Water, water everywhere...

Dr David Chanasyk lives, breathes and dreams water

Dr. David Chanasyk can't get away from his work. When he's shoveling snow, he's researching. When he's drinking water, he's experimenting. When he's gardening, he's putting his years of knowledge to the test.

Chanasyk, a recent Killam Annual Professorship recipient and professor in the Department of Renewable Resources, researches the soil and water area of agricultural engineering.

During more than 20 years of teaching, research and administration, his work has covered a broad range including soil physics, irrigation and hydrology, drainage and water resource management.

Studying the 'how' and 'why' of management practices is what interested Chanasyk in soil and water early on.

"One of the most interesting aspects of my work is community transfer," he said. "Taking my results to extension people in the university as well as farmers and helping them understand their practices and what effects their choices have on the land is exciting."

Chanasyk cannot remember a time when water did not play an important role in his life. He has crystal-clear memories of a fascination with water while growing up on his family farm north of Vermilion. The attraction started during the spring melt and flowed throughout the summer and fall until the snow arrived, he said. With a hoe or shovel in tow, the young boy would create paths and gullies and watch the water drain and flow through the Alberta plain.

The magnetic liquid charmed him throughout his bachelor of science studies at the U of A.

"In my first term of my fourth undergraduate year I took a hydrology course and it just pulled everything together," he said. "The lights went on and I said 'Yes, this is what I want to do.'"

Since hydrology has applications in many disciplines, Chanasyk limited his master of science from University of Saskatchewan to the field of agricultural engineering and returned to the U of A to complete his PhD in hydrology.

He made the right choice.

Some of his achievements include a stint as associate dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics, serving on a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant selection committee and receiving the Alberta Institute of Agrologists' Distinguished Agrologist Award in 1996.

Looking back on a career that's far from over, Chanasyk names several highlights.

"One thing I have enjoyed is the satisfaction of knowing people in the Prairies, especially in Alberta, would identify me as an individual with expertise in water," said Chanasyk who has created undergraduate and graduate courses for his faculty. "People are calling me with issues related to water and I am able to help."

Sitting as the academic/professional representative on the Water Management Review Committee to review the proposed Water Act in 1994 was also a rewarding experience for Chanasyk. Because of documents like the Water Act, mechanisms are now in place to allow people to address issues before crises occur, he said.

When he's not persuading students about the importance of water in everyday life, the long time professor absorbs the outdoors and dreams of the ocean he is too busy to visit.

"That's what pictures and postcards are for," he laughed. "The most difficult part of my job is balance. I love working for the U of A and in a great faculty and department but with so many opportunities and chances to learn, it's a matter of maintaining focus and not having to do it all. It's a pleasant difficulty, if there is such a thing, because enjoying your work is important."

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