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Ian Satchwell is an Adjunct Professor with UQ's Sustainable Minerals Institute. Ian is also an Affiliate of the UQ's Global Centre for Mineral Security and a Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Ian advises business, government and NGOs on minerals, energy and infrastructure policies, practices and governance to facilitate investment and deliver outcomes aligned with sustainable development goals. The focal areas of his research are on:

• Australia’s global investment footprint in minerals exploration, mining and processing and its role in fostering sound governance and sustainability frameworks and performance.
• Building diverse, secure and sustainable supply chains for critical minerals, and Australia’s domestic and global role.
• The geopolitics of menerals and energy, implications for Australia and how it contrbutes to global minerals and energy security.
• Strengthening the contribution of Northern Australia to the nation's strategic interests.

For much of his career, Ian was a senior executive in minerals and energy industry bodies, and a partner in an Australian consulting firm specialising in economics, policy and strategy. He also served on boards and advisory committees of research and policy organisations in Australia, Asia and Canada.

In addition to reseaching and preparing reports on key topics, Ian Satchwell writes regularly for the Lowy Interpreter and ASPI’s The Strategist on minerals and energy policy and geopolitics

OVERVIEW

Dr. Louise Gallagher is a Senior Fellow at the Global Centre for Mineral Security within the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland. She co-leads the Responsible Sand and Silicates Initiative with Professor Daniel Franks and Daniel Holm. This new initiative will be formally launched in 2025 and is building on a partnership with OECD, IKEA, and Roca Group to ensure the responsible sourcing of sand and silicates. This multistakeholder coalition aims to define and implement responsible sourcing practices in critical supply chains, creating opportunities for sustainability transformations in global production and consumption systems.

BACKGROUND

The common thread throughout Louise's career is the drive to link sustainability theory, transdisciplinary research, action and innovation for impact.

Louise originally trained as a human geographer and ecological economist, with a PhD in environmental science and policy. She has designed and facilitated programmes for systems change at the intersection of societal development, ecosystems, and sustainability challenges over the last 15 years with organisations like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), WWF, and various academic institutions.

Her knowledge and experience span various fields, including sustainability science, natural capital valuation, circular and green economies, chemicals and waste management, environmental policy, local energy transitions, inclusive land use planning, the water-energy-food-climate nexus, and minerals resource governance. During her time at UNEP, she actively contributed to significant initiatives such as advocating for fisheries subsidies reform at the WTO, integrating waste and circular economy considerations into the Green Economy Report (2008), mainstreaming the sound management of chemicals in development planning, and contributing to the inaugural Global Chemicals Outlook (2011). At WWF, Louise pioneered the organisation's inaugural green economy programme in the Greater Mekong region, driving biodiversity conservation and sustainable development efforts across Southeast Asia's vital transboundary landscapes. From 2014 to 2017, she led science-policy-practice innovation to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services analysis and conservation action. Louise's research and teaching at the University of Geneva centred on sustainability innovation processes for fostering inclusive, deliberative policy-making and collective action in the water-energy-food nexus, local energy transitions, and the global governance of sand resources.

She is the lead author of the UNEP (2019) report on Sand and Sustainability: Finding new solutions for environmental governance. She co-authored the UNEP (2022) Sand and Sustainability: 10 Strategic Recommendations to Avert a Crisis. Louise also led the governance research and action for UNEP/GRID-Geneva’s Global Sand Observatory Initiative until 2021. She was a lead contributor to The University of Queensland and the University of Geneva’s collaboration on Ore Sand: a potential new solution to the mine tailings and global sand sustainability crises.

Louise joined the Global Centre for Mineral Security at the University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals Institute in 2022, driven by her commitment to deeper engagement with the private sector and other non-governmental partners on issues related to sand and sustainability. In addition to her action research, Louise serves as an advisor and evaluator to organisations committed to systems change and transformation impact. Recent partners include the IKEA Foundation, Gilbane Building Company, Mastercard Foundation, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Packard Foundation, and WWF-Netherlands.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Louise’s research interests lie in understanding why and how successful collective action contributes to institutional innovation that enables sustainability transformations to emerge. Her current focus is advancing multistakeholder cooperation to innovate on sustainability standards and responsible sourcing practices that can address pressing issues related to sand and silicates supply chain impacts and opportunities.

See her profiles on Google Scholar and ResearchGate for more information.

