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Louisa is a hydrogeologist with twenty years of experience. She has had a diverse career working in research, consulting, and government. Louisa’s main areas of expertise include hydrogeological investigations, impact assessment, groundwater resource management, and contaminated land management. She has worked across a range of sectors including mining, energy, transport, and agriculture and her experience includes developing water resources legislation and policy and leading complex groundwater and surface water investigations for project approvals, operations, and compliance.

Louisa is currently working as a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Responsibility in Mining (CERM). The role involves leading the hydrogeological research, training, and consulting services that CERM provide to the minerals industry in Australia and globally and working with a team of water resource management specialists to contribute to a range of inter-discplinary projects. She has recently completed a project for The Australian National University developing draft National Guidelines for Groundwater Monitoring in Australia.

Julia Keenan is a Research Fellow and PhD candidate at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland. With over 15 years at CSRM, her work focuses on social performance, sustainable development, and Indigenous self-determination within the extractive industries.

Julia’s research examines the relationship between mining operations and local communities, focusing on agreement-making, gender equity, economic participation, and mine closure. Her PhD investigates corporate social performance (CSP), exploring policy implementation gaps, stakeholder engagement, and social safeguards throughout the mining lifecycle.

Julia has contributed to global mineral resource governance projects, partnering with the United Nations Environment Programme to implement the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) Resolution on Mineral Resource Governance. She also worked on the Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment (SREBA) for the Beetaloo Sub-basin, profiling community concerns about resource development.

Since 2023, Julia has coordinated CSRM’s involvement in the Community Smart Consultation and Consent Project (CSCC), which focuses on improving natural resource governance through community-based consultation and FPIC. She has co-authored guidance documents for the International Council on Mining and Metals and Rio Tinto.

Julia holds a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts (Hons in Linguistics) from The University of Queensland and is nearing completion of her PhD.

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).

Eleonore is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at UQ.

Initially trained as an engineer, Eleonore is a multi-disciplinary researcher with expertise in the mining industry and passionate about bridging qualitative and quantitative disciplines. She leads both academic research and industry-commissioned projects.

Her current interests include:

• Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data and their use in decision making
• Responsible investment practices and outcomes in the mining industry
• The organisational drivers of ESG performance

As part of her role at CSRM, Eleonore delivers guest lectures and professional development offerings on ESG and particularly the social aspects of mining, including on the topics of:

• Establishing a social knowledge base
• Social risk
• Social incident investigation
• Mining-induced displacement and resettlement

She has also published on the topics of energy transition minerals, tailings dam failures, and circular economy and mine waste management. Her research on energy transition minerals earned her a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council.

Eleonore advises several PhD students on topics such as multi-criteria decision making, post-mining land use, and spatial ESG data analysis.

Associate Professor Mehmet Kizil is currently the mining engineering program leader in the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at The University of Queensland. Mehmet received his bachelor of mining engineering from Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey in 1986. He then went to England to complete his PhD with the University of Nottingham. In 1993, he returned to Turkey where he worked as assistant professor at the University of Dokuz Eylul. Mehmet joined UQ in 1996 and since then has contributed to the education of more than 800 mining engineering graduates.

A national award-winning lecturer, Mehmet’s teaching and learning innovations have been recognised by both students and colleagues achieving numerous School, Faculty, University and National teaching awards. In 2018, Mehmet has become a Higher Education Academy Senior Fellow. He has past experience as an Engineering Researcher and Academic in universities around the world, including the United Kingdom, Turkey and Australia.

Mehmet’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of:

• Mine planning and design

• Mining systems - production analysis and improvement

• Computer applications and virtual reality in mining

• Mine ventilation

Julia Loginova is a dedicated researcher passionate about sustainability and justice in the minerals and energy sectors in an era of energy transitions, climate change, and geopolitical volatility. Growing up in northern Russia (Komi Zyrian) sparked her interest in socioeconomic, environmental and political transformations in regions affected by resource extraction. She has academic qualifications in economics and law, natural resource management, and human geography, and completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne on Indigenous community responses to climate change and resource extraction in the Arctic. Julia is highly skilled in qualitative research, data science, network analysis, and spatial research, providing unique mixed-method insights on complex challenges.

Since joining the University of Queensland in 2018, she has focused her research on globalization of the resources sector, governance of energy transitions, socioeconomic redistributions, and Indigenous and non-Indigenous community participation in multiple geographies, including Australia, China, Russia, Ecuador, and the Arctic region. Julia's current research projects include Indigenous co-ownership of renewable energy projects, coal transitions in multiple geographies, and assessment of risks in resource extraction regions. She is a Chief Investigator on the ARC Discovery project that aims to improve the sustainability of copper global production networks in Australia, Zambia, and Chile, and is a collaborator on a research project on the geopolitics of critical minerals. At UQ, Julia contributes to teaching courses on global change, sustainable cities and regions, and geopolitics. She is an Associate Editor for The Extractive Industries and Society journal.

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.

