The SIMMET group welcome two new members who have joined us in January this year (2024).
The first is Dr. Puja Hansdah, who is a new postdoc in the group on a Wits Centennial Fellowship from India. She will be working on cyanide recovery from mining effluents, a project in collaboration with Mintek. Dr Hansdah obtained her PhD degree in Mineral Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Dhanbad, India, in 2020. Her Ph.D was on the topic ” Enhancement of settling behaviour of coal fine tailing by flocculation”. From 2021 to 2023, she worked at various universities in India as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mining Engineering. Her research interests lie mainly in the field of Mineral Processing, Metal Extraction, Water and Wastewater treatment and Sustainable Mining.
We also have a short term visitor from Algeria, Hachemi Houari. Houari is a fourth-year PhD student in Materials Engineering at the University of Science and Technology Mohamed Boudiaf in Algeria. He will be working on photocatalytic destruction of organic and dye contaminants in effluents.
Dr Hansdah and Mr Houari bring experience and insights from different parts of the world which will without a doubt enrich our team and research perspective.