Welcome to Geological Engineering at the University of Waterloo

Our Geological Engineering program merges geoscience with innovative design to guide humanity’s interaction with Earth materials and Earth system processes.

You’ll engineer smart and sustainable solutions for natural hazards, infrastructure design, CO2 geosequestration, geothermal energy, and natural resource development, including precious metals and minerals that are essential to electric vehicles and clean energies, all while incorporating the latest innovations in laboratory testing, numerical simulation, field characterization and monitoring, sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite imagery.

News

Professor Solomon Tesfamariam of the University of Waterloo’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has received the 2025 Engineering Structures Best Paper of the Year Award for his research on the reliability of timber columns under fire conditions, co-authored with Tongchen Han. The international award recognizes the paper’s innovation, rigor, and impact on safer, more resilient timber construction.

A new study by Rebecca Saari out of the University of Waterloo is underlining how North American air quality could deteriorate by the end of the century unless efforts are taken to fight climate change.