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Science and technology of ecological engineering of ferrous and base metal mine tailings (e.g., magnetite tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), Cu/Pb-Zn tailings) into functional technosols and hardpan-based soil systems for sustainable tailings rehabilitation: geo-microbial ecology, mineral bioweathering, geo-rhizosphere biology, technosol-plant relations in mined environments. Championing nature-based solutions to global mine wastes challenges.

Longbin Huang is a full professor and a Program leader in The University of Queensland, leading a research program of "Ecological Engineering in Mining" to develop naure-based methdology and technology, for assisting the world's mining industry to meet the global tailings challenge. Driven by the passion to translate leading knowledge into industry solutions, Longbin has pioneered transformative concepts and approach to tackle rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, acidic and metalliferous waste rocks). Recent success includes the "ecological engineering of Fe-ore tailings and bauxite residue" into soil, for overcoming the topsoil deficit challenge facing the mining industry. Scaled up field trials have been going on to deliver the much-needed technology into field operations. Long-term and multi-site based field trials have demonstrated for the first time, the field-feasibility to accelerate nature-based soil formaiton processes for developing tailings into adaptive and sustainable soil (or technosol) capable of sustaining plant community growth and development (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VzfiWL-8UI&t=4s).

The program consists of a group of researchers with leading knowledge and research skills on: soil/geo-microbial ecology, environmental mineralogy, bioweathering of minerals, native plant rhizosphere (micro)biology, soil-plant relations, and environmental materials (such as biochar and environmental geopolymers). It aims to deliver transformative knowledge and practices (i.e., technologies/methdologies) in the rehabilitation of mine wastes (e.g., tailings, mineral residues, spoils, waste rocks) and mined landscapes for non-polluting and ecologically and financially sustainable outcomes.

In partnership with leading mining companies, Longbin and his team have been focusing on developing game-changing knowledge and technologies of tailings valorisation for achieving non-polluting and ecologically sustainable rehabilitation of, for example, coal mine spoils and tailings, Fe-ore tailings, bauxite residues (or red mud), and Cu/Pb-Zn tailings. Leading the global progress in bauxite rehabilitation, Longbin and his team are currently taking on field-scale research projects on bauxite residue rehabilitation technologies at alumina refineries in Queensland (QAL- and Yarwun refineries) and Northern Territory (Gove refinery).

Longbin's industry-partnered research was recognised in 2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL).

Membership of Board, Committee and Society

Professional associations and societies

2010 – Present Australian Soil Science Society.

2016 – Present Soil Science Society of America

2015 – Present American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR)

Editorial boards/services

2018 - present: Member of Editorial Board, BIOCHAR

2013 – present: coordinating editor, Environmental Geochemistry and Health

Awards & Patent

2019 UQ’s Partners in Research Excellence Award (Resilient Environments) (Rio Tinto and QAL)

2017 SMI-Industry Engagement Award, University of Queensland

2015 SMI-Inaugural Bright Research Ideas Forum Award, University of Queensland

2014 SMI-RHD Supervision Award, University of Queensland

2015 Foliar fertilizer US 20150266786. In. (Google Patents). Huang L, Nguyen AV, Rudolph V, Xu G (equal contribution)

Dr Elin Jennings is a postdoctoral research fellow in Mine Waste Geoscience at the W.H.Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She currently works in the Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) research group.

Elin's current research focus is on characterising legacy mine waste and Acid Mine Drainage in support to promote sustainable mining practices.

Before her PhD, Elin completed a BSc in Environmental Earth Science at Aberystwyth University. During her undergraduate years, she was awarded the Walter Idris Bursary for an independent research project on the adsorption and desorption of harmful elements on coal and ochre. Her dissertation focused on mapping potentially harmful elements around the Clydach nickel refinery in Wales, which contributed to the British Geological Survey’s urban geochemistry map of Swansea. She received the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Award, and the Rudler Exhibition Prize for her academic achievements.

