Author Biographies

Dr Elizabeth O’Connell Chapman has been dedicated to the field of sustainable waste management since 2008. Her PhD focused on waste behaviours in the rural communities of Colorado, USA. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Recycle Colorado, a statewide non-profit that brings together disparate stakeholders who share a vision of creating a circular economy. Dr Chapman served as Chair of the Colorado Solid and Hazardous Waste Commission from 2016 to 2022. She is currently the Chair of the Advisory Board for the Producer Responsibility Program in Colorado. Over many years of working with disparate stakeholders, whether in education, non-profits, for-profit, or on various boards, Dr Chapman has demonstrated an aptitude for understanding people, meeting them where they are, and determining how we can help one another in our quest for a more sustainable human system that recognises the value in our waste stream.

Professor Davide Elmo is a Professor of Rock Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. He holds a BEng (Hons) in Engineering Geology from Portsmouth University (UK) and a PhD in Geomechanics from Exeter University (UK). He joined the NBK Institute of Mining Engineering at UBC in 2012. His research interests span various subjects, including engineering philosophy, the interaction between rock engineering design and environmental and sustainability issues, and the application of machine learning to disciplines, such as rock engineering and mining, which heavily rely on qualitative data.

Dr Taryn Fournie is a Sustainability Planner in the Sustainability Division of the District of Saanich, Canada. Her role encompasses conducting corporate and community greenhouse gas inventories for the entire municipality, establishing reduction targets, and leading both internal and external reporting. She supports the implementation and continuous management of energy efficiency, greenhouse gas reduction, waste reduction, and adaptation initiatives across municipal corporate and community operations. She holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Western Ontario. Her research focused on assessing the beneficial and harmful by-products formed and/or released during the smouldering treatment of sewage sludge. This involved evaluating opportunities for resource recovery and reuse, as well as assessing the treatment behaviour and effectiveness for harmful compounds, including dioxins, furans, and per- and polyfluorinated compounds.

Marine Hautsch is a sustainability analyst and cross-disciplinary researcher, specialising in the low-carbon energy transition and environmental impacts of supply chains for critical raw materials. She holds an MPhil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge, a BSc in Applied Economics, and an MSc in Geography. Her professional background spans research, international organisations, and the private sector. She currently leads the work on nickel and sustainability at Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, the leading price-reporting agency on critical minerals. She also supported initiatives at the United Nations promoting life cycle approaches and Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and contributed to an international research project on renewable energy projects in northern Kenya.

Rebecca Irwin is an Analytical Chemist at Simtars Mine Safety Technology and Research Centre. She specialises in gas monitoring for underground coal mines, including the Simtars CAMGAS gas chromatograph system. She has experience in on-site installation and operator training for this system, as well as facilitating gas simulations for emergency exercises. Rebecca is part of Simtars on-call team for remote support and emergency response related to mine gas monitoring systems. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.

Linda Kelson is the Senior Analytical Chemist for gas monitoring at Simtars Mine Safety Technology and Research Centre. She is responsible for supervising a team of gas chemists who specialise in gas monitoring for underground coal mines, including the Simtars CAMGAS gas chromatograph system. She frequently trains GC operators and has installed three gas chromatograph systems at sites in Australia and overseas. Linda has more than six years of experience in gas monitoring for underground coal mines and has been involved in emergency response activities for numerous spontaneous combustion events in Queensland and New South Wales since 2018.

Dr Gareth Kennedy has over 22 years of experience in both the coal and metalliferous mining industries. He has held roles in both the public and private sectors in Australia and the UK. He has particular expertise in mining safety technology, mining automation systems, underground communications, energy management systems, instrumentation, telemetry and managing large-scale projects. Gareth and his team are responsible for providing mine technical support services, including emergency response, mine gas monitoring systems and services, consulting, research, and development for the industry.

Dr Amichai Mitelman is an adjunct professor at the NBK Institute of Mining Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. He holds a PhD in tunnelling from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and his research interests include tunnelling engineering, sustainable civil engineering design, and environmental issues of underground construction.

Sean Muller has more than a decade of experience in the underground coal mining industry as a gas chemist, specialising in the analysis of underground coal mine atmospheres and spontaneous combustion indicators for mine safety. As part of Simtars emergency response team, he has provided gas analysis support at numerous mine fires and spontaneous combustion events at underground coal mines in Queensland, New South Wales, and internationally, including the Pike River disaster in 2010. Sean contributed to the Queensland Coal Mining Board of Inquiry in 2020. He is the Principal Scientist for gas monitoring and emergency response at Simtars Mine Safety Technology and Research Centre.

Aditi Ramola is the Technical Director at the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), where she manages international projects and partnerships with the UN, provides assistance to ISWA’s Working Groups and helps develop innovative global projects to further strengthen cooperation with ISWA’s partners and international organisations. In 2020, she co-founded Ambire Global, which is an environmental consulting firm based in India and Colombia. Her skills are particularly focused on solid waste management and environmental issues. Aditi holds a master’s degree in Environmental Technology and International Affairs from the Vienna University of Technology and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna. She has several years of experience in the private sector, including at Caterpillar Inc. before joining the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in the Climate Policy and Networks unit. Aditi is a past Chair of the ISWA Young Professionals Group and is also passionate about science education. She founded the Initiative on Education of the YPG. In 2016, she helped launch the regional ISWA YPG in India, which serves as a platform for knowledge exchange, networking and developing project ideas to bring sound waste management to the country.

