M.Sc., B.Sc.
Lee Britton obtained his Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Degree in Physical Geography focusing on Coastal Geomorphology from the University of Victoria, B.C. Canada in 2015. In 2017, He completed a Master of Applied Science (M.Sc.) in Physical Geography, focusing on the subdisciplines of Coastal Geomorphology and Hydrology from the University of Victoria, B.C. Canada. He is currently working towards completing a Doctorate (Ph.D.) within the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, supervised by Dr. Bing Chen in NRPOP Lab, Memorial University of Newfoundland, NL, Canada.
Lee’s research focuses on the fate and effects of oil spills, explicitly focusing on understanding the interactions between oil and sediment on marine shorelines, minimizing its impacts and better planning and preparing for such events. His M.Sc. focused on understanding and quantifying the movement and retention of diluted bitumen (dilbit) through and within shoreline sediment. This research has been utilized for pre-oil spill planning, emergency response and developing shoreline treatment recommendations (STRs). Leveraging his M.Sc. work, Lee’s Ph.D. focuses on understanding how stranded oil can sink once eroded for a shoreline and result in the contamination of the nearshore subtidal marine environment.
Lee has worked in the environmental industry in varying capacities for over a decade in British Columbia, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and the Southeastern United States. While completing his Ph.D., he is also a Senior Emergencies Scientist for Environment and Climate Change Canada. In this role, Lee provides scientific support to emergency management teams during environmental emergencies and acts as a scientific liaison between scientists and emergency management teams. Additionally, he contributed to oil spill-related policy development, is an Advisor to the Canadian Scientific Advisory Secretariat (CSAS), co-authors scientific literature and collaborates with other departments to advance oil spill initiatives.
It is Lee’s ambition to continually grow his knowledge and leadership skills to ensure he can make meaningful contributions to the team he works with and the broader scientific community.
Academic Achievement Content
Selected publication
Laforest, S., Gauvreau, M., Therrien, A., Demers, AM, Britton, L., Goldthorp, G., Watson, K. and Lambert, P. The Objectives and Resukts of ECCC’s Shoreline Working Group. Proceedings of the Forty-fourth AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2022.
Harper, J, Britton, L., Cary, K., Daley, S., Jack Jr., J., Scher, Z., Sheehan, J. The 2021 Bligh Island, British Columbia SCAT Survey – Case Study. Proceedings of the Forty-fourth AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2022.
Rios, J., Willie, M., Britton, L., Herborg, M. Real time oil on water observations for enhancing oil spill modeling to direct tactical wildlife planning. Proceedings of the Forty-fourth AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON, 2022.
Britton, L., Harper, J. Predicting the Retention Potential of Diluted Bitumen on Marine Shorelines: The Field Implementation of Diluted Bitumen Experiments (Bit_EX). Proceedings of the Forty-First AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON. 2018.
Harper, J., Sergy, G., Britton, L. uSCAT: Underwater Seabed Cleanup Assessment Technique for Sunken Oil – An Approach for Characterizing Seabed Oiling. Proceedings of the Forty-First AMOP Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ottawa, ON. 2018.
Harper, J., Sergy, G., Britton, L. uSCAT: Underwater Seabed Cleanup Assessment Technique for Sunken Oil. Coastal and Ocean Resources. Victoria, British Columbia. 2018.
Britton, L, Harper, J., Smith, D., Gardner, J. Predicting the Retention of Diluted Bitumen in Marine Shoreline Sediments, Southeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The University of Victoria. 2017.
Harper, J., Sergy, G., Britton, L., and Kory, M. Diluted bitumen sediment interaction experiments; Bit_Ex. Ottawa, 88p. 2016.
Awards
- Fellow of the Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI), 2023, OSRI
- Visiting Researcher Fellowship, 2022, DFO-COOGER
- MITACS Accelerate Industrial Partnership, 2022, MITACS
- Doctoral Scholarship, 2022, Memorial University’s NRPOP Laboratory
- NSERC Industrial Partnership Canada Graduate Scholarship , 2015, NSERC
- MITACS Accelerate Industrial Partnership, 2015, MITACS
- Entrance Scholarship, 2015, University of Victoria
Conference
- Determining Cultural, Operational and Environmental Windows of Opportunity for Recovering Oil from the Sunken MV Schiedyk in British Columbia, Canada. Oral Presentation. International Oil Spill Science Conference (IOSSC). Britton, L., Willie, M., Herborg, M., Neary, K., Bramwell, G., George, N., Ban, S., Brossard, K., Barrett, P., Benoy, N.