She earned her PhD from the University of Exeter, Camborne School of Mines (UK), under the supervision of Prof. Karen Hudson-Edwards and Dr. Rich Crane. Her research, conducted in collaboration with the NERC-funded Legacy Waste in the Coastal Zone project, focused on the behaviour of Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)-related metal(loid) contaminants such as arsenic, copper, and zinc in the Carnon River (UK) and their interactions with changing hydrological cycles and seawater in coastal zones. Elin’s thesis, Sources, Pathways, and Sinks of Metal(loid) Contaminants in an AMD-Affected River System, combined geology, geochemistry, and environmental science. Her fieldwork involved extensive sampling and hydrological measurements, and she developed expertise in advanced analytical techniques, including synchrotron-based XAS, XRF, ICP-OES, SEM-EDX, QEMSCAN, and ferrozine assays. She was awarded a Diamond Light Source grant to study arsenic transformations in river sediments using beamline I18.

After her PhD, Elin entered a role as a graduate research assistant in the PAMANA project. Project PAMANA aimed to provide a holistic understanding of the legacy, present and future environmental and ecological impacts of mining on Philippine River systems. The project also aimed to lay the foundations for a novel catchment monitoring and management infrastructure that informs sustainable mining practice through more effective Environmental Impact Assessment. Her role in this project focused on creating a geochemical profile of soils in the Agno Catchment and understanding the controls of their distribution (i.e. land use and geology).

I use geochemistry to investigate the roles of fluids and volatiles in geological processes stretching from the Earth's surface to the deep mantle. I am particularly interested in hydrothermal alteration, metasomatism/metamorphism and magmatism. The common link between these areas, and the aim of my recent research, has been to investigate the longterm exchange of volatiles between the Earth's surface and mantle reservoirs, stretching from the seafloor, through subduction zones and into the mantle. I participated in Expedition 360 of the International Ocean Discovery Program in 2016, to the slow-spreading Atlantis Bank core complex on the SW Indian Ridge, where I acted as shipboard geochemist and crossed the equator by boat for the first time. I have long standing interests in fluid inclusions as tiny recorders of past fluid activity and special interests in the halogen and noble gas groups of elements.

I moved to UQ in 2019 from the Australian National University where I was a continuing Fellow and had held an ARC Future Fellowship. Prior to that I had an ARC QEII Fellowship at the University of Melbourne (2008-2013) and postdoctoral appointments at the University of Melbourne (2004-2008) and the Geological Survey of Norway (2001-2003). I did my PhD at the University of Manchester (2001) and undergraduate studies in Geology at the University of Edinburgh (1996).

My research focuses on reef recovery following disturbances, looking at the interplay between biological, ecological and physical drivers of recovery. After diving in the Galapagos, my interest in the marine environment was piqued, and I began a PhD in reef recovery dynamics in 2016, receiving my doctarate in 2021. My work is interdisplinary, incorporating aspects of marine geology and hydrodynamics to the core focus of marine ecology. I have investigated how coral recruitment is affected by material legacies (rubble) on coral reefs, how these legacies are affected by the physical environment (mobilisation thesholds) and how marine invertebrates consolidate this material, contributing to reef recovery. My research focuses largely on natural recovery potential, but I also investigate the efficacy of reef restoration techniques in the marine environment, such as mesh netting and metal structures, and where they can speed recovery. My work has spanned multiple regions, including the Maldives, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Triangle.

BSc.Hons. (HKU), MPhil. (HKU), PhD (NUS)

Dr Annie Lau is a coastal geomorphologist with a primary research interest in analysing past occurrences of coastal hazards, in particular extreme waves generated by storms and tsunamis, through sedimentary, geomorphological and historical records for assessing the future threat in coastal areas. For example, she has specialised in using the characteristics of large coastal boulders (e.g. size and distribution of rocks) to estimate the strength of extreme waves and to reconstruct the history of extreme events in the past millennia at a few tropical islands in the Asia-Pacific area. More recently, Annie investigates coastline evolution of the sandy Central to Southern Queensland coasts in the late Quaternary - Holocene by analysing sediments and using OSL quartz dating.

Annie teaches a range of courses in Geography, Marine Science, and Geoscience disciplines. She is interested in all types of natural hazards and disaster management, some research areas that she's expanding into since acquiring in-depth knowledge through leading the "Environmental Hazards" course. Students who are interested in researching hazard topics are encouraged to discuss their research ideas with Annie.

