Barry Bara Ph.D., P.Eng.

Expert Scientist

Dr Bara received his BSc in Civil Engineering and his MSc and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Prior to joining Coanda, Barry was a Senior Technical Specialist with Syncrude’s R&D’s Mine Closure Research Team. Over his 30+ years with Syncrude he worked on a wide variety of projects covering key operational areas of mining, extraction, upgrading and tailings. With the growing need for innovative solutions in oil sand tailings management his focus was devoted to tailings treatment, reclamation and environmental issues starting in 2010.

Barry is unique in his ability to deeply understand the underlying physics and mathematics of a problem while at the same time being able to translate that knowledge into the practical implementation of equipment design and pilot plant layouts that deliver reliable results.

He has applied this expertise to the design and execution of large and small pilot plant projects as well as bench top experiments related to the development of technologies to enhance bitumen extraction and tailings treatment in the oil sands. Additionally he has also been heavily involved in mathematical and experimental modeling of processes related to the oil sands (e.g. fluid tailings treatments, hydrotransport, froth pipelining, diluent recovery from tailings, CFD applied to cyclones and reactors, transportation of fluid fine tailings in pipelines).

Dr. Bara’s extensive career includes hundreds of presentations, publications, technical reports and articles spanning decades of public engagements, as well as twenty-six Canadian Patents, related to the treatment and dewatering of mine tailings, hydrocarbon recovery, oilsands management and water reclamation inventions.

Barry joined the Coanda team in 2023 and is based at our Edmonton location. He has been a registered Professional Engineer with APEGA since 1987.


Barry’s digital business card is available as a vCard for seamless integration into your contacts system:

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