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)
Nick is interested in fostering efficient, environmentally friendly animal production enterprises. He uses the data and capabilities provided by modern 'omics technologies to help improve breeding decisions and to inform other types of 'on farm' intervention.
Nick has a parallel interest in the development, physiology, metabolism and conservation of native Australian species, particularly frogs and butterflies.
Nick is a metabolic biochemist by training with research expertise in a) the handling and biological interpretation of large, complex data sets b) molecular technologies c) mitochondrial physiology and d) metabolic flux.
Nick enjoys teaching various aspects of biochemistry and molecular biology to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. He highlights the main themes using the comparative method and illustrates their importance through applied examples from agriculture and other areas of human endeavour.
Before taking his current position as a Teaching and Research academic in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability (AGFS) Nick worked for the CSIRO in a research intensive multi-disciplinary Systems Biology group.
Through this group he helped develop and apply bioinformatic methods that used metabolite, protein, RNA and DNA biotech to understand, model and predict phenotypes of commercial importance in cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens.
A research highlight from this time was the co-invention of a universal method for inferring causal molecules from genome-wide gene expression data (Hudson et al 2009. PLoS Comp Biol e1000382). This method has been applied across a diverse range of model systems including human kidney cancer and commercial traits in various agricultural species.
Following an undergraduate degree in Animal Biology at the University of St.Andrews, Nick was awarded his PhD through what was then the Zoology department of the University of Queensland, after travelling from England on a Britain-Australia Society funded Northcote Scholarship.
A/Prof Stephen Johnston is a Reader in Reproduction (40% Teaching; 40% Research and 20% Service) in the School of Environment at the University of Queensland, where he teaches animal reproduction and captive husbandry to Bachelor of Wildlife Science and Science undergraduate and postgraduate students. He is current program coordinator for the Bachelor of Wildlife Science Program. He is also a research affiliate in the School of Veterinary Science. Stephen was trained as a zoologist and specialises in the area of reproductive biology in a broad diversity of species ranging from prawns to tigers but with a major focus on Australian mammals. A/Prof Johnston has published 300 scientific works in basic and applied science disciplines including reproductive anatomy, physiology and behaviour. He was the first person in the world to produce a pouch young following artificial insemination in a marsupial, a task that he and his colleagues have now carried out successfully in the koala, a total of 34 times. Stephen is also a specialist in the cryopreservation of marsupial spermatozoa and in the assessment of sperm DNA fragmentation, including human and domestic animal spermatozoa. A/Prof Johnston’s recent research interests and grant success include studies aimed at a better understanding of the effect of chlamydia on male koala reproduction, heat stress in koalas, sociobiology of koalas, genetic and reproductive management of koalas, wombat captive reproduction, echidna captive breeding, crocodile artificial insemination and prawn aquaculture. He is a Fellow of the Society for Reproductive Biology (2019)
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Availability:
Available for supervision
Prof. David Jordan is a sorghum breeder and geneticist with more than 20 years experience working in both the public and private sector.
For the last decade he has led the public sorghum pre-breeding program in Australia which is a partnership between the University of Queensland (UQ), The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) and the Grains research and Develop Corporation (GRDC). This is a long running and successful research effort with a reputation for integrating across disciplines and linking research efforts from the strategic to the applied. Breeding lines from this program are widely used commercially in Australia and internationally with 100% of the commercial sorghum grown in Australia having genetics from the program. At the same time the research group continues to produce research papers at the forefront of sorghum research.
In recent years he had led projects focused on improving the lives of resource poor farmers in Africa that rely on sorghum.
I am a computational biologist with a centre-wide research role in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture, based here at UQ. I spend my time researching new computational techniques for predicting complex quantitative traits by integrating multiple layers of 'omics data (amongst dozens of other things!).
Areas of interest:
Machine Learning, AI and high performance computing to learn and exploit functional connectivity in biological data
Gene Expressions networks
Multiplex networks, information propagation and perturbation
Genomic Prediction
My goal is to aid crop and forestry breeders in selecting parental lines more accurately, which gives us a pathway to improving certain plant species. I also spend time developing new data analysis techniques that are being applied to human disease and conditions such as Autism and substance addiction.