Dr Mansour Edraki is a geo-environmental scientist specialising in the field of inorganic geochemistry. He joined UQ following completion of his PhD at the University of New England. Prior to that, and before immigrating to Australia, he was a lecturer in earth sciences. Since joining UQ, Dr Edraki has focused on developing innovative techniques for understanding and predicting geochemical processes that underpin sustainable management of mine waste and mine water, particularly acid and metalliferous drainage. Mansour’s research has direct applications for the resources and energy industries and the impact of his work is evident in a continuous flow of industry-funded projects in the last decade. Dr Edraki has initiated research collaborations in many international locations including Indonesia (South Kalimantan and Freeport), Iran (Mehdiabad Zinc) Papua New Guinea (Ok Tedi), Philippines (USEP and Mindanao Development Authority), Korea (MIRECO and KIGAM), Peru (INGEMET), and Chile (Fundación Chile, Universidad de Concepción). Dr Edraki represents SMI-UQ at the International Network for Acid Prevention (INAP), which is a global alliance for managing the issue of acid and metalliferous drainage. He leads SMI's Environmental Geochemistry Group.

Dr Micah Nehrings’ research interests are in: Mine Planning, Production Scheduling Optimisation, Optimal Ultimate Pit Limit (UPL) determination, planning for In-Pit-Crusher-Conveyor (IPCC) systems.

Micah is a Lecturer within the Division of Mining Engineering of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering. He leads the High Performance Surface Mining Research Group which is heavily focused on delivering high quality research outcomes in the planning and installation of In-Pit-Crusher-Conveyor (IPCC) systems.

Micah joined the School in 2011, after completing his PhD at The University of Queensland. Micah has since undertaken an early career academic program which has resulted in collaborations with European universities in Sweden, Germany and Kazakhstan. Micah has also developed an industry network that works with him in the implementation of some of his groups research outcomes.

Micah research outputs have been published in numerous high ranking journals including Minerals Engineering, Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Mining Technology and the International Journal of Mining, Reclamation and Environment.

Dr Nevenka Bulovic is a water resource engineer and her current research focus is on improving the climate resilience of the mining sector in the face of climate change. This work applies state-of-the-art climate models to assess risks to water availability, mine site rehabilitation and pollution risks. Nevenka's other research passion is in using remotely sensed data and novel approaches for improving knowledge on hydroclimate in data sparse regions such as Australia and the Andes.

Saeid Zare is an expert in troubleshooting and optimizing mineral processing plants. He is currently a research officer of the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Center (JKMRC) at the University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals Institute.

He graduated as a top student with Bachelor’s and Master's degrees in mining engineering-mineral processing from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran. His Bachelor’s and Master’s thesis projects were on flotation and comminution, in Sarcheshme Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex, and in the Gol-E-Gohar iron ore company, the largest mines in the Middle East, respectively. He was also chosen as elite member by Iran's National Elites Foundation in 2019 and 2023. Over the past nine years, he has successfully contributed to numerous funded industrial projects focused on troubleshooting, optimization and designing, mostly in comminution, separation and dewatering fields at the mineral processing plants in more than eight of the largest Mining and Industrial Companies in Iran, which helped him to apply his knowledge in real industrial settings.

Saeid is currently a researcher at the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Center (JKMRC), working within the Advanced Process Prediction and Control group. His research focuses on the optimization of mineral processing techniques to enhance operational efficiency and sustainability.

Tony is an expert mining structural geologist who applies his skills to problems of deep earth mass mining, giant open pits, near-mine exploration, and the local and regional lithostructural controls on complex metalliferous mineral deposits. As a Senior Research Fellow in mining and engineering geology at the University of Queensland, Tony’s pioneering research focussed on the geological modelling and data inputs required for planning deep cave mining operations, an area that had received little previous consideration from geologists. He led the Geology and Mass Mining Project (GMM), which examined the geoscientific inputs required for exploring, defining, establishing, and mining block and sub-level caving operations that were being developed on giant porphyry copper-gold systems and IOCG deposits. While much research was being done in Australia to explore the deep earth environment, very little was being done to model the geology of large and deep mineralized systems, and then to use the new data and models to plan and extract any large discoveries made. Tony’s pioneering work was some of the first and most comprehensive to be done in this field.

• Fellow and chartered professional (geology) of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
• Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists
• Fellow of the Geological Society
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists
• Member, Geological Society of Australia
• Member, Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology

Tony is presently a Principal Structural Geologist with a Brisbane-based geophysical and geological consulting group.

Associate Professor Italo Onederra serves as the Director of the Centre for Future Autonomous Systems and Technologies (FAST) at the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering. He leads a research group focused on improving mineral extraction methods with reduced environmental impact through advanced preconditioning and fragmentation techniques.

Recognised internationally as a specialist in explosives and blasting engineering technology, Italo holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) with honours from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Engineering Science and PhD from the University of Queensland. With over 25 years of R&D experience and consulting work in Australia, South America, Africa, and Europe, Italo has demonstrated exceptional leadership and impact in both research and industry. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, contributed to technical reports and books, and co-invented novel nitrogen oxide-free explosives based on hydrogen peroxide. Italo is also known for developing fragmentation modelling techniques, which have been incorporated into commercial software used globally by industry and academia, as well as pioneering the use of physics engines in blast movement modelling to improve ore control and maximise recovery.

Dr Ray Maher is Director of Research at the School of Architecture Design and Planning at The University of Queensland. Ray collaborates broadly across institutions while leading research and capacity-building projects with government and industry. His work focuses on sustainable development strategy, urban development and design, Sustainable Development Goals, decision-support tools, circular economy, and addressing ‘wicked’ problems using systems, design, and futures thinking. Ray’s research is engagement-focused, interdisciplinary, and applied, which builds the capacity of stakeholders.

Ray is Lead Chief Investigator on research funding totalling over $1m, and a Chief Investigator on research funding totalling over $5m. He has 32 traditional and non-traditional research outputs with state, national, and regional impact.