CCG Grad Students

The core of the CCG is our graduate students. We have 12 current students, split almost evenly between PhD and MSc programs. Students start their program with a “warm-up” project that often becomes their thesis. There is strong encouragement to participate in industry projects wherever there is an opportunity and student research may often receive member company input.

Resources for Grad Students

Download documents for grad students: Thesis Criteria, for students for submitting a thesis at CCG, and Presentation Criteria, for students for preparing and delivering a presentation at CCG.

Ben Harding

Ph.D. Student

Ben completed his B.Sc. in Geology from Queen’s University in 2012, the Citation Program in Applied Geostatistics in 2017, and his M.Sc. at the University of Alberta in 2020. Ben has 6+ years of experience in the mining industry including roles in the green field and advanced exploration, ore control, and short-range mine planning. Most recently his employment included mineral resource estimation for Cu-Au porphyry systems in central and northwest British Columbia. Ben returned to the University of Alberta and the Centre for Computational Geostatistics in 2021 to continue his Ph.D. studies with Dr. Clayton Deutsch.

Research

• Value of Information in Mining Geostatistics
• Mineral Resources in the Presence of Extreme Values

Publications

Peer Reviewed:

1. B. Harding & C. V. Deutsch (2022) Drillhole spacing determination with value of information, CIM Journal, 13:1, 38-51, DOI: 10.1080/19236026.2022.2038535
2. Harding, B., Lagos, R., Pfeiffer, N. et al. Probabilistic Modeling of the Round Mountain Gold Deposit: a Case Study. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s42461-023-00787-1

Geostatistics Lesson:

1. Harding, B. E., & Deutsch, C. V. (2019). Change of Support and the Volume Variance Relation. In J. L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from http://www.geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/changeofsupport
2. Harding, B.E., & Deutsch, C.V. (2021). Trend Modeling and Modeling with a Trend. In J. L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from http://www.geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/trendmodeling

Contact

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Debastuti Ghosh

Ph.D. Student

Debastuti completed her Bachelor’s from Presidency University, India in 2016. She received her first Master from the Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad in 2019. During her first Master’s, she worked on the “Spatial Modelling of Central Block Using Geostatistics, Pottangi Bauxite Deposit, Koraput, Odisha, India”.
She worked for the North American Petrophysics team, Schlumberger, operating remotely from the Global Data Services Hub, Mumbai, India between, 2019 and 2020. She attended two training sessions at Schlumberger’s European Learning Center (ELC) in Melun, France. She has handled and gained expertise in both wireline and logging while drilling (LWD) jobs from clients like Exxon and Shell. She completed the project on automating the delivery of LWD acoustic data directly from the field during her tenure with Schlumberger.
She received her second Master’s from the Institute di Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), University of Paris, France in 2022. During her second Masters, she had the opportunity to do a research internship titled “Geostatistical Modelling with Multispectral Imaging Data” which was part of a collaborative project between the University of Alberta, Canada, and RWTH Aachen University, Germany.
She joined CCG as a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Boisvert in the Fall of 2022 and is currently working on various Machine Learning models for image classification.

Research

• Machine Learning models for image classification.

Contact

• Email
• LinkedIn

Georgios Tsekeris

M.Sc. Student

Georgios Tsekeris completed his B.Sc. degree in Mining and Metallurgical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 2021. He joined the Center for Computational Geostatistics at the University of Alberta and started his M.Sc. degree in Mining Engineering, in 2022, under the supervision of Dr. Deutsch Clayton.

Research

• Geostatistical Modeling considering High-Resolution Stratigraphic Models

Publications

Hunter Markvoort

M.Sc. Student

Hunter Markvoort, a graduate with a B.Sc in Geology from the University of Victoria (2015), boasts over 10 years of dynamic experience in the resource industry, with a focus on gold exploration. His journey spans key roles with industry leaders such as Alamos Gold Inc., Pretium Resources Inc., and Yamana Gold Inc.

With 7 years dedicated to mineral exploration, Hunter has navigated the full spectrum of the field, from greenfield exploration and permitting to resource delineation, production geology, and geological modeling. His expertise has been honed on multiple projects across Canada.

In September 2023, Hunter embraced a new challenge, joining the Center for Computational Geostatistics alongside Dr. Clayton Deutsch. This move underscores his commitment to advancing the field through innovative approaches.

