Zhina joined NSERC PermafrostNet in September 2022 as she started her PhD in Civil Engineering at Carleton University. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering at Iran University of Science and Technology (2018). Finding geotechnical engineering an interesting field, she decided to continue her studies in this field as a M.Sc. student. She completed her Master of Science in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Tehran (2021).
As her Master’s thesis research, she worked on the effect of initial static shear stress direction on liquefaction resistance and cyclic behaviour of sand using multi-directional simple shear apparatus. After that, she joined Carleton University as a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Shawn Kenny.
For her PhD research, she is going to work on the effects of climate change on railway embankments (permafrost thaw, flooding, subsidence), specifically on the Hudson Bay Railway. The main pathway to do her research is numerical modelling, but they are also thinking about using geotechnical centrifuge for physical modelling as well.