Alex Bjurstrom

B.Eng.

Alex is a Project Engineer in Training who joined WaterSMART in 2023. Since joining, her primary roles have included working with collaborative strategic planning groups and providing support to municipal and industrial water strategy and implementation projects to help ensure “Water for a Sustainable Economy”. She utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to support projects by conducting spatial analysis and creating visual aids, and R to produce water availability assessments that use hydrological inputs to assess the viability of large scale operations that rely on water as a critical input.

While obtaining her degree in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Alex interned at MDA Space in Toronto, supporting NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, whose goals included identifying and quantifying earth like elements on Near Earth Asteroid “Bennu,” including water. She completed an undergraduate thesis outlining a conceptual mission to Bennu to mine boulders from the surface and extract water from them, which could then be processed into rocket fuel in-orbit to enable low-cost deep space travel. Though space provided fascinating work, Alex felt as though there were an overwhelming number of issues here on earth and wanted to focus her efforts on issues that hit closer to home, which is what led her to WaterSMART after graduation.

A born and raised Calgarian, Alex has a passion to make sure that the areas we live, work and play in remain intact for our and future generations. Alex is motivated to pursue knowledge of the local, national, and world’s hydrological and regulatory environments, to support a strong economy within the confluence of climate change and population growth.