Ryan Mulligan, Sc’97, has been fascinated by waves for as long as he can remember.
He grew up near Georgian Bay and would spend most of his free time on the beach, watching the breakers roll in or riding them on a windsurfer.
“Windsurfing is just such a fun sport – it gets you right out there in the waves, in that environment, feeling and seeing everything,” he says with a big smile.
These days, Mulligan isn’t on his board as much as he’d like, but he’s still captivated by waves – perhaps now more than ever, in fact.
The civil engineering professor and associate head of civil engineering at Queen’s is also the director of the university’s . It’s one of Canada’s leading hubs for water-related research, where experts from across Queen’s dive into everything from how lakes and oceans respond to climate change to how to better detect viruses in wastewater.
Mulligan’s own research connects back to those days on Georgian Bay and a fascinating fourth-year coastal engineering course he took as a Queen’s engineering undergrad that he now teaches in Smith Engineering.
“My main research theme is all about how strong winds generate big waves and how they change the shape of the coast,” he says. “They can change everything in just a few hours or days, but things are impacted in the environment for a long time after that.”
One of his major focuses right now is leading a four-year Environment Canada-funded research project aimed at predicting the impacts of hurricanes on Atlantic Canada’s coastlines. It combines fieldwork with advanced numerical modelling to better understand how waves, groundwater flow, tide levels, and beach morphology change during extreme weather events.
“This work is really close to my heart – it builds directly on my PhD research,” says Mulligan. “With climate change increasing the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, we’re expecting to see more storms reaching further north, extending the storm season and amplifying impacts in Atlantic Canada but also potentially in Ontario and Quebec. Our goal is to generate data that will improve storm surge predictions and support floodplain mapping efforts.”
The project includes colleagues from Dalhousie University who are experts in coastal groundwater, which is important, says Mulligan, because collaboration across disciplines is key to successful research.
That kind of interdisciplinary collaboration is typical of BWRC researchers, adds Mulligan, who notes that the centre welcomes Queen’s experts from fields that include engineering, the natural sciences, the health sciences, and the humanities.
“Grand challenges like ones related to water can be very complex, and one person can’t be the expert at everything,” he says. “But the great thing about Queen’s is that we have very strong researchers in all different aspects of water, so if we can bring them together, that’s going to help us solve these big, complex problems.”
That approach has been a cornerstone of BWRC since its launch in 2017, but Mulligan is hoping for even stronger interdisciplinary research there over the next few years.
Alumni support can help make that happen, he says.
“Giving monetarily would be amazing because it would directly support our research, but the other way to support us would be to just come to Queen’s, connect with us, and get a tour of our labs. I’m happy to do that for whoever because we have so many fascinating lab facilities.”
A few of those labs are in the new state-of-the-art Civil Environmental labs in Mitchell Hall, but the Coastal Engineering Lab on West Campus may be the biggest draw. It’s Canada’s largest university operated hydraulics laboratory, and it’s where Mulligan simulates the impacts of waves on coastlines.
As for catching a few real waves on a windsurfer while alumni are in town, Mulligan says it’s worth it – if you have time to learn and are excited to get out in the water.
“I still windsurf but not as much as I want to. Kingston is fantastic for it, especially in the fall. Go for it!”
Learn more about Beaty Water Research Centre and how to support researchers like Ryan Mulligan .
