The Organisers

Professor Graham 'Gus' Nathan is the founding Director of the Centre for Energy Technology at the University of Adelaide. He is also Director of the Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition (HILT) CRC.

Professor Nathan is an ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher, who specialises in thermal energy engineering in systems supplied by solar, geothermal and the combustion of fossil and bio-fuels. He also works with hydrogen, wind and wave power and his recent work has focused on novel approaches to integrate and optimise these different energy sources.

He has played a leading role in the development of six patented technologies. He was principal leader of the Chief Design Team for the award winning fuel and combustion system for the Sydney Olympic Relay Torch and was co-inventor of the patented combustor that was subsequently also used in the torch and stadium flame for the Athens Games.

Professor Nathan is Chair of the international steering committee and the local organising committee for HiTeMP-3.

Alan is the Senior Vice President of Worley’s Technology & Expert Solutions (TES) team for the Mining, Minerals and Metals sector. 

TES provides world class technical and innovative capabilities into Worley’s overall project delivery offering, leveraging our expertise in process and technology solutions to deliver outstanding and differentiated value into our client operations.

Alan has over 25 years’ experience in senior and executive roles in the resources and construction sectors, spanning project and program management, technology & research commercialisation, and major strategy and change management programs, including business improvement programs and organisational restructures.

A physicist and geophysicist by training, Alan has broad experience in senior management roles and a great depth of understanding of strategic issues affecting business performance.

Dr Alessio Scarsella is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, PhD in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration. He has been working in the mining, minerals, energy and chemical sectors for over 20 years. Dr Scarsella started his career in the power generation sector in Australia then progressed with Rio Tinto, Outotec and Metso, where he held global leadership positions resulting in the establishment of several operations around the world that have contributed significantly to the global production of Aluminum. Dr Scarsella now holds the position of Chief Operating Officer for the world’s largest Specialty Alumina Producer, Almatis, and oversees the global operations, of 8 sites worldwide.

Dr. Alexander Fleischanderl joined Primetals Technologies Austria in 1997 (before SiemensVAI 2005-2014 and VAI 1997-2004).

His current position is Technology Officer Upstream and Head of the Environmental Solutions Business at Primetals Technologies. He is a recognized expert for sustainable iron and steel production, covering waste gas cleaning, carbon footprint reduction, energy efficiency, by-product management, and waste water treatment.

Before assuming his current post, Alexander held various positions within the company in technical sales, project management, and R&D for the environmental, steelmaking and long rolling business. He holds about 100 single patents and was honored as Siemens Inventor of the year 2013.

Alexander started his career at Austrian Energy and Environment in Vienna as process engineer in the field of emission control and water treatment for waste incineration plants.
He completed his Ph.D. in process engineering in 1997 in the field of advanced gas cleaning for municipal waste incineration plants at the Technical University in Graz, Austria.
In 1994 he obtained his master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and Business Administration at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria.

Bassam Dally has more than 30 years’ experience in academia focusing on research and technology development of energy production and conversion. He has expertise in many related research topics including combustion, concentrated solar thermal, tidal power, mineral processing and hybridization. His current research is focused on developing cost-effective and innovative technologies that deliver carbon mitigation under the circular carbon economy approach. In particular, he is working on technology solutions to decarbonise heavy industries through flexible integration of alternative energy sources such as hydrogen and ammonia combustion, concentrated solar thermal and solar-combustion hybrids.

Bassam is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and a member of the Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC). He obtained his PhD in Combustion Science, from the University of Sydney in 1998 and in the same year he joined the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide, where he served as Deputy Head of School from 2001-2010 and Head of School from 2010-14. In Adelaide, he helped to establish the Centre for Energy Technology, and served as Deputy Director from 2009-2020. Prof Dally has contributed scholarly publications to many research fields including combustion science, aerodynamics, heat transfer, applied optics, computational fluid dynamics, and renewable energy including wind, solar and tidal wave.  He published more than 200 journal papers in leading international journals, collaborates widely with many researchers from around the world and have jointly attracted ~$39M in funding from ARENA (4 projects) and ~$5M from the ARC (11 research grants).

