Dr. David Major, principal environmental scientist based in Guelph, Ontario, focuses on managing and directing the development and deployment of effective remediation strategies for challenging sites associated with Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense, and NASA. 

Practice Specialties
His area of expertise is in situ biodegradation of chlorinated solvents in natural or engineered environments.  He was a pioneer in the development, demonstration, and application of monitored natural attenuation (MNA) and enhanced in situ bioremediation (EISB) of these compounds.  He is a regular and significant technical contributor to the biennial Battelle conferences on In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation.  He aided researchers at the University of Waterloo developing the basis of zero-valent iron (ZVI) permeable reactive barriers (PRBs), and led the first full-scale ZVI PRB installation in 1994.  He worked with researchers at the University of Tennessee to commercialize the application of biomarkers (PLFA).  He also contributed to the commercialization of the University of Toronto’s intellectual property (Dehalococcoides ethenogenes) for the in situ biodegradation of chlorinated solvents. He has worked with Dupont and Stanford University on molecular biological tools to detect and quantify the genes of key dechlorinating microorganisms in the environment. 

Advancing the State-of-the-Practice
Dr. Major serves on various national scientific and regulatory advisory boards.  He is a member of the Remediation Technologies Development Forum (RTDF), a public-private organization dedicated to developing, demonstrating, and evaluating technologies for high priority environmental problems.  He has served on a U.S. EPA Expert Panel to address the benefits of partial source treatment of Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLs), and on the U.S. National Research Council Committee on Geological and Geotechnical Engineering in the New Millennium.  He has served on the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board to review the agency’s research on MNA, specifically on the attenuation of inorganic compounds (metals).  He is active on various workgroups for the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC), and developed and taught two ITRC courses to thousands of state and federal regulators.  The ITRC has recognized his contribution to the ITRC through several awards.  Dr. Major is also the author or co-author of over 50 peer-reviewed technical publications on environmental remediation topics, and over 45 conference publications, presentations, and posters. 

Contact Dr. Major at dmajor@geosyntec.com.