Professor Gordon Southam

Professor Gordon Southam is the Vale-UQ Chair in Geomicrobiology in the School of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Queensland. Prior to this appointment in 2012, Gordon was Director of the Environmental Sciences program and a Canada Research Chair in Geomicrobiology at Western University Canada. The geomicrobiology laboratory at UQ focuses on bacteria-mineral interactions in field settings and in laboratory experiments. This collaborative group contributes to our fundamental understanding of mineral dissolution and mineral precipitation reactions catalysed by life in extreme environments, including: acid mine drainage / bioleaching systems, the bioremediation of metals via sulphate reduction; carbon biogeochemistry-carbon sequestration, the biogeochemical cycling of gold, and mine site remediation.