Brian has over 30 years’ experience in the iron ore mining and steelmaking industries, and possesses a unique combination of technical expertise, commercial acumen and industry insight. During this time his involvement has included:

• R&D, operation, commercialisation and marketing relating to ground-breaking new processing technology, including DRI / HBI and Direct Smelting (HIsmelt)
• Studying the feasibility of new iron ore mines and processing technology
• Sales & technical marketing for iron ore, working with customers in China (including a 2-year placement in Beijing), Japan, Korea, Taiwan, South-East Asia and India
• BF-BOF steelmaking operations

Brian works for Roy Hill, a 60 million tonnes per year producer of iron ore, which is majority owned by Hancock Prospecting (the largest privately owned company in Australia, and a Top 10 company by profits).  

Brian represents Roy Hill’s involvement as a Core Partner in the HILT CRC, and Chairs the Steering Committee which recommends research projects to the Board for approval.

Buhle Xakalashe holds a BEng degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria, which was funded through a Mintek bursary. He was seconded by Mintek to undertake an MSc Eng in Materials Technology with a specialisation in silicon and ferroalloy production at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). He is a member of the Technical Programme, and Diversity and Inclusion in the Minerals Industry (DIMI) committees of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM).

Buhle has over 15 years of research and development experience in the field of pyrometallurgy from the following local and global institutions: Mintek (South Africa), NTNU/SINTEF (Norway), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), KU Leuven (Belgium) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) (Greece). He has been involved in metallurgical projects covering a range of commodities including silicon for the solar industry, Ilmenite and vanadium bearing titanomagnetite smelting, FeMn production and smelting of secondary resources for the recovery of Al, Ti, Sc and REEs as well as conditioning of the mineral by-product for downstream application and value reclamation. He has industrial experience through a stint at TRONOX Namakwa Sands’ DC arc furnace operation for the production of high TiO₂ slag and pig iron. Furthermore, he has experience in hydrometallurgical processing through an acid mine drainage collaborative project with Wits University, and collaborative research undertakings with researchers from leading European universities on the utilisation of conditioned slags for recovery of valuable elements.

His publications to date, for which he has been a co-author, include over 25 peer-reviewed papers divided into conference proceedings presented at international conferences in South Africa and a number of countries in Europe, and journal papers published in leading international journals.

Buhle is currently a Chief Engineer in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek working as a technical consultant on strategic projects within the division. He is building a strong network in his field globally and wishes to contribute in the development of Africa.

Prof. Dr. Christian Sattler studied chemistry at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is Director of the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Institute of Future Fuels, and Professor for solar fuel production at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. He serves as Vice President of the Association Hydrogen Europe Research representing the European research institutions in the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership. He is the national representative to tasks of the IEA’s SolarPACES Implementing Agreement, and member of the ASME’s Clean Energy Technical Group.

Daniel is the Director of CSIRO’s Hydrogen Energy Future Science Platform, an initiative driving new science and technology development in support of the emerging Australian hydrogen industry. Prior to this role, Daniel led CSIRO’s thermal and electrochemical research programs, and he continues to play a senior role in CSIRO’s gasification RD&D activities, where he represents Australia in IEA programs focussed on bioenergy. He has a background in environmental and industrial chemistry and has worked on projects ranging from lab-scale to industrial-scale, in Australia and internationally.

Ellen B. Stechel is the Executive Director of the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy, Co-Director of ASU LightWorks®, Professor of Practice, School of Molecular Sciences; and Senior Futures Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University (ASU). With a Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Chicago, her career has afforded her opportunities to build and/or coordinate research programs at a national laboratory, industry, a U.S. government agency, and now in higher education; in both basic and applied research; policy and commercialization of emerging technologies; and in multi-disciplinary R&D strategy and management. Her current research focuses on materials and systems design for solar technologies for producing sustainable liquid hydrocarbons from carbon dioxide, hydrogen from advanced water splitting, clean water, renewable ammonia, and for thermochemical and chemical energy storage.

