Peter Ashmore

Ph.D., Geography, University of Alberta ,1985                         M.Sc., Geography, University of Alberta, 1979                          B.Sc., Geography, Hull University, 1977

Peter Ashmore is Professor in the Geography Department at the University of Western Ontario where he has worked since 1988. His expertise in fluvial geomorphology is internationally recognized, especially the morphology and dynamics of gravel-bed rivers. After completing his MSc and PhD at the University of Alberta, where he was a Killam Doctoral Scholar, he spent one year with the Sediment Survey Section of Environment Canada, investigating long-term sediment loads of the river systems of the Canadian prairies. Since 1982 he has taught geomorphology, fluvial geomorphology and fluvial hydrology, sediment transport and river restoration from introductory to graduate level at four universities in Canada and in New Zealand and supervised 20 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. He has been actively involved in research on fluvial sediment transport and river morphology for over 25 years, funded primarily by NSERC, and including collaboration with researchers in the US, UK, Italy, Austria and New Zealand. His research uses both field data collection and small-scale physical models in the laboratory to investigate flow, sediment transport and morpho-dynamics of river channels. Recent projects have included: developing and testing techniques for analyzing topographic change in river beds using digital elevation data to measure volumes of erosion and deposition; analyzing the dynamics of erosion, deposition and particle movement in gravel-bed, braided rivers; and investigation of the hydrologic and geomorphic response of streams in suburban Toronto to the effects of progressive urbanization. He has also consulted on a variety of river erosion, sediment transport and stream restoration projects in Ontario and western Canada. He is a recipient, in 2005, of a Faculty Scholar Award from the University of Western Ontario for outstanding achievement in teaching and research.