Skills

• Strategy & action planning

• Partnership brokering & facilitating multi-stakeholder processes

• Co-design, co-creation process design and facilitation

• Complex project management

• Community engagement

• Systems-informed project/programme design and evaluation

Preferred methods

• Nonmarket valuation

• Sustainability risk and impact analysis and assessment

• Participatory sensemaking, impact evaluation and scenario planning

• Stakeholder identification and analysis

• Survey design and administration

Knowledge domain expertise

• Social and environmental risks and impacts in sand and silicate supply chains

• Global environmental sustainability and governance

• The Environment-Development nexus

• Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services analysis, Conservation social science

• Sustainability indicators

• Science-Policy-Practice innovation

Languages

• English

• French

Levi is Civil Metallurgical Engineer and MSc in Industrial Engineering. Both studies from Universidad de Concepcion, Chile. When he was finalising his master thesis, he did an internship at the University of Queensland, where he worked at the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (CWiMI), from the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI). After that, he was hired by the Sustainable Minerals Institute, International Centre of Excellence, Chile (SMI-ICE-Chile), where he works mainly at giving solutions to the water problems associated with the mining industry.

Dr Vlado Vivoda is a leading expert in critical minerals, energy security, and the geopolitical dimensions of resource management. His work focuses on the intersection of sustainable energy transitions and strategic mineral supply chains, offering insights into both global policy and industry practices.

With over two decades of experience across academia, research, and consultancy, Dr. Vivoda has contributed significantly to understanding the role of critical minerals in global energy transitions. His research addresses topics such as:

• Geopolitics of critical minerals
• Sustainable mining practices
• Energy policy and security
• Strategic responses to global supply chain vulnerabilities

Dr Vivoda has published extensively in top-tier academic journals, contributed to major international reports, and advised government and private sector organizations on critical minerals and energy strategies. His interdisciplinary approach bridges academia, industry, and policy, making him a trusted advisor in the fields of energy security and sustainable development.

Dr. Eric O. Ansah is a postdoctoral research fellow at the W.H. Bryan Mining Geology Research Centre, Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland. He is currently researching sustainable solution that addresses both improved metal extraction and the potential to improve mine closure outcomes. Eric has expertise in Geochemistry and Hydrometallurgy with proven track record in developing innovative heap leaching technology for sustainable metal extraction and mine waste reclamation as part of the BHP’s Think & Act Differently (TAD) Essential Minerals Cohort. The protonated brine lixiviant technology was developed as part of his PhD studies into coupled chalcopyrite dissolution with reprecipitation during copper heap leaching at the University of Melbourne.He has worked in metallurgical and geochemical research, plant operations, translation of research to industrial start-up and technology development. Some of his projects and studies involved copper, gold, silver, cobalt, uranium, and REE.

Fitsum is an economist and social scientist focused on sustainable human development effects of economic activities including those related to extractive resources, infrastructure, and industrial development. He is internationally recognised for his work on the potential for resource-rich countries to utilise the inter-sectoral linkages with the extractive sector for economic transformation, and the role of policy makers and industry actors in achieving it. He is particularly passionate about harmonizing the interplay between state intervention and market dynamics, and optimizing the opportunities related to the interface between extractive minerals and the transition to clean energy for harnessing sustainable energy solutions.

Having started his career in economics and finance in government and banking sector, Fitsum applied his development economics and political science training in his role as researcher with the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at SMI between 2011 and 2016. In this role, he conducted applied research on fiscal and non-fiscal contribution of large-scale mining, impact of extractives on political settlements and conflict, mining and sub-regional development, engaging the private sector for inclusive extractive industries, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and formalisation efforts, extractive industries transparency and governance, social license in technology design, resettlement and livelihoods, and social aspects of mine closure. He has also delivered capacity building programs to practitioners, policy makers and key stakeholder groups from several countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Topics included connecting mining to human development outcomes, managing the social and environmental impacts of mining, community research methods, and resource governance.

Fitsum then took the role of Senior Researcher with the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London from 2016 to 2019. In this role, he led ASM action dialogue programmes, overseeing research to support the national dialogues in Tanzania, Ghana and Madagascar. He also led and conducted a series of research activities to inform decisions by more than 60 member countries of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (IGF).

More recently, Fitsum worked as an independent senior research consultant; and Senior Social Specialist for GHD in Australia. In addition to applied and academic research and capacity building experience, he has delivered presentations and guest speaking in numerous global conferences and workshops.

