Associate Professor Anita Parbhakar-Fox

Associate Professor Anita Parbhakar-Fox is a Principal Research Fellow in Applied Geochemistry at the W.H. Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre within the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI) and leads the new Mine Waste Transformation through Characterisation (MIWATCH) group. Anita's research is focused on mine waste characterisation to improve mine planning and waste management practices where she has worked with mining industry, METS sector and government stakeholders. She has developed new tests and protocols for improving waste characterisation and is also involved in identifying remediation options for abandoned/ historical mine sites. Currently, Anita is leading government and industry funded projects characterising a range of mine waste materials across Australia to evaluate their economic potential with a focus on critical metal recovery. Previously, Anita was an undergraduate at Imperial College, London. She completed her PhD at CODES, UTAS and was a lecturer at UTAS (2012-2019) and joined the SMI, UQ in 2019. During her career has supervised 12 honours and 6 PhD candidates. Anita has participated in various STEM activities in Tasmania and Queensland and is regularly asked to deliver national and international keynotes and talks on the circular economy potential of mine waste.