It is with great sadness that SMI staff and students learned of the passing of Frank Shi in December 2024.
Frank was a much-loved member of the staff at the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), having been part of the team for 30 years. He first came to Brisbane as a visiting academic from China before enrolling in his PhD a couple of years later. He went on to have an outstanding research career winning the CEEC medal in 2017 and was listed among the top 2% of scientists globally by Stanford University in 2020.
Early life
But Frank’s remarkable story began as a child growing up in post-civil war China, and his son Yikai recalls the challenges his father faced during his early years.
“Life wasn’t easy for dad, he was constantly malnourished, subsisting on porridge most days, and when he went to high school, he had a 2-hour walk rain, hail or shine,” Yikai says.
“Dad channelled these hardships into determination and believed anything was possible through discipline, hard work, and resilience - these beliefs shaped the man he became.
“In his younger years, his mind was always in motion. In fact, in primary school, he managed to construct his first radio from spare parts he found, and God knows where he found the knowledge to do so!”
One of Franks defining moments came in high school when he was selected out of the millions of students to meet the former president of China, Mao ZeDong in Beijing, an honour reserved only for the highest-achieving students.
As he grew older, Frank developed a keen interest in literature.
“Dad wrote two books of poetry under the pseudonym "Shī Ying," and with his interest in poetry came an interest in calligraphy, he developed his own writing style and even won second prize in a competition during his university years,” Yikai recalls.
But despite these talents, life had other plans for Frank and towards the end of high school, China began its ‘Great Leap Forward’ campaign as part of the Cultural Revolution.
“Where once dad might have pursued a career in literature, he was now assigned by the government to do labour in a mining town, and this is what eventually led to his career in mining and academia,” Yikai says.
“His love of writing never left, and while he worked at the mining town, he continued to write prolifically, often contributing articles to the State newspaper.
“It was through these writings that he first caught the eyes of my mother. She remembered thinking to herself, "He must be very smart to write so much!" That, of course, was the beginning of another story!”
Joining the JKMRC
Frank’s career in mining progressed and in 1988 he had the opportunity to travel to Australia as a visiting academic at the JKMRC. He embarked on his PhD at the Centre a couple of years later.
His supervisor Emeritus Professor Tim Napier-Munn remembers him well.
“As a mature-age student he was extraordinarily hard working and bright, although he suffered from the endearing delusion that the supervisor was always right, which gave me an easy ride but led us down some unproductive lines of enquiry from time to time because he was too polite to question my suggestions,” Tim recalls.
“Nevertheless, he survived my ministrations, and his PhD research on difficult aspects of grinding ores, based on data collected from several industrial plants, in the best JK traditions, was outstanding.”
Frank went on to have an extraordinarily successful research career at the JKMRC. Working initially in crushing and grinding, he developed new ore breakage characterisation techniques and grinding models which more accurately enabled the global mining industry to design its comminution circuits.
His achievements were recognised internationally, and his methods were adopted by major mining companies around the world.
Frank built a strong publication record and was widely cited. He reviewed over 100 papers for tier 1 Journals and many government proposals. He was promoted to Professor in 2017 and in addition to his role at JKMRC, he held 2 honorary professorial appointments with Chinese universities.
But despite these accolades Yikai believes his supervision of HDR students meant the most to him.
“He gave everything to his students, often staying up until 2 a.m. reviewing thesis drafts and offering guidance. Mum often joked that dad gave more of himself to his students than he did to his own family,” he laughs.
HVP
Frank’s later research focused on the breakage of rocks using high voltage pulse (HVP) technology.This was a speculative topic, but Frank reinvigorated interest in the technique and demonstrated how HVP could be used to pretreat ore to significantly reduce energy use in a mining operation.
In 2017 he and his colleagues Weiran Zuo and Emmy Manlapig, won the CEEC Medal for their paper on the topic. This is a prestigious annual award for the most outstanding published papers, articles or case studies profiling beneficial strategies for eco-efficient comminution and mineral processing.
The HVP team trained by Frank continues this work today, and they are now working with Uniquest to commercialise the technology.
Associate Professor Kym Runge who now leads JKMRC’s Separation Group (which includes HVP), remembers Frank as hard working, innovative and respectful.
“I feel very blessed that our paths crossed. Frank was a pleasure to work with, his door was always open, and he helped many students over the years. He will be greatly missed,” she said.
Senior Research Fellow Dr Christian Antonio said working with Frank on the HVP project was a highlight of his time at JKMRC.
“Frank was a role model and inspiration for many of his students and colleagues and contributed vastly to the JKMRC.”
Retirement
Frank officially retired in 2022 due to ill-health, but Yikai says he never stopped working.
“Instead, he doubled down, often staying up late into the night, driven by the thought that he still had 20 or 30 years of research left to do.
“During the two and a half years after his lung cancer diagnosis and his official retirement, dad published three more papers.
“He never saw limits. I will always remember seeing him at his desk on weekends, surrounded by papers, research notes, and a cup of tea. That desk is empty now. But I know it was his happy place,” Yikai says.
JKMRC Director Professor Mohsen Yahyaei said Frank’s contribution to mineral processing was significant.
“It was a great honour and pleasure working with Frank and I am sure the students he trained will continue his work and impact in the sector.”
Following Frank’s retirement, The University of Queensland’s Vice-Chancellor bestowed him the honorific title of Emeritus Professor in recognition of his contributions to UQ.