Claire is an international expert in mine water and environmental management who has applied her academic and technical knowledge to influence the mining industry’s environmental performance. She has held several positions in research and consulting, and worked with mining companies in Australia, Africa, Chile and Canada to address issues related to water and sustainable development, documenting and implementing best practices. She gained extensive experience in the mining sector at Anglo American from 2011 to 2018, where she provided technical expertise on all topics related to environmental and water management, in Australia and Canada. She has led new approaches to improve planning for mine closure, including a review of closure plans for De Beers operations in Canada.

In her current role, she seeks to promote environmental excellence throughout the mining cycle, based on capacity building and targeted research programs on water and environmental management, integrated closure planning and beneficial post mining land uses. Claire is part of the newly formed Leading for High Reliability Centre at the University of Queensland, a collaboration between the Sustainable Minerals Institute, the School of Psychology and the Andrew N. Liveris Academy for Innovation and Leadership.

Professor Daniel Franks is Director of the Global Centre for Mineral Security at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute and is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. Professor Franks is known internationally for his work on the interconnections between minerals, materials and sustainable development, with a particular focus on the role of minerals in poverty reduction. He has introduced a number of key concepts in development studies including ‘mineral poverty’, ‘mineral security,’ and ‘development minerals;’ and has worked with a wide range of public and private sector partners to implement breakthrough sustainability innovations, such as OreSand to drastically reduce mine waste, and ‘social impact management plans,’ a regulatory tool now adopted throughout the world.

He is the author of more than 160 publications, including 37 publications for the United Nations. His research has appeared in journals such as Nature Sustainability and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and is available in 11 languages. He is an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Minerals Policy & Economics, as well as Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal and has field experience at more than 100 mining and energy sites and 40 countries.

Juliana is a Research Fellow at The University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals Institute, whose interdisciplinary research is dedicated to enhancing the sustainability and circularity of mineral resources supply through innovation. Juliana's current work focuses on developing sustainable, circular solutions, such as ore-sand co-production, to address the global sustainability challenges associated with sand supply and conventional mineral waste management.

With a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Universidad del Valle in Colombia and a Master of Science and a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Juliana's academic background includes a strong emphasis on extractive metallurgy and Life Cycle Assessment approaches for sustainability in mineral resources supply.

Her work experience includes co-leading applied research projects in collaboration with the mining industry in Brazil, Europe, and Australia. During her graduate studies, Juliana worked as a part-time Research Assistant in Brazil and later as a full-time Research Assistant at Imperial College London on the Horizon 2020 IMPaCT project from 2019 to 2020. She remains affiliated with the institution as an Honorary Research Associate.

Prof. Saleem Ali served as the Director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM) from 2012 to 2014 and is currently Blue and Gold Distinguished Professor of Energy and the Environment at the University of Delaware (USA). He retains an affiliate research professorship at UQ and has also held the Chair in Sustainable Resource Development at UQ's Sustainable Minerals Institute. As an environmental planner, his research and practice is highly interdisciplinary and aims to inform social management with rigorous science.

Former Professional Experience

Prof. Ali was a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources from 2002 to 2012 and the founding Director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security at UVM's James Jeffords Center for Policy Research. He was also on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and the visiting faculty for the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica).

Before embarking on an academic career, Prof. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric (based at GE headquarters in Fairfield, CT, and at silicone resin manufacturing sites in New York). He has served as a consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Health Canada. He has also been an Associate at the Boston-based consulting firm Industrial Economics Inc. Some of his pro bono projects include a mining impact prospectus for the Crowe Tribe of Montana and research assistance to Cultural Survival (an indigenous rights NGO).

Past Research

Prof. Ali's primary research interests have been in the causes and consequences of environmental conflicts in the research sector, and the process of using ecological factors to promote peace. Some of Prof. Ali’s former research appointments include a visiting fellowship at the Brookings Institution's research center in Doha, Qatar; a Public Policy Fellowship at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, a Baker Foundation Research Fellowship at Harvard Business School and a parliamentary internship at the U.K. House of Commons. Dr Ali has teaching experience in courses on environmental planning, conflict resolution, industrial ecology, research methods and technical writing.

