Ken Torrance
My personal and academic experiences have been dominated by a love of the land (soil) and an interest in agricultural concerns. I grew up on a farm in Dufferin County, Ontario, graduated from the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph, and obtained M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Soil Science (pursuing research on soil freezing) from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. This was followed by a NATO post-doctoral fellowship at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute in Oslo, Norway where I applied my soils knowledge to problems of landslides in post-glacial marine sediments.
I joined the Geography Department in 1970. My personal research has been directed towards two main questions : the role of chemical and mineralogical factors in determining the geotechnical behaviour of the landslide-prone, post-glacial, marine sediments (Leda Clays) of the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Lowlands ; and questions of agricultural sustainability, with particular reference to the humid tropics. Two sabbatical leaves have been directed towards gaining knowledge of tropical soils and tropical agriculture.
I have supervised student research on a wide range of topics including : properties of Leda clays ; revegetation of mine waste ; applications of clays in waste containment ; environment and social assessment of development projects ; traditional farmers and the conservation of crop genetic resources ; and traditional questions of physical geography which involve soil materials. The Leda clays and related sediments, agricultural sustainability in both the North and the South, and the challenges for human and natural systems in adapting to global global change continue as my main interest areas.
Research Interests
Applied clay minerology : Chemical, mineralogical, and physical influences on the geotechnical behavior of clay soils with special reference to the post-glacial marine clays ; influence of oxide minerals in soils. Agricultural sustainability with particular reference to tropical agriculture.