She is a project leader of the following research networks:

IGCP Project 725 - Forecasting Coastal Change: "From Cores to Code: Bringing together scientists from coastal geology and numerical modelling to improve the predictive capacity of numerical models to fore- and hind-cast coastal change"

ISROC - Inundation Signatures on Rocky Coastlines: This network serves as a focal point for researchers, educators, and students to understand Coastal Boulder Deposits (CBD) and the storms and tsunamis that generate them.

Dr Li has a broad interest in geoscience, with specialised expertise in geophysics and geomechanics applications for resource and geoenergy exploration and development.

Jimmy obtained a Bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering from China University of Petroleum in 2007. He then spent a decade at Halliburton Energy Services, working in various technical and management roles within the Sperry Drilling division. During his industry career, he was involved in multiple onshore and offshore drilling and geophysical logging projects, including the Shell Changbei project, ConocoPhillips Penglai offshore project, PetroChina Tarim Basin project, and BG Lingshui deepwater exploration project.

In 2021, he completed a PhD in Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University. His doctoral research led to the development of a new theory on wettability-affected wave propagation in fluid-saturated porous media, which in turn enabled the development of an experimental method for characterising rock wettability using elastic wave measurements. This research established a strong theoretical and experimental foundation for the development of multi-frequency sonic logging tools for formation wettability assessment.

Since joining The University of Queensland in 2021, Dr Li's research has focused on theoretical and experimental studies in rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering for underground mining and drilling applications. In 2022, he played a key role in establishing the Quality Management System (QMS) for the Mechanical Testing Laboratory, which subsequently received NATA accreditation for rock mechanics measurement.

Em. Professor Lockington primarily researchs topics in the area of water transport in coastal soils and aquifers, including water exchange with plants and atmosphere. However, he has also conducted research on moisture transport in building materials and the design of sustainable tourism destinations. In addition to substantial contributions as a reviewer for a wide range of journals and funding bodies, Em. Prof Lockington has held editorial roles on two major journals in the area of hydrology and water resources research (Water Resources Research 2007 - 2012; Advances in Water Resources 1997 - 2020). Em. Prof. Lockington has undertaken a number of leadership roles across his career, including Program Leader for the Sustainable Tourism CRC I and II (Engineering and Design) from 2000 - 2008, Head of the Environmental Engineering Division (School of Engineering, UQ) from 2004 - 2010, and Research Program Leader for the ARC SRI funded National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training from 2009 - 2015. From 2010 to 2020 he frequently acted as Head of the School of Civil Engineering. From 2007 till 2025 he was a Fellow of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications.

Dr Mason began at The University of Queensland in late 2014 after holding academic positions at The University of Sydney and QUT. Prior to joining UQ he also worked as a catastrophe risk researcher for the industry-focused research centre, Risk Frontiers at Macquarie University. Matthew’s key areas of interest and expertise lie in the fields of:

• Wind Engineering
• Stochastic modelling of hazards, including convective storms and tropical cyclones
• Probabilistic modelling of structural and infrastructure vulnerability to wind, water and hail
• Catastrophe loss modelling for natural hazards
• Modelling and observation of the atmospheric boundary layer
• Wind tunnel testing and analysis
• Disaster insurance

Dr Mason is currently the Chair of the Standards Australia wind loading sub-committee responsible for maintenance of AS/NZS1170.2.

Neil is civil engineer with expertise in hydrology and water resources. He splits his time between the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry and the School of Civil Engineering. His current research interests include water resource systems modelling, understanding impacts of mining on water resources, remote sensing applications in hydrology and stochastic hydrology. Neil graduated with a BEng in Civil Engineering from Edinburgh University in 1990 and then worked for seven years in the Scottish pubic sector on wastewater treatment and disposal scheme design and construction. He obtained an MSc in Environmental Engineering in 1998 then a PhD in water quality modeling at Imperial College. Neil worked at Imperial as a Lecturer and Reader in Surface Water Hydrology between 2001 and 2013. This included teaching water quality, hydrometry, hydraulics, and water resources engineering; and a 5-year spell as Director of the Hydrology MSc program. His research there focused on surface water quality, uncertainty in modelling, land use management impacts, and hydrological up-scaling and regionalisation. While most of Neil’s research has been UK and Australia-based, international activity has included projects in Thailand, Uganda, Botswana, Peru, Chile, Colombia, Mongolia and China. He has been a member of the British Hydrological Society national committee, the ICE’s Water Expert Panel, and the NERC Peer Review College. He was won several awards, including the Institution of Civil Engineer’s Baker Medal and RA Carr Award for water resources research. He held an ARC Future Fellowship from 2014-2019.