Publications

Prof. Ali’s books include the Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale University Press, 2010) which received a cover endorsement from Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus for providing a "welcome link between environmental behaviour and poverty alleviation." Among his earlier works is the acclaimed comparative case-based research book Mining, the Environment and Indigenous Development Conflicts (University of Arizona Press). Prof. Ali has served as an editor in many publications including Earth Matters: Indigenous Peoples, The Extractive Industries and Corporate Social Responsibility (edited with Ciaran O'Fairchellaegh) and the widely acclaimed volume Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution (MIT Press, September, 2007), which has received cover endorsements from environmental scientists E.O. Wilson, George Schaller and UNEP executive director Achim Steiner, and a foreword by IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefevre. He has also published in a wide range of peer-reveiwed journals including Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Resources Policy and Journal of Cleaner Production. A full list of publications can be found in the publication interface of thsi page or in Google Scholar.

Awards and Recognition

The World Economic Forum chose Prof. Ali as a "Young Global Leader" in 2011. He has also been selected by the National Geographic Society as an "Emerging Explorer" and was profiled in "Forbes magazine" in September, 2009 in an article titled "The Alchemist."

Other Interests and positions

Prof. Ali is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and the IUCN Taskforce on Transboundary Conservation. He is also a professional mediator and has conducted workshops on consensus-building for private and public interests. He has assisted in the peer review process for research publications with the World Bank, the International Institute for Sustainable Development, The Woodrow Wilson Center, the Journal of Environmental Management, the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, the Natural Resources Forum and Yale University Press.

Prof. Ali is involved in numerous non-profit organizations to promote environmental peace-building. He currently serves on the board of The DMZ Forum for Peace and Nature Conservation and International Peace Park Expeditions in the United States and on the board of governors for LEAD-Pakistan. He has also been involved in promoting environmental education in madrassahs (Islamic religious schools) and using techniques from environmental planning to study the rise of these institutions in his ethnic homeland, Pakistan. This prompted Prof. Ali to publish a sole-authored book in January 2009 titled Islam and Education: Conflict and Conformity in Pakistan's Madrassahs (Oxford University Press)

Professor Ali received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an M.E.S. in environmental law and policy from Yale University, and his Bachelors in Chemistry from Tufts University (summa cum laude).

Malcolm has applied fundamental comminution research to design and process improvement on over 70 mines worldwide during 40 years at Mintek, UCT, Professor of comminution at the JKMRC in Australia, and through private research companies. His work is published in over 240 papers and has been presented in as many conferences worldwide. Malcolm collaborates extensively, with close compatriots on 5 continents forming the Global Comminution Collaborative (GCC) – providing an expert research and consulting base covering the full comminution process chain. Malcolm provides on-site experiential training and site reviews to empower mine staff to upgrade the productivity and their skills. This is supplemented with formal training workshops on liner design, comminution and Advanced Mine to Mill. Malcolm’s research vision is of integrated total process simulation as a tool for innovation – linking geology, mining, energy and size reduction, gangue rejection and recovery into flexible process design and process optimisation.

Malcolm supervises research students and runs three companies dedicated to advancing cutting edge technology into the mining industry. These focus around operation-relevant training; advanced mill liner design using DEM modelling; mechanistic mill modelling; introducing the latest tools into daily process control; operationalising advanced mine-to-mill implementation; and development of step-change reduction in comminution energy.

Dr Ngoc N. Nguyen is an associate lecturer and an ARC DECRA Fellow at School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia. He was awarded an Australia Award Scholarship by the Australian Government for studying at UQ and attained a PhD in Chemical Engineering at UQ in 2018. After completing his PhD, he was awarded a renowned Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Fellowship by the AvH Foundation (the German Government) and worked as an AvH fellow at the Department of Physics at Interfaces, Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Germany) for three years (2019-2021). Dr Nguyen used to work as a visiting scholar to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in USA and a lecturer at Hanoi University of Science and Technology in Vietnam. He recently secured a prestigious ARC DECRA (Discovery Early-Career Researcher Award) granted by the Australian Research Council (ARC). He is also an associate investigator within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Eco-enabling Beneficiation of Minerals.

His research strives for creating cutting-edge knowledge and innovations in three inter-related pillars of the low-carbon economy:

(1) sustainable energy,

(2) natural resources including critical metals,

(3) innovative approaches for tackling environmental issues such as CO2 emissions and mine waste.

He is working concurrently in these pillars. In particular, he is leading an ARC DECRA project about unconventional energy storage by locking fuel gases (e.g., hydrogen, methane) in the solid lattice of water, taking the intrinsic advantages of water as the cheapest, safest and most sustainable feedstock on Earth. Besides, he his working actively in eco-efficient extraction and separation of valuable resources from the Earth's crust toward a sustainable mineral processing industry for supplying sufficient commodities (e.g., metals) for the energy transition. In addition, Dr Nguyen has enduring interest in creating innovations for tackling the pressing environment problems such as CO2 emissions, with special interest in carbon capture and storage and utilisation, as well as addressing the mine waste in the mineral processing industry and the recylcing of critical metal-containing waste.

