Gordon Southam received his BSc (Honours 1986) and PhD in Microbiology (1990) from the University of Guelph, Ontario. Following his post-doctoral work which was funded by Western Mining Corp and the Ontario Geological Survey, Gordon accepted a faculty position at Northern Arizona University. He joined the University of Western Ontario as a Canada Research Chair in Geomicrobiology (2001-2011), and was the Director of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability (2010-2012). In 2012, Gordon joined the School of Earth Sciences at The University of Queensland as the Vale-UQ Geomicrobiology Chair.

Gordon is an interdisciplinary researcher who has crossed traditional boundaries between biological and geological sciences. His research takes fundamental geomicrobiology and translates this into applied settings, primarily in the minerals industry. Gordon’s landmark contributions have been in understanding the fundamental roles that bacteria play in catalysing the formation of economically significant geological and mineral phenomena, such as the formation of placer gold, their role in mineral carbonation (CO2 sequestration), coal seam gas formation, bioleaching of metal sulphides-supergene systems and bioremediation of mine sites. Gordon has published 184 articles in 81 different peer reviewed journals across microbiology, geoscience, physics and engineering disciplines.

This webinar aims to convey the catalytic power and diversity of the microbial biosphere in transforming Earth surface environments; highlighting the broader, as yet unrealised potential to develop biotechnological processes for the mining industry.

About JKMRC Friday Seminars 2020

Welcome to the 2020 Series of the JKMRC Friday Seminars.  The list of presentations will aim to cover a range of topics related to the minerals sector from decision making in exploration, new mineral processing technologies, social licence to operate and mine closure.

Due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, all JKMRC Friday Seminars will be presented as webinars only.

If you wish to watch past webinars you can access the videos on the SMI website https://smi.uq.edu.au/webinars

Previous seminars have been uploaded to YouTube via the following link: https://www.youtube.com/user/smiuq