Large areas of land around the world, including Western Australia, are drastically disturbed by mining and industry. Sustainable rehabilitation requires that soil be recreated from piles of waste so that new ecosystems are functionally stable. Real soil is full of life and to achieve this state may require as much chemistry as is involved in the process that produced the waste initially. Paradoxically, organic amendments, besides being more costly, may be less environmentally sound than the use of synthetic chemicals to build soil fertility.
Professor Martin Fey joined the School of Earth and Environment in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UWA in January, 2009. His position as Professorial Fellow in Mineral Processing Wastes is funded jointly by Alcoa World Alumina Australia and BHP Billiton Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd. The main focus of his research is on the rehabilitation and re-use of residues from bauxite refining. Previously Martin was Professor and Head of the Dept of Soil Science at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Before that he had held academic appointments in environmental geochemistry at the University of Cape Town and in Soil Science at the University of Natal, where he obtained his PhD in 1976. He has conducted postdoctoral research in soil mineralogy at Texas A&M University and spent a sabbatical doing both teaching and research at the University of Georgia, USA in 1985. He has published and supervised postgraduate research in a range of fields including soil chemistry, clay mineralogy, plant nutrition, soil classification, soil genesis and ecology.
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