Wenran Cao is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Water in the Minerals Industry (CWiMI) in the Sustainable Minerals Institute. With a track record of successfully delivering short- and long-term research/industry projects, he has developed expertise in conducting field investigation, in-situ measurements, and soil/water sampling, as well as collecting, analysing, and interpreting experimental data to produce insightful reports. He also specialises in developing theoretical and numerical models of physical and geochemical coupling to tackle water-related challenges, as well as conceptualising and implementing groundwater monitoring systems with remote access.

Pascal's research interests are diversified over various aspects of the Earth system, including geology, geomorphology, climate, soil and anthropogenic modifications in the context of spatial data analysis and interpretation.

Pascal holds a BSc in Geography from the University of Hamburg (Germany), a MSc in Earth Sciences from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and a PhD from the Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia). His PhD research on multi-method sediment provenance analysis focussed on the integration of U-Pb thermo- and geochronometer with novel techniques in image analysis and dimension reduction methods. The project was in cooperation with the Geological Survey of Queensland (DoR, GSQ) and the Geological Survey of New South Wales (GSNSW).

Over the last 10 years Pascal has worked with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the context of teaching, academic research and for industry applications. He is proficient on a variety of GIS software platforms including ArcMap, ArcGIS Pro, QGIS and SAGA.

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.

I am a Research Fellow in the School of Economics and the Sustainable Minerals Institute, where I am currently collaborating with the Resourcing Decarbonisation Program and the Global Centre for Mineral Security. I obtained my PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), where I was recently a Graduate Visiting Research Fellow.

Maureen Hassall is Professor and Director of the Sustainable Minerals Institute's Industrial Safety and Health Centre at the University of Queensland. Her expertises crosses the fields of industrial risk management, safety engineering and human factors. Maureen works collaboratively with industry professionals to develop better human-centred risk management and safety engineering approaches that improve companies’ operational performance and competitiveness. Maureen also develops and delivers process safety, systems safety engineering, risk management and human factors training, education and expert advice to students and to industry. Her industry-focused research is motivated by 18 years of industry experience working in a number of different countries and in a variety of roles including specialist engineering, line management, organisational change and business performance improvement roles.

Robynne has a background in academia and more recently consulting. She started off her career at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa where she held a lecturing position in the Civil Engineering Department. During this time she was involved in research projects including ecohydrology, estuarine and coastal modelling. Robynne has spent the last 5 years in consulting, where she worked as a water resources engineer on a wide array of projects including urban and industrial drainage, creek diversions, water management, erosion and sediment control, mine closure and rehabilitation, green urban development and estuarine modelling. Robynne has a Bsc in Agricultural/Bioresources Engineering, a Msc in Environmental Engineering and a PhD in Engineering from UKZN.

Vigya is a Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at The University of Queensland, Australia

Vigya has degrees in engineering and social science, and she applies this interdisciplinary training to research complex social, institutional and economic aspects of the modern energy and mining sectors globally. Specifically, her interest is in understanding how the presence (or absence) of resources impacts development outcomes in host communities and regions. Her current research projects examine this complexity across the energy transition chain: from fossil fuel transition in coal-dependent regions to energy transition mineral mining and large-scale renewable energy production systems (including the role of Indigenous co-ownership).

Vigya also has a part-time appointment with the School of Chemical Engineering, where she coordinates a course on Humanitarian Engineering. She co-designed the course in 2020 and has been its primary instructor since. The course is offered to students from across UQ's Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology (EAIT).

She also advises several PhD students on energy transitions, just transitions, mine closure, and energy and development.

Vigya has an active service profile both within and outside UQ. She is the Deputy Chair of the EAIT Faculty Low and Negligible Risk (LNR) Ethics Committee. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Energy Research and Social Science and Sustainability Science. Since 2023, she has been a member of the UN Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), established at COP27. CEET is an Independent Advisory Council to the UN Secretary-General, to contribute to their goal to build a coalition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and to support the United Nations to achieve global decarbonisation goals by mid-century.

Prior to joining CSRM, she was based at the Energy Poverty Research Group (EPRG), an interdisciplinary pan-UQ initiative established to support positive social, environmental and health outcomes vital for sustainable and productive livelihoods in energy-impoverished communities globally.