Peter began his career helping to design MPAs in Belize, Central America. On realising how little science was available to guide this he moved to the University of Sheffield to undertake a PhD on the use of remote sensing for mapping coral reefs, seagrass beds and mangroves. After his PhD, Peter won a NERC Post-doctoral Fellowship to study ecological processes on coral reefs and moved to the University of Newcastle to join the Centre for Tropical Coastal Management Studies. He was then awarded a Royal Society Fellowship to integrate empirical ecological data into models of coral reefs with a view to studying how changes in human activity can affect the health of reefs. At this point he moved to the University of Exeter where he was made Professor at the age of 34. In 2010, Peter moved closer to coral reefs when he moved to the University of Queensland to take up an ARC Laureate Fellowship. He loves living in Australia! Peter was awarded a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation in 2010, and is also winner of the Rosenstiel Award for excellence in marine biology and fisheries, and the Marsh Award for contributions to marine conservation.

Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox is a Principal Research Fellow in Mine Waste Geoscience at the W.H Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She is the founding leader of Australia's premier secondary prospectivity research group- Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH). Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox is also a deputy director in the Critical Resources for the Future ARC ITTC (collaborating with UWA, ANU and UoA).

Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox's research is focussed on mine waste characterisation to improve mine planning and waste management practices. , Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox has worked with mining industry, METS sector and government stakeholders. Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox has developed new tests and protocols for improving waste characterisation and has led projects looking for innovative solutions to remediate abandoned/ historical mine sites. Most recently, Associate Professor Parbhakar-Fox has led major government and industry funded projects characterising a range of mine waste materials to evaluate their economic potential in the context of critical metals.

Before completing her PhD in 2012 at the Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences (CODES), Anita obtained a 1st class MSc (Hons) degree from the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College (University of London) in Environmental Geology (2005). Professionally, she has worked as an environmental consultant (2005-06) and as a research assistant for the AMIRA P843 geometallurgy project (2006-07). She worked part-time as a Junior Research Fellow for the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE; 2011-2012) and then went on to become a postdoctoral research fellow in the Environmental Indicators program (2012-2015). Next, Anita was appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow for the ARC TMVC Research Hub (2015-2019) where she serves as the deputy leader of Theme 3 (minimising geoenvironmental risks) and the leader (2016-2018) of Program 2 (Geometallurgy, Geoenvironment and Mining) at CODES.

Julie’s research is mainly focussed on gas-water-rock core reactivity at reservoir conditions using experimental, field, and geochemical modelling techniques. Recent projects have been in the application of carbon dioxide geological storage in which CO2 is captured and stored in formations generally contained by low permeability cap-rock. The safe containment of the injected CO2 and the potential changes to rock porosity, permeability, and water quality should be determined. Recent and current projects with a focus on a demonstration site in the Surat Basin (Precipice Sandstone) include the impacts of impurity or acid gases present in industrial CO2 streams (collaboration with D. Kirste, SFU), inducing carbonate precipitation (in collaboration with S. Golding), and understanding dissolved metal sources and fate. Julie has also worked closely with the CO2CRC, CTSCo, Glencore, SEAL, the NSW government, CI-NSW, and ANLEC R&D, and provided expert opinion to the Queensland Government, and input to Environmental Impacts Assessments.

Julie is currently working with landholders, the QLD regional government, RDMW, councils and industry to understand the sources of methane in aquifers of the Great Artesian Basin, especailly those overlying coal seam gas reservoirs (CSG) (with Arrow Energy, SANTOS, APLNG, H. Hoffman, K, Baublys).

Other projects include gas-water-rock or acid-rock reactivity that modify nano-porosity and gas flow in gas or oil bearing shales.

