- B. Sc. 2024
Engineering Physics
Colorado School of Mines
You can reach Declan at delcan_knies@sfu.ca.
Meet Declan
While studying for a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics at the Colorado School of Mines, a last-minute interview at the Colorado Geological Survey blossomed from a short internship doing basic database management into 3 years of developing debris flow models and processes. Learning GIS and data-based modelling while falling in love with backcountry skiing in the Colorado Rockies led him to the world of avalanche research. A strong passion for learning supercharged by a love for the outdoors, especially skiing, inspires him to search for difficult questions that bridge science, snow, and people. In his free time, Declan enjoys finding unskied mountains and lines. After leading a successful ski expedition to Peru in May-June 2025, his passion grows as fast as his list of planned expeditions. This desire to explore new places reflects a desire to use the power of modeling techniques to expand research and accessibility in avalanche science to less popular destinations. He is grateful for the opportunity to be a part of novel avalanche research and is looking forward to giving back to the community of avalanche professionals.
Declan's research
Declan joined the SARP Team as a Master’s student in the fall of 2025, he is working on better understanding the impact of unique terrain on avalanche alpha angles using historic BCMOT avalanche and GIS terrain data. The eventual goal is implementing the findings to improve the versatility and accuracy of Flow-Py and AutoATES.
No publications yet, but stay tuned!
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No presentations yet, but stay tuned!
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