Dr Edgardo Coda Zabetta graduated in Energy Technology at Genoa University (Italy) in 1997.

He has a PhD in Combustion Chemistry from Åbo Akademi University (Finland) in 2002. Having joined Foster Wheeler as Research Specialist in 2006, he then continued as R&D manager in Combustion Chemistry and Materials and is now the director of R&D and Patents since 2014 in Foster Wheeler, which became AMEC Foster Wheeler, and ultimately Sumitomo SHI FW.

Geoff Brooks is the Joint Swinburne/CSIRO Professor for Sustainable Minerals Processing. He has been a Professor at Swinburne for 17 years and previously held academic positions at the University of Wollongong and McMaster University. Over his career he has worked with many major metallurgical companies, particularly in the steel industry, and published over 250 papers with his co-authors. He and his co-authors won numerous best paper awards from international societies, including awards from the TMS, ASM and IOM3.  Geoff was awarded the Bessemer Gold Medal from IOM3 in 2023 for his contribution to the international steel industry.

Jaquelin Cochran, Ph.D., directs the Grid Planning and Analysis Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where she has worked since 2009. The 100+ member Center leads cutting-edge analyses and develops tools and methodologies to support utilities and communities with envisioning, analyzing, and transitioning to a reliable, decarbonized future grid. Dr. Cochran recently led the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study and a portfolio of analyses about India’s power system. She also served on the National Academies of Sciences committee, “Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States.” Dr. Cochran serves on Duke Energy’s Integrated System and Operations Planning Advisory Council and the HiTeMP-4 Steering Committee. Before joining NREL, Dr. Cochran was an Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Management with KIMEP University in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years with the Polish Foundation for Energy Efficiency (FEWE) in Krakow. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the Energy & Resources Group at the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. in public policy/physics from Pomona College.

Jenny has over 20 years’ experience as an Engineer and Non-Executive Director, with expertise in decarbonisation and the energy transition. Jenny is currently the CEO of HILT CRC, a Co-Operative Research Centre that brings industry, universities and government organisations together to identify and de-risk decarbonisation pathways for Heavy Industry. Prior to this, Jenny worked across the energy industry at AEMO, the Australian Energy Market Operator where she focused on increasing renewable penetration in the Victorian transmission network, and at ExxonMobil, specialising in international joint venture and asset management. Jenny is also currently an Non-Executive Director at Gippsland Water.

Originally graduating from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) & Bachelor of Science, Jenny is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), a Fellow of the Engineers Australia, and has completed an Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School and postgraduate studies into Climate Change Policy at the Australian National University.

A/Prof John Pye is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. His areas of expertise include: energy generation, conversion and storage engineering; renewable power and energy systems engineering; process control and simulation; and mechanical engineering. 

A/Prof Pye has been a researcher with the Solar Thermal Group at ANU since 2006. In 2012, he was a visiting scholar at Sandia National Laboratories, National Solar Thermal Test Facility, Albuquerque, New Mexico. His research interests include: high-temperature solar-thermal energy systems; concentrating solar thermal power (CSP aka CST); energy systems modelling; free/open-source software for engineering; optics of non-imaging concentrators; solar receiver design; hybrid thermal energy systems; thermodynamic fluid property calculation; and biomass gasification in supercritical steam.

John is a highly regarded iron and steel industry professional with over 35 years of experience in applied technology and development and technical / operational leadership roles. Since 2022, he has been heading ZEN Energy’s Green Iron Initiative Project. Between 2008 and 2022, he was the Metallurgy Manager Ironmaking for OneSteel / Liberty at Whyalla.

John’s deep technical expertise has seen him work with BHP, OneSteel, Arrium, Liberty and now ZEN Energy. Commencing his career in 1988 with BHP as a Process Development Scientist in Ironmaking Technology, he steadily progressed, developing capabilities across the full ironmaking process and representing the industry at a global level.