David completed his PhD at Australian National University in 2017, focusing on the genome-wide basis of foliar terpene variation in Eucalyptus. He then undertook a postdoc at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a US Dept of Energy lab with a focus on big data. After a stint as a staff scientist at Oak Ridge, David arrived at the Centre of Excellence in 2023 in the role of a Senior Research Fellow.
Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Advance Queensland Industry Researc
School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability
Faculty of Science
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr Sundar Kalaipandian obtained his BSc (Agriculture) and MSc (Plant Breeding and Genetics) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, India. He worked as a senior research fellows at Sugarcane Breeding Institute in India. He then went to undertake his PhD in Biotechnology at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. He received a postdoctoral fellowship from Academia Sinica. He got a postdoctoral position to work at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and moved to Australia. He worked for University of Adelaide and Biosecurity Queensland. Then, he joined as a research fellow at the University of Queensland. Currently, he received an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship project to develop a commercial tissue culture protocol on date plam.
Sundar has developed expertise in genetics, plant breeding, biotechnology, genomics, and bioinformatics during his career. He has specialized in the development of abiotic and biotic stress tolerant varieties. He has worked on several plant species including sugarcane, rice, maize, Arabidopsis, wheat, coconut, date palm, Australian native plant species and weeds. He has experience in developing strong collaborations with national and international organizations, and private industries. He is interested in commercialization of scientific technologies for farmers and bringing various technologies to field. He is also interested to work on Australian native plant species and environmental factors that affect their germination and growth. Apart from scientific skills, he is taking various roles in preparation of collaborative agreements, biosecurity documents, project and budget management activities.
Dibesh Karmacharya has a Conservation Biology degree from Wayne State College, USA and a PhD on Conservation and Microbiome Genetics from Griffith University, Australia. He worked extensively in the US for Caliper Lifesciences in New Jersey as a research scientist (transgenic animal models). He promoted Genomics and Proteomics technology platforms for GE Healthcare Lifesciences in the US and Canada. He founded the Center for Molecular Dynamics Nepal (CMDN), a wildlife genetics and clinical epidemiology research center and is the Chairman and Executive Director of the Organization. He also founded Intrepid Nepal Pvt. Ltd.-a molecular diagnostics-based Biotechnology Company, and Intrepid Cancer Diagnostics-a leading cancer diagnostic laboratory. He leads several innovative researches in Nepal including building Nepal’s first genetic database of wild tigers through Nepal Tiger Genome Project. He was the Principal Investigator of PREDICT Nepal project-an emerging pandemic threat project. He also founded BIOVAC Nepal Pvt. Ltd. - a vaccine research, development and manufacturing company. He is Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Regional Project Coordinator of Pandemic Prevention Leadership Initiative (PPLI). He specializes in One Health and Conservation Genetics.
May 2002–ongoing: Senior Lecturer Land Resources Sciences, Principla Research Fellow, School of Land, Crop and Food Sciences; The University of Queensland, Australia
As lecturer of Land Resources Sciences at the University of Queensland, Dr Kirchhof has both led and collaborated on over half a dozen projects, and supervised numerous research staff and students. His research has focussed on:
Soil–Water relationships;
Conservation Agriculture and Irrigation scheduling
Soil erosion
Water and Nutrient Balances;
Spatial Variability of Soil Properties from Ped to Landscape Scales;
Dry-land Salinity Management;
Water Recycling
Computer Modelling of Water Flow with Special Reference to Variability and assessment of deep drainage
Knowledge Management;
2011-15 Course leader: Australia Awards in Africa Dryland Farming/Soil and Water conservation Short Course Awards, UniQuest; Australia and Africa, Dr Kirchhof led the design and delivery of the AusAID-funded Dryland Farming Short Course Award, contracted to UniQuest/UQ-ID through GRM International, which was delivered twice a year in 2011 and 2014.
Countries of work experience: Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Burkino Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Uganda, Kenya, Tunisia, Australia.
