Contact
Department of Bioresource Engineering
Macdonald Campus, McGill University
Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec H9X 3V9
pierre.jutras [at] mcgill.ca (Dr. Pierre Jutras)
Profile
Dr. Pierre Jutras graduated from McGill University (Ph.D. Bioresource Engineering and B.Sc. Agriculture) and University of Montréal (M.Sc. Biology). In the last 25 years, Dr. Jutras has developed a vast expertise in research, agronomy, urban arboriculture and ecology, biological systems engineering and mathematical modeling of tree dynamics in harsh environments. Dr. Jutras is head of the scientific research program on urban trees at City of Montréal. The main objective of this program is to develop innovative, hybrid and intelligent approaches to model complex ecological situations related to urban environments and tree growth and survival.
Dr. Jutras main research interests focus on artificial intelligence, multivariate statistics, data mining of high dimensional information, machine learning, modeling of georeferenced abiotic and biotic tree-related data, automation of supervised and unsupervised learning, and tree biology. More precisely, his research program involves the prediction of 3-D tree dendrometrics with aerial LIDAR laser data and artificial intelligence algorithms; tree health assessment with multispectral data modeled with multivariate statistics and artificial intelligence; the integration of automated prediction and classification algorithms into large tree-data banks as a decision-support system; the development of an automated computerized prediction of solar irradiation levels on street trees on the basis of georeferenced environmental data; dendrochronological analyses of urban differential tree-growth patterns; studies on the impact of de-icing salts on tree survival and growth; greenhouse, nursery and in-situ experimentation on engineered soils for increased urban tree pit soil volumes; tree root system architecture; and modeling of exotic arboreal insect infestations.
Dr. Jutras was the first to publish on the use of artificial intelligence and multivariate statistical analyses for the development of a comprehensive intelligent modeling system to assess urban tree growth. His research program has been financially supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and City of Montréal. Dr. Jutras has presented his research work in numerous scientific, technical and extension conferences in Québec, Canada, and Europe. He is a founding member of the Canadian Urban Forest Network. He is the Québec representative and an active member of the national executive committee of this organisation. He also served as an expert at the Agricultural Engineering Québec committee on shelter belts. Dr. Jutras is a professional agrologist and a biologist. Dr. Jutras has received the Ph.D. award from the Canadian Society for Bioengineering in recognition for the excellence of his research and doctoral thesis.