Dr Tarek Rashwan is a Lecturer in Sustainability and the Smart Environment in the School of Engineering and Innovation at the Open University, with an Honorary Lectureship at University College London. He is currently researching various environmental engineering topics that support a low-carbon and circular economy, including assessing hydrogeological conditions for safe used nuclear fuel storage, large-scale hydrogen storage systems, and scaling up a novel thermochemical waste-to-energy technique based on smouldering combustion. These projects primarily focus on understanding heat and mass transfer dynamics in porous media systems via experimental, analytical, and numerical methods. He holds a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a specialisation in Environment and Sustainability from The University of Western Ontario, and he is a registered professional engineer in Ontario, Canada.

Dr Robert J. Reinhardt is a sustainable business and strategy consultant, circular economy expert, visiting lecturer and researcher with a track record of driving sustainable business model innovations in academia, businesses and international organisations through a science and evidence-based approach. He has been working on cross-sectoral (research) projects in the areas of sustainable and circular business models, life cycle and value chain analysis, circular economy and sustainable consumption and production.

Dr Felix Carl Schultz is the Deputy Head of the Center for Economics of Materials (CEM) at the Institute for Technologies and Economics of Lithium (ITEL) in Halle/S., Germany. He is also a postdoctoral researcher at the chair of economic ethics at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. His research focuses on circular economy, circular innovation, business ethics, and governance innovation, particularly for lithium and its by-products. He is a former top-management strategy consultant with international project experience in sustainability management, strategy development, business model innovation, top-line transformation, and process optimisation.

Professor Venkatesan M. Suresh is an ICSSR Senior Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Sciences, University of Madras, India. He previously served as Professor and Head of the Centre for Natural Hazards and Disaster Studies in the Department of Geography and Department of Education (Institute of Distance Education) at the University of Madras. Prior to this, he was a faculty member at the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Government of India (GOI), and Assistant Director at the Ministry of Surface Transport, GOI, New Delhi. Prof. Suresh obtained a BSc in Geology, Botany and Geography, an MSc in Applied Geography, and an MPhil and PhD in Environmental Sciences, all from the University of Madras. He has written several reference books and published in several international journals.

Dr Christine Switzer is a Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at the University of Strathclyde. Broadly, her research interests lie in the areas of contaminant fate, transport, and remediation of soils and other waste materials. She is a co-inventor of the patented smouldering remediation process that has been deployed successfully at contaminated sites worldwide. Her recent projects include opportunities to expand the applicability of smouldering to other materials, valorisation of waste materials, and biological restoration and engineering reuse of formerly contaminated soils. Her work often focuses on process chemistry, geochemistry, and, occasionally, biology. She holds a PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

Zachary Taylor is an Analytical Chemist at Simtars Mine Safety Technology and Research Centre. He has over three years of experience in installing gas chromatograph systems, training operators and facilitating gas simulation for emergency exercises. Zachary is part of Simtars on-call team for remote support and emergency response relating to mine gas monitoring systems. In 2021, he was involved in on-site support for a spontaneous combustion event at an underground operation that involved an extensive review of data.

Dr Terry Tudor has worked in the field of sustainability and innovation for nearly 20 years. This work has incorporated both research and consultancy to inform strategic decision-making. Initiatives have been undertaken in collaboration with colleagues globally, including in Italy, Brazil, Barbados, and Ghana. He holds a PhD in sustainable waste management from the University of Exeter (UK).

Dr Eleonora Widzyk-Capehart is the Principal Scientist at MSTRC at Simtars, leading the research team. She has over 30 years of generic and applied research experience in the coal and metalliferous mining industries in the USA, Australia, Chile, and Kazakhstan.

Vishwas Vidyaranya is the Managing Director of Ambire, a consulting firm based in Colombia, working in areas of sustainable finance and circular economy globally. Vishwas has extensive experience in sustainable finance and has participated in the development, implementation, and harmonisation of over 15 sustainable taxonomy projects globally, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Central America, the Common Framework of Latin America and the Caribbean, Vietnam, ASEAN, Singapore, Australia, the Common Ground Taxonomy (EU and China), Nepal, Australia, and Rwanda, among others. He has led projects on harmonisation and implementation of such standards for issuers, banks, insurance, and corporates, among others, and has been involved in the measurement of circularity for SLBs and green credits. Vishwas has also been involved in the design, operation, and structuring of waste management projects, especially related to bioenergy.

Shevaune Zeng is a Senior Engineer at the Mine Safety Technology Research Centre (MSTRC) at Simtars. She has two years of experience working in the resource mining industry. She manages a team responsible for the spontaneous combustion of coal, combustible dust characterisation and testing, and research projects. She holds a Master’s and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering.