Our people

Associate Professor Mohan Yellishetty has undertaken over two decades of high-quality research work and contributed significantly to the mining engineering discipline. He has published widely in reputed high impact journals. He has been recognised as one of the leading experts in sustainable mineral resources.

His disciplined research focuses on mine rehabilitation and closure; sustainability frameworks/tools and their application to mining industry; industrial ecology; life cycle thinking; substance flow and material flow analysis; critical and strategic mineral supply chains and assessment and Resources and environmental geotechnical engineering.

Professor Ha Hong Bui (ARC Future Fellow) is a world-leading expert in the areas of computational geomechanics and material modelling with particular focus on bridging scales in modelling large deformation and failure of geomaterials. Leading the Monash Computational Geomechanics (MCG) Lab, his research focuses on advancing theoretical solutions to pursue emerging challenges in geomechanics, while also providing effective tools for practical applications and risk assessments.

His current research is funded by two ARC Discovery Projects on soil liquefaction and internal soil erosions, one ARC Linkage Project on cave mining and one ARC Future Fellowship on predicting granular failures across scales (e.g., slope/embankment failures, landslides, tailings dam failures).

Professor Malek Bouazizi is one of the world's leading experts in environmental engineering and environmental protection. His research work has informed and influenced regulations and regulators in Australia and overseas. He has instigated new design guidelines that have generated a paradigm shift in the design of waste containment facilities in waste, oil and gas, and mining industries that are now implemented in local guidelines and internationally, to protect the environment better and safer.

Professor Bouazizi has established a world-renowned research group on Environmental Engineering and world-class research facilities funded through competitive and industry grants to address the challenges brought about by a changing world. Professor Bouazizi fundamental and applied research work has been recognised by numerous international awards.

Professor Joel Brugger obtained his PhD at the University of Basel, Switzerland in 1996, for his work on the geochemistry and mineralogy of metamorphosed syn-genetic exhalative manganese deposits.

In 2002 he joined the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide, and established the Minerals, Microbes and Solutions research group, dedicated to using state-of-the-art experimental techniques to study the transport and deposition of metals and mineral-microbe-fluid interaction in geological environments. In January 2014, Professor Brugger commenced as chair of Synchrotron Geosciences at Monash University.

Professor Jayantha Kodikara’s expertise is unsaturated soil mechanics, soil-climate interactions, buried pipelines and road pavements. In unsaturated soil mechanics involving soil-climate interactions, he has discovered the MPK framework that links the traditional compaction curve to unsaturated soil constitutive behaviour and soil environmental stabilisation and desiccation cracking that take place with wet/dry cycling after initial placement.

In buried pipelines, he has led over 15-million-dollar multinational projects on water pipelines and his work was recognised through 5 national and international awards including the B/HERT award in 2016 (www.criticalpipes.com). Specifically, he discovered the Leak Before Break (LBB) concept that is now commonly used by water utilities for pipe failure monitoring for failure prevention. Currently he is Director of SPARC Hub on Next Generation Smart Transport Pavements under ARC ITRH Scheme (www.sparchub.org.au).

Associate Professor Vanessa Wong’s research explores the spatial and temporal interactions between soils, sediments and water at a range of scales. She is interested in the role of soil-surface water-shallow groundwater processes ranging from the micron scale to the landscape scale in landscape function and seeks to understand how these biogeochemical processes occur in a range of environments.

She works closely with industry, government organisations (local, state and federal) and catchment management authorities to develop and apply findings from her research to improve land and water management strategies.