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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)

Professor Kevin Thomas is Director of the Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS). Kevin is an environmental health scientist with a particular interest in understanding the environmental exposures associated with contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) with the goal of protecting environmental and human health. Kevin also leads the Minderoo Centre- Plastics and Human Health at UQ and is Deputy-Director of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Hyphenated Analytical Separation Technologies (HyTech).

His current research is focused on understanding human exposure to plastics pollution and developing mass spectrometric analytical methods for characterizing plastics and other CECs, assessing community-wide health status through analysing wastewater (wastewater-based epidemiology) and establishing alternative approaches to exposure monitoring, for example explanted silicone prostheses and wristbands.

Author of over 300 peer-reviewed papers and Associate Editor for the journal Science of the Total Environment, Kevin is a strong collaborative researcher having founded the international SCORE network on sewer biomarker analysis for community health assessment (see www.score-network.eu) and together with colleagues has recently launched InSpectra- A platform for identifying emerging chemical threats.