Tom Gleeson

Tom Gleeson is a CIFAR Junior Fellow in the Earth System Evolution program in September 2011. He is an Assistant Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at McGill University. As a Junior Fellow, he will work closely with Fellow Louis Derry at Cornell University and Scholar Mark Jellinek at the University of British Columbia. Tom held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department of the University of British Columbia from 2009-2011 and completed his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering in 2009 at Queen’s University. Tom completed geologic maps in Nepal and British Columbia during his MSc and BSc at Simon Fraser University and University of Victoria, respectively.

Tom is interested in how groundwater impacts earth processes and society. Groundwater affects a myriad of earth processes such as volcanoes, earthquakes, weathering and petroleum migration. The role of groundwater in the carbon cycle is largely unknown even though groundwater may be a significant source and sink of carbon on a variety of time scales. In his research, Tom has developed new hydrologic data sets that allow a number of new earth system questions to be examined. As a CIFAR Junior Fellow, he will use these data sets to examine the role of groundwater fluxes in the natural carbon cycle, specifically how much carbon is transferred from the continents to the ocean by groundwater. Tom is also interested in how we can more sustainably manage groundwater.

More information about Tom’s work can be found on his website:

Tom Gleeson's Website