Professor Kamran Esmaeili

Kamran Esmaeili is a full Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering – Lassonde Institute of Mining. He holds the Robert Smith Chair in Geomechanical Mine Design and Analysis. He has several years of industrial work experience and academic research. He has contributed to several important fields such as rock slope stability, geomechanical underground mine design, numerical modeling in geomechanics, blasting and rock fragmentation, material handling in underground mines, UAV application in mining and data analytics and machine learning applied in mining and geoscience. Dr. Esmaeili’s work experience includes several years of engineering experience and working as a consultant for various companies involved in the mining industry. His goal is to enhance the efficiency of mineral resource extraction by developing methodologies that allow continuous process control and optimization.

Email: kamran.esmaeili@utoronto.ca

Current Graduate Students

Negin Houshmand

Ph.D. Candidate

Email: negin.houshmand@mail.utoronto.ca

Mehdi Abdolmaleki

Postdoctoral Fellow

Email: mehdi.abdolmaleki@utoronto.ca

Saleh Ghadernejad

Ph.D. Candidate

Email: saleh.ghadernejad@mail.utoronto.ca

Mojgan Faramarzi

Ph.D. Candidate

Email: mozhgan.faramarzi@mail.utoronto.ca

Somaieh Akbar

Postdoctoral Fellow

Email: s.akbar@utoronto.ca

Kwame Akomeah

MASc Candidate

Email: kwame.akomeah@mail.utoronto.ca

Loghman Moradi

PhD Candidate

Email: loghman.moradi@mail.utoronto.ca

International Visiting Students

Ali Siamaki (Visiting Ph.D. student from Polytechnic University — Iran) 2015-2016
Project Title: Effect of blasting on the degradation of rock mass mechanical behaviour

Yin Yao (Visiting PhD student from Tongji University — China) 2016-2017
Project Title: Modeling blast-induced damage

Past Graduate Students

Virginie Urli — MASc, 2015
Thesis Title: An economic-geomechanical model to control ore dilution in open stope underground mining

Shabnam Aziznejad — MASc, 2015
Thesis Title: Quantification of impact-induced damage of jointed rock masses

Hesameddin Eivazy — MASc, 2016
Thesis Title: Modeling rock mass geomechanical heterogeneity using a geostatistical conditional simulation modelling

Behrouz Ohadi— MASc, 2017

Thesis Title: Investigation of the influence of heterogeneous and anisotropic nature of rock mass on blast-induced outcomes-A case study at Detour Lake mine

Filip Medinac — MASc, 2019

Thesis Title: Pit wall mapping and slope assessment using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology

Francisca Cudjoe — MASc, 2020

Thesis Title: Stochastic Slope Stability Analysis Accounting for Heterogeneity in Rock Mass 

Yilin Zhao — MASc, 2020

Thesis Title: Slope Stability Analysis of Tasiast Mine using Spatially Conditioned Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) Models

Mingliang Tang — MASc, 2020

Thesis TitleAdvances in Heap Leach Pad Surface Moisture Mapping using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology and Aerial Remote Sensing Imagery

Mahadi Bhuiyan — Ph.D., 2021

Thesis Title: Establishing Geometallurgical Relationships Between Rock Comminution Behaviour and Rapid and Portable Drill Core-Scale Rock Characterization Tests

Thomas Bamford — Ph.D., 2021

Thesis Title: Application of Unmanned Aerial Systems to Blast Monitoring in Open Pit Mines

Peng Yang — MASc, 2023

Thesis Title: Pit Wall Geological Mapping using UAV and Deep Learning

Engin Usta — MASc, 2023

Thesis Title: Predicting Shear Behaviour of Joints Using Multi-Sensor and Manual Core Logging Data and Supervised and Unsupervised Learning Methods

Research Associates

Ali Siamaki, 2016-2018
Project Title: Effect of blasting on degradation of rock mass mechanical behaviour

Nader Ghasempour, 2017
Project Title: Predicting risk of pit wall failure using an integrated geostatistical-geomechanical approach

Undergraduate Summer Students

Rain Ferrer — BASc Candidate, Summer 2022

Evan Beri — BASc Candidate, Summer 2021

Shaan Hudani — BASc Candidate, Summer 2020

Tianyu Xu — BASc Candidate, Summer 2019

Ishan Grover — BASc Candidate, Summer 2019

Demi de Silva — BASc Candidate, Summer 2018

Tujiangjiao Wang — BASc Candidate, Summer 2018

Yaroslav Chudin — BASc Candidate, UWaterloo, Summer 2018

Stefano Girardo — BASc Candidate, Summer 2017

Ognjen Kelec — BASc Candidate, Summer 2016

Adarsh Khokal — BASc, Summer 2015

Marcela Teixeira— BASc Candidate, Summer 2015

Seung Baek — BASc, Summer 2013

Alex Chernoloz — BASc, Summer 2013

Victor Varjao — BASc, Summer 2013

Hangfei Gu — BASc, Summer 2012

Nicholas Layos — BASc, Summer 2012