Julie Pearce graduated with an MCHEM (Hons) degree in Chemistry from the University of York, UK. She then moved to the University of Bristol to complete a Ph.D. in 2007 focusing on laser spectroscopic studies to understand the detailed reaction dynamics of atmospheric processes. From 2007 – 2009 she accepted a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, hosted at Nagoya University, Japan. There she measured delta 13C and delta 18O isotopic signatures of CO2 simultaneously in real time in the atmosphere using a laser spectroscopic technique to understand anthropogenic and biogenic sources of CO2. After taking a career break to travel in 15 countries in Asia, she moved to Brisbane in 2010 where she is enjoying the surrounding natural beauty of Queensland.

Stuart is a scientist, educator, and leader who builds and applies methods to measure and understand how our environments are changing at multiple scales (www.eorc.org.au ). He works across collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams and organisations to deliver quality science that draws upon field-work, satellite-image data, and modelling, through: founding directorships of Australia national earth observation coordination body (www.eoa.org.au) and collaborative research infrastructure (www.tern.org.au ) and a world-leading research to operational program that supports government environmental monitoring (www.jrsrp.org.au ); and program leadership of industry-driven research (www.smartsatcrc.com ). Stuart’s work provides solutions to support sustainable development and resource use for all levels of government, various industries, and communities.

Associate Professor Andries Potgieter is a Principal Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland. He currently leads and mentor a team of researchers in the areas of seasonal climate forecasting, remote and proximal sensing with applications in the development of crop production outlooks and less risk prone cropping systems across Australia, producing highly cited publications.

With over 30 years of experience, A/Prof Potgieter’s main research interest is in the complex integration of remote sensing technologies, spatial production modelling, climate forecasting systems at a regional scale. In particular, his interest targets agricultural research that enhances the profitability and sustainability of spatial production systems through a better understanding of the linkages and interactions of such systems across a range of spatial (e.g. field, farm, catchment, national), and temporal (i.e. seasons to decades) scales. He is a leader in the field of quantitative eco-physiological systems modelling and has successfully built up a national and international recognised research profile with strong linkages to industry (farmer groups, insurance, seed companies and bulk handlers of commodities) and domestic and national agencies (State governments, ABARES and ABS) as well as international linkages with Ag-Food Canada, Maryland University, USDA, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) including the UN and FAO.

Recent research projects

• Spatial and image analysis modelling specifically, phenotyping of sorghum breeding plots through drones and pheno mobile platforms (funded by ARC Centre of Excellence in Translational Photosynthesis)
• Regional commodity forecasting and crop area estimates for winter and summer crops across the main broad cropping region of Australia (supported by QLD Government)
• Development of a model to predict and determine the Genetic by Environment characterization of Late Maturity Alpha Amylase (LMA) risk across Australia (GRDC funded)

Previous research

• Benchmarking and developing of novel metrics for the Insurance industry for hedging farmer’s risk against crop failures due to water stress within a shire)
• Determining crop water stress within the thermal – crop canopy space at field scale.
• Determining of food insecure “hotspots” for the SIMELSA project that provided a baseline analysis to help identify highly vulnerable regions across eastern Africa and listing of relevant and actionable issues of potentially high impact for research, development and increased investment.

Gilbert Price is a Senior Lecturer in Palaeontology at The University of Queensland. He is a vertebrate palaeoecologist and geochronologist, particularly interested in the evolution and emergence of our planet’s unique ecosystems and fauna, and their response to prehistoric climatic changes. His major research focus has been on the development of palaeoecological models for Australia’s Cenozoic, especially the Quaternary megafauna. Critically, this also involves the production of reliably-dated records for the fossils that he studies. You can follow Gilbert on Twitter (@TheFatWombat) and read his reserach blog at www.diprotodon.com.

Dr David Pullar's research interests are in: Geographical Information Science (Spatial analysis, Spatial modelling languages and frameworks, 3D visualisation, Environmental database applications) and Landscape Modelling (Catchment hydrology, Landuse change, Landscape dynamics).

David Pullar received his PhD from the University of Maine in 1994. His current research projects are in the fields of:

Incorporating Level Set Methods in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for Land-Surface Process ModellingUsing Spatial Simulation to Create a Process Classification of Provincial BioregionsEnvironmental Database Management and IntegrationHis collaborators include:Coastal CRCIntelligent Real-time Imaging and Sensing (IRIS)The Ecology CentreHigh Performance Computing, VisAC Lab