Previous postions:
Oct 1997–May 2002: Senior Soil Scientist, Soil Conservation, NSW Agriculture; Australia
Mar 1996–Oct 1997: Soil Physicist, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture; Ibadan, Nigeria
Dec 1991–Mar 1996: Research Fellow, Department of Agriculture, The University of Queensland; Brisbane
Jan 1989–Dec 1991: Soil Scientist, CASSIRO Ltd, Wauchope, NSW
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Media expert
Disrupting the status quo and closing the circular bioeconomy
Dr Jitka Kochanek is the founder and leader of the Plant Performance Laboratory at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. At the interface of biology and materials science, she utilises bioengineering to disrupt the status quo within the global bioeconomy. Specifically, her pioneering research aims to supersede dated industry practices with new, highly efficient products and to replace outdated materials (unsustainable, damaging etc) with cutting-edge biomaterials that close the circular economy.
Her latest scientific achievement has been the discovery of a new material that is a ‘technology platform’ upon which multiple technologies are being developed through tailoring of parent materials, such as for biomedical and food packaging applications, as well as for agriculture and environmental rehabilitation. In 2021 she gained private industry funding from a prominent Australian SME for translation and commercialisation is expected over a 2–5-year timeframe. Since parent materials are plant-based, the platform promises a closed circular economy.
In the agri-environmental space, Dr Kochanek’s vision is sustainable real-time plant regulation, using novel biomaterials and technologies. The most commercially advanced product promises to be a disruptive tool for better future-proofing agriculture and wild plant ecosystem restoration, having successfully delivered emerging growth regulators that assist plants to cope with climate-related stressors, such as heatwaves and drought. Additionally, classic chemistries have been delivered to plants at 100-10,000-fold lower dosages than current commercial practices, thus generating social licence and slashing chemical costs.
Dr Kochanek has collaborated with some of the world’s top organisations and researchers, such as conservation ecologists at Kew Gardens in the UK, natural product chemists via the Flematti Group at the University of Western Australia and materials scientists within the Rowan Group at the University of Queensland. She has had the pleasure of supervising/mentoring >30 research students and 2 postdoctoral researchers.
Other notable career achievements
Since 2010 Dr Kochanek has been principal chief investigator across 8 industry and government projects worth >$2.3M (Federal/Horticulture Innovation Australia, Local/Brisbane City Council, State/Qld Government and private industry projects), a research consultant for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR, developing sustainable and cost-effective crop sanitation technologies in Papua New Guinea) and won the CSIRO ON-Prime accelerator program in 2019 for her visionary agri-technologies. Other notable achievements are that Dr Kochanek became a stand-alone researcher at <2 years post-PhD, after securing funding as principal CI ($302K, 2010); has developed a novel systematic framework to close the circular economy for waste recycling technologies; was among the first to confirm empirical evidence for epigenetics in plants or animals; and has developed a bioassay to rapidly ascertain plant responses for growth promoting/harming compounds. The bioassay provides the ability to predict chemical dosages for plants within 1 week.
Dr. Kontogiorgos has received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Food Science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). A full scholarship was then awarded from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y) for Ph.D. studies in Food Science at the University of Guelph (Canada). After his Ph.D. degree, he worked as an NSERC research fellow at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (Canada). Following that post, he worked as academic at the Department of Biological Sciences of the University of Huddersfield (UK) before joining the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland. Dr. Kontogiorgos research interests are focused in the area of polysaccharide characterisation and physical chemistry of food macromolecules, gels, and colloidal systems. Currently, he is working on the physical, chemical and technological properties of soluble and insoluble fibres extracted from agricultural wastes. Dr Kontogiorgos is Associate Editor of Food Hydrocolloids and Associate Editor of Food Biophysics.
Not only do soils provide humans with 98.8% of our food, they also provide humanity with a broad range of other services such as carbon storage and greenhouse gas regulation. However, soils are also the most complex ecosystem in the world – it is this complexity that forms the basis of Peter's research at The University of Queensland (UQ). As a Soil Scientist, Peter is actively involved in the management and conservation of soil; one of the basic elements which sustain life. Whilst soil takes hundreds or thousands of years to form, it can be destroyed in a matter of years if not managed correctly. The management and conservation of the soil-environment is arguably the biggest challenge we face as we move into the future. We need new ideas to solve the world’s problems.