He has been involved throughout his professional career with a wide range of integrated and alternate ironmaking processes and raw materials development, optimisation, and demonstration activities. These include heat and mass balance process modelling, sensor development and operator guidance systems implementation, energy / emissions / waste mitigation projects and asset life extension programs.  He had principal involvement in devising and implementing key changes to the ironmaking process for transitioning from hematite to magnetite feed into pellets, and has extensively evaluated alternate ironmaking / direct smelting processes.

With ZEN, John continues his work towards advancing of iron and steel sector decarbonisation initiatives and has been a strong industry advocate, from inception to approval, of the Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition (HILT) CRC.  He is an advisory board member of the University of Adelaide’s Centre for Energy Technology (CET) and Bureau of Steel Manufacturers of Australia representative on the Standards Australia Iron Ores and Direct Reduced Iron committee (MN-002).

Dr.Koji Saito, Senior Fellow, Research & Development, Nippon Steel Research Institute Corporation, holds M.S. and PhD degrees in Physical Chemistry from Nagoya Institute of Technology and Tohoku University, respectively.  His career on iron making technology including coal characterization using NMR, coking process research, and blast furnace technology started in Yawata works of Nippon Steel Corporation in 1984. Then, he worked for a national project to develop a new cokes process, called SCOPE21 process in Japan, after he stayed at RWTH-Aachen University in Germany, as a visiting researcher, in order to develop in-situ NMR imaging system in 1997.  He mainly clarified the mechanism of rapid heating effects using his original in-situ NMR imaging system in SCOPE21 projects. After this project, he started research management work as general manager of Iron making R&D division and also COURSE 50 projects as sub Project Leader. He was general manager in head of iron making technology division of Nippon Steel ＆ Sumitomo metal Corp. He was Project Leader of COURSE 50 until 2015. He has at least 120 papers and 95 patents. Now, he is project leader for “Innovative and Integrated High-Grade Steel Making Processes Coping with Inevitable Degradation of Iron Ore” (2019-2023 ; NEDO project). At the same moment he is one of the members of Science Council of Japan (SCJ) (2017-2028) and Chairman of the Japan Energy Society 2021-2023).

Lina Hockaday has 18 years of pyrometallurgical research experience in the non-ferrous industry. She joined Mintek in 2002 after obtaining her B. Chem.Eng. (Minerals Processing) and M.Sc. in Extractive Metallurgy at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. During 2002 to 2010 she worked in the commercial projects group on various projects including the recovery of precious metals in liquid iron and the smelting of ores to produce design specifications of an industrial ferrochrome DC arc furnace. From 2011 to late 2015 she took a break from work and had two delightful children, now aged 13 and 10. From 2015 till 2021, she has been involved in research of new technologies for titanium metal production, chlorination of titanium dioxides in a fluidized bed, and the applications of concentrating solar energy in mineral processing. In 2023 she obtained her PhD Mech Eng with the thesis entitled “Solar Thermal Treatment of Manganese Ores”. Dr Hockaday resigned from Mintek in June 2021 to move with her family to Perth, Australia. Since Oct 2022 she has been employed at Curtin University as a senior engineer and postdoctoral research fellow executing two HILT CRC projects involving the low-carbon upgrading of iron ores.

Margie Thomson is the Chief Executive Officer of the national peak body, the Cement Industry Federation, representing Australia’s cement manufacturing sector.

As an experienced Chief Executive and Non-Executive Director, Margie has high level skills in policy development, strategy, advocacy, communication, public relations, negotiation, business planning, R&D project development and implementation, financial planning, organisational development, and public speaking.

Margie has executive level experience across the Australian manufacturing and rural sectors, having represented a number of industry bodies at a state, federal and international level.

