Shahin Dashtgard

Areas of interest

Dr. Dashtgard's research focuses on evaluating the sedimentology and ichnology of modern, marginal marine and marine depositional environments, and using the results of this research to develop facies models (analogs) for the rock record. Modern research is presently focused on the Fraser River Delta, British Columbia where sedimentological and ichnological characterization of delta sub-environments is undertaken. This research is primarily aimed at the Petroleum Industry, and specifically at the oil sands: the deposits of the Fraser River exhibit similar sedimentological and ichnological characteristics with the bitumen-hosting sandstones of the McMurray Formation. Dr. Dashtgard is also involved in a series of outcrop and core-based studies of clastic rocks in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In these studies, sediment cores and geophysical well logs are used to characterize oil and gas reservoirs and to reconstruct paleo-environments at the time of sediment deposition. Moreover, subsurface studies are used to test and refine facies models developed in the modern. Rock record research is presently focused on the Upper Mannville Group in west-central Saskatchewan, and on the McMurray Formation in northeast Alberta.

Education

• B.Sc. Hons., University of Alberta, Canada, 1998
• Ph.D., University of Alberta, Canada, 2006