Contact

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Isaac Barboza

M.Sc. Student

Isaac completed his B.Sc. and engineering degree in Geology at the National University of Engineering (Peru). His undergraduate research was focused on gold quantification through alteration, veins, and mineral analysis of a PCD in Peru. He possesses 5+ years of experience in the mining industry at companies such as Barrick, and Freeport-McMoran. He was awarded by the UNESCO – SEG – SGA to participate in its conference in 2017. Then, he approved with distinction a Geometallurgy diploma at Universidad de Chile (2021). He started his M.Sc. degree in 2023 under Prof. Deutsch’s supervision.

Contact

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Joyce Bazania

M.Sc. Student

Joyce earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Geological Engineering from the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana in 2017. She has over 5 years of experience in gold exploration, GIS, and management of geological databases.
She commenced her master’s degree in mining engineering under the supervision of Prof. Jeff Boisvert in 2023. 

Contact

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Paulo Dias

Ph.D. Student

Paulo obtained his B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and furthered his studies with an M.Sc. from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), both in Brazil. His research delved into the role of density in mineral resource estimation. With a decade of experience serving mining software companies as a consultant, Paulo was dedicated to mineral resource estimation, geostatistical simulation for grade uncertainty assessment, and software education. In 2021, he began his PhD journey under the mentorship of Drs. Clayton Deutsch and Jeff Boisvert.

Research

• Estimation domain definition. 

Publications

Geostatistics lessons:

• Dias, P.M., & Deutsch, C.V. (2022). The Decision of Stationarity. In J.L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from http://www.geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/stationarity

Contact

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Rafael Barros Ortiz

M.Sc. Student

He has a background in Petroleum Engineering with more than 5 years of experience in the oil industry in Brazil working for National Oilwell Varco, focused on drilling.
He started my MSc. under the supervision of Dr. Clayton Deutsch in the winter term of 2022. His current research is about Indicator Cokriging for Categorical Variables.

Research

• Indicator Cokriging for Categorical Variables

Publications

Geostatistics lessons:

• Ortiz, R. B., & Deutsch, C. V. (2022). Multivariate Gaussian Distribution. In J. L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from http://www.geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/multigaussian

Contact

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Rose Atampogbila

M.Sc. Student

Rose earned her Bachelor of Science in Geological Engineering from the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana. Rose has 10+ years of experience with gold in open-pit mines, with roles in resource estimation, grade control, mine operations, and reconciliations. She joined CCG in September 2022 for her master’s degree under the supervision of Dr. Clayton Deutsch.

Contact

• Email

Thiago Alduini Mizuno

Ph.D. Student

Thiago completed his B.Sc. in Geology at State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 2009, and his M.Sc. in Geology at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 2018. With over 13 years of experience in the oil industry, he has specialized in reservoir modeling, oil field development, and unitization processes.
His professional journey commenced in 2010 as a junior geologist with Schlumberger at SIS, followed by his transition to Petrobras later that same year. Thiago currently holds the position of Senior Geologist at Petrobras.
In addition to his professional career, Thiago is actively pursuing his Ph.D. studies under the guidance of Dr. Clayton Deutsch, with a research focus on reservoir modeling and related topics.

Research

• Reservoir modeling

Publications

Peer Reviewed:

• Mizuno, T. A., A. M. P. Mizusaki, and R. Lykawka. “Facies and paleoenvironments of the Coqueiros Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Campos Basin): A high frequency stratigraphic model to support pre-salt” coquinas” reservoir development in the Brazilian continental margin.” Journal of South American Earth Sciences 88 (2018): 107-117.

Geostatistics Lesson:

• Mizuno, T., & Deutsch, C. (2022). Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS). In J.L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from http://www.geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/sequentialindicatorsim

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Zahra Ashtiani

M.Sc. Student

Zahra earned her Bachelor’s degree in Geomatics from the University of Tehran in 2020, with a Bachelor’s thesis focused on Geostatistical interpolation methods. She also gained practical experience through an internship at a GIS company. Currently, she is pursuing her Master’s degree, commencing in 2022, under the expert supervision of Professor Clayton Deutsch.

Publications

Geostatistics Lesson:

• Ashtiani, Z., & Deutsch, C. (2024). Kriging with Constraints. In J.L. Deutsch (Ed.), Geostatistics Lessons. Retrieved from http://www.geostatisticslessons.com/lessons/krigingconstraints

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