Margie holds post graduate qualifications in economics and agricultural economics and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Martin Schneider is Chief Executive of VDZ since 1 January 2000. He has a background in physics and started his career in the cement industry 1991 in the field of environment and sustainability. He was head of VDZ’s department of environmental technology, later he was assigned head of the department of cement chemistry. Being the head of VDZ for more than 20 years now he has further developed VDZ into a knowledge centre of the cement and concrete industry, providing services for the whole construction value chain. Martin not only heads VDZ with its 200 experts in Duesseldorf but also serves as a strategic advisor for many cement companies around the world.
In 2003 Martin was also assigned managing director of ECRA, the European Cement Re-search Academy. ECRA is a platform on which the European cement industry and its stake-holders supports, organises and undertakes research activities within the context of the production of cement and its application in concrete. Its main activities today are on carbon capture as well as future grinding technologies.

Peta has nearly a decade of experience working in public policy for climate and clean energy topics including for State and Federal Government. As a Director in DCCEEW she leads a team responsible for international clean energy collaboration, and represents government in international multilateral forums and organisations. She has a Bachelor of Science/Arts (climate science and policy) from the Australian National University, and Graduate Diplomas in Public Policy and Data Science & Analysis

Peter is a mechanical and environmental engineer with over 30 years experience assisting organisations to identify and capture the opportunities in the transition to a low carbon economy.

Throughout his career, Peter has gained perspectives from the corporate, consulting and government agency perspectives across a diverse range of sectors including the mining, manufacturing, property, transport and energy sectors in Australia and abroad. He brings these perspectives together to provide engineering and business insights to the challenges of rapid decarbonisation.

Most recently at ARENA, Peter has provided technical and strategic guidance to ARENA for decarbonisation projects in sectors as diverse as: alumina refining, iron & steel production, food and beverage manufacturing, and aquatic centres, amongst others.

Richard joined the South Australian Government in 2001 and since that time has worked across the energy, climate change and industry portfolios.

Since 2016 his mission has been to capture the economic growth and decarbonisation opportunities associated with South Australia’s clean energy transformation towards net 100% renewables, as well as sharing this story with the world.

Richard’s achievements include spearheading the development of South Australia’s inaugural Hydrogen Roadmap, Hydrogen Action Plan, Hydrogen Export Modelling Tool, overseeing the implementation of the Renewable Technology Fund and the development of the state’s Electric Vehicle Action Plan as well as co-leading the bid team to successfully attract the Australian International Renewable Energy Conference to Adelaide in April 2024.

In March 2023 Richard joined the Office of Hydrogen Power South Australia in the role of Director Industry Development.

Richard is passionate about opportunities to further grow and attract energy-intensive value-added industries to SA and export South Australia’s renewables to the world as low carbon products.

Since 2004, Sabine Mitter has been working for the Austrian Government in the field of energy and environmental research, technology and innovation.

Sabine is responsible for the national technology programme “IEA Research Cooperation” in the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. She is Austrian delegate in the IEA Committee for Energy Research and Technology, Chair of the IEA End-Use Working Party and Vice-Chair of the IEA Equality TCP.

Since 2018, when Austria joined Mission Innovation, Sabine has been serving as senior official and supporting the Net Zero Industries Mission. She oversees the energy research activities of the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund. Her thematic expertise is in solar thermal energy, heat pumps, energy efficiency, energy storage, industrial decarbonisation and gender equality.

Simon is currently the Regional Director of Hatch’s Technology Practice in Australasia. He has managed the engineering study and project delivery of large-scale pyrometallurgical facilities with a specific focus on smelting furnace design. His technical experience includes the thermal and mechanical design of furnace technology systems using a wide variety of analysis techniques and design tools and has managed the design, construction, commissioning and operation of various high temperature processing plants. Simon completed his engineering degree at The University of Adelaide before joining Hatch in Australia and has held various positions within the company based in Canada, South Africa and New Caledonia.

Joined EGA in 2016 to create the Bauxite Residue R&D group.

Responsible for developing products and applications for EGA’s bauxite residue waste.

Wayne has over 25 years’ experience in general management and senior executive roles within multiple industries across Australia and overseas, including iron and steel, large scale manufacturing and automotive. In his current role he is responsible for planning and business development in the GFG’s Industrial Planning Office. This includes oversight of the Australian and global program management offices, along with industry stakeholder engagement and strategic projects in Australia.