study immersed membrane units in biological wastewater treatment and the AI Centre for Water Research to study a new fungal based biological wastewater treatment process that is currently being reviewed for patenting.
Another area of significant contribution has been related to the application of various laser technologies including the two Doppler anemometer units as research tools for the study of treatment process fundamentals. Through this work new insight has developed in the areas of mixing, coagulation, and mass transfer, which seriously challenges historical approaches to research, design and modeling of such processes in water and wastewater treatment.
He also held several research contracts related to water quality and supply issues with AWWA Research Foundation, Water Environment Federation Research Foundation, several industries and other government groups.
In recent years Dr. Smith has made a number of presentations and participated in debates on the significant environmental changes resulting from the greatly expanded world human population and global warming.