The aim of Peter's research is to increase plant growth in soils that are degraded and infertile, both in Australia and developing countries. He has a demonstrated ability to lead outstanding research programs across a range of inter-connected themes, spanning in scale from fundamental research to landscape-scale projects, with this demonstrating a unique ability to link industry partners with high quality research. Peter's research spans the areas of agricultural production, water chemistry, and waste disposal, currently focusing on (i) the global development of advanced and novel methodologies for investigation of plants and soils, (ii) behaviour of nutrients, fertilizers, and carbon in soils, and (iii) plant growth in degraded soils.
Peter is Past President of Soil Science Australia (QLD), a former ARC Future Fellow, recipient of the JK Taylor Gold Medal in Soil Science (2018), and recipient of the CG Stephens Award in Soil Science (2005).
Dr Julius Kotir is a Senior Scientist with the Queensland Government Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and also an Adjunct Senior Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability. His academic and research interest is focused on understanding and managing the complex and long-term sustainability of coupled socio-economic-environmental systems. A particular interest is how to use this understanding to design decision support tools in the form of models to evaluate the impact of different options under an uncertain global future. His work takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining participatory co-design and field-based methods with systems thinking tools and system dynamics modelling to develop qualitative and quantitative simulation models that can support decision making. Julius has is currently using these tools and methods to address a wide range of complex agri-environmental problems including international and rural development issues, food security, economics of farming systems, agrifood and digital twin supply chains, climate-smart agriculture, water resources management, farmer adoption of new practices, and agribusiness policy design and analysis.
Suresh is a forward-thinking educator with expertise in curriculum design, educational technology, and SOTL in higher education. Passionate about driving student engagement, he also champions the professional development of fellow educators, fostering growth and innovation in teaching practices.
As an Associate Lecturer in Curriculum and eDesign at the School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability, Suresh plays a pivotal role in shaping the learning experience. He teaches across a diverse range of subjects, including animal anatomy, biology, and chemistry, while spearheading initiatives that transform course design. A key mentor to his colleagues, Suresh empowers educators to refine their teaching strategies and seamlessly integrate technology into their curricula. His contributions have earned him recognition as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
Suresh’s core areas of expertise include:
- Educational research and program design
- Professional development and mentorship
- Technology-enhanced learning
- STEM pedagogy
- Assessment and feedback strategies
With a blend of experience in higher education and the eLearning industry, Suresh brings a fresh perspective to teaching and mentorship. He collaborates with faculty across disciplines to redesign courses, enhancing student engagement and creating impactful learning experiences both in-person and online.
My current research is all about finding ways to improve teaching and student learning, with a focus on biology and other sciences. This is a new and exciting direction for me to which I and my group are now dedicated. Of particular interest to me is finding ways to improve communication abilities of science students through the design, testing and implementation of effective curricula, class activities and assessment methods. Naturally, no learning occurs in isolation, so my current research also looks at learning scientific reasoning, information literacy, and how to improve the relevance and authenticity of practical/lab classes and assessment tasks.
Previously my research focussed on using physiological approaches and techniques to address questions in ecology, conservation and aquaculture, especially in vertebrates living in extreme environments (see references for examples). I continue to be involved in biological research through teaching, co-supervision and examination of postgraduate students.
My current projects aim to find effective ways to...
Improve abilities of first year biology students to work effectively in groups.
Improve science students’ communication abilities through the development and implementation of a new 3rd year course titled Communicating in Science.
Improve scientific reasoning and writing in first year biology students.
Improve tutor support and consequently student learning through implementation of a program of tailored tutor professional development.
Improve information literacy in first year biology students.
Motivate students to improve their biological knowledge and use of modern communication technologies by implementing authentic assignments throughout the curriculum e.g., websites, video, blogs.
Improve the ability of students to articulate the skills and knowledge they develop in undergraduate ecology research through the use of a skills portfolio.
Improve student practice and confidence in avoiding plagiarism and adhering to academic integrity.
