Jennifer Broadhurst has 35 years research and development experience in the field of mineral’s beneficiation within various industry, consultancy and academic organisations. Since joining the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCT in July 2001, she has been involved in a number of research and capacity development activities relating to the environmental and other sustainability issues of relevance to the primary mineral resource sector. Jennifer is also currently actively involved in developing inter and trans-disciplinary research capacity and education programmes, and is co-convener of the unique trans-disciplinary and multi-institutional Masters of Philosophy programme specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, developed as part of the Education for Sustainable Development in Africa initiative under the auspices of the United Nations University. She is also involved in actively bringing together academics from different disciplines and faculties for workshops and initiating collaborative, cross-disciplinary post-graduate research projects with students from a range of disciplines, including the natural, engineering, social and economic sciences.

To date Jennifer has: supervised 16 masters and 28 honours-level graduates; published 3 book chapters, 19 accredited journal articles and 13 peer-reviews conference papers; presented/co-presented 73 papers at local and international conferences; written in excess of 100 technical reports. In 2017, Jennifer played a lead role in an international workshop on Operationalizing The SDGs in the Extractive Industries, hosted by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (21 Sept 2017), and was an invited session panel member at the Strategic Materials for a Low-Carbon Future: From Resource Scarcity to Availability conference, hosted by the Veolia Institute and the Oxford Martin School (Oxford, 2-3 November 2017). In 2018, she will be co-convening a session on Mining Water Policy and Stewardship in the Developing Context  at the Resources for the Future conference (Vancouver, 16-21 June 2018) and giving a key-note address at the CIM/UQAT Mines and the Environment conference (Rouyn-Noranda,17-20 July, 2018), focusing on the development of resource-efficient approaches for the management of sulfidic mine waste.

Current Positions

• Associate Professor: Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT
• Deputy Director: Minerals to Metals Initiative, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT
• Theme Leader (Maximising Value): Future Water Institute, UCT
• Co-convener: Master of Philosophy programme specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, UCT

Previous Positions

• Chief Research Officer: Minerals to Metals, UCT (2 years)
• Contractual Research Officer: Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT (14 years)
• Consulting process and environmental chemist: JLB consultancy (15 years)
• Principal Research Metallurgist: Billiton Pty Ltd (10 years)
• Scientist: Process Chemistry Division, Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa (4 years)

Jennifer’s research focuses primarily on the development of innovative and holistic approaches for mitigating the environmental and associated socio-economic impacts from the primary mineral extraction sector, and optimizing the efficient utilization of minerals, as well as other resources associated with their extraction (water, energy, land). Current research topics include: mine land rehabilitation and use-planning; mine dust characterisation and risk analysis; mine water accounting; mine-environment-community relationships and engagement; re-purposing and down-stream processing of gold and coal mine waste; recovery of value from acid mine drainage; development of tools and metrics for performance assessment of mineral resource systems; acid rock drainage prediction and mitigation; modelling minor-trace element deportment and environmental risk across mine-metal chains; opportunities, drivers and enablers for beneficiation of PGMs.

Broadhurst J.L. and Harrison S. Water as a catalyst for change: a shared benefit approach to water resource management. In: Caroline Digby, Dee Bradshaw, Hanri Mostert and Brian Chicksen (eds), Green Mining: Beyond the Myth, Juta Law (ISBN 978 1 48512 7055): 29-31, 2018

Amaral Filho, J.R., Weiler J., Broadhurst J.L., and Schneider I.A.H. The use of static and humidity cells tests to assess the effectiveness of coal waste desulfurization on acid rock drainage risks. Mine Water Environ, 36: 4329-435, 2017.

Munyongani, V., von Blottnitz, H. and Broadhurst, J.L. A life-cycle based review of sulfur dioxide abatement installations in the South African platinum group metal sector. Sustainability Science, Special feature: Sustainability Science for Meeting Africa’s Challenges. Available on line 19 August 2017.

Broadhurst J.L. Mine Waste: From Problem to Opportunity. In: Hanri Mostert, Cheri-Leigh Young & Dee Bradshaw (eds), Waste & Wealth: New Views on the By Products of Mining, Juta Law (ISBN 978 1 48512 010 0): 24-25, 2016.

Broadhurst J.L., Harrison S.T.L., Petersen J., Franzidis J-P and Bradshaw, D. A Research and Education Framework to Support the Development of a Sustainable and Socially Responsible Mining Industry in Africa. In: Devasahayan, Dowling & Mahaptra (eds), Sustainability in Minerals and Energy Sectors, Taylor & Francis (ISBN: 978-1-4987-3302-1), Chapter 29: 559-572, 2016.

Shahieda Adams has 20 years research and clinical experience in the field of occupational medicine within various industry, consultancy and academic organisations.

She has had a long association with the University of Cape Town, where she completed her undergraduate and postgraduate training in occupational Medicine. She is currently a jointly appointed Grade 2 Occupational Medicine specialist employed by the Western Cape Department of Health and UCT. She is the Chief consultant at the Occupational Medicine clinic at Groote Schuur hospital where a diagnostic and clinical service is provided to assist ex-mineworkers with occupational lung disease and also chairs the Review Committee for the Qhubeka Trust which is engaged in assessment and compensation of mineworkers with silicosis and silico-tuberculosis. Prior to this she has performed work for the Asbestos Relief Trust and has been involved in a number of research and capacity development activities relating to the health effects of mine dust and right to compensation for mineworkers. Shahieda is actively engaged in capacity development in her discipline and chairs the Division of Occupational Medicine in the Council for Public health Medicine in the College of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA). She was the Convenor of the 2018 Fellowship exams in occupational medicine run by the CMSA.

Her current teaching responsibilities is that of Convenor of the Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health and she is Asst-convener of the Masters of Medicine (Occupational Medicine). In addition she teaches on the Environmental Health Module (Masters in Public Health) at UCT and the Public Health and Environmental module of the MPhil Cancer Science at the University of Stellenbosch. Within the faculty she also teaches at undegraduate and postgraduate levels. Currently Shahieda is supervising : 2 masters and 3 PhD students and has graduated 17 Postgraduate Diplomas in Occupational Health ; published 5 book chapters, 12 accredited journal articles and 15 peer-reviewed conference papers; presented/co-presented at local and international conferences; written 20 technical reports. In 2018, Shahieda co-authored the position paper for the International Commission on Occupational health ”the ICOH Statement on Preventing TB among Health Workers” that was presented at the ICOH conference in May in Dublin.

Current Positions

• Senior Lecturer: Division of Occupational Medicine, UCT
• Clinical Director: Occupational Medicine, GSH/UCT
• Convenor: Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health, UCT
• Assistant convener: Master of Medicine programme specializing in Occupational Medicine, School of Public Health and Family Medicine , UCT

Previous Positions

• Occupational Medical Practitioner: City of Cape Town (3 years)
• Medical Advisor and Senior Manager: Qualsa@Work; Metropolitan Health Risk Management (2 years)
• Doctoral Research Fellow: Lung Infection and Immunity Unit and Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health Research (5 years)
• Registrarship in Occupational Medicine: Division of Occupational Medicine (4 years)
• Independent occupational health practitioner and consultant (4 years)
• Scientific Officer: Industrial Health Reasrch Group, UCT (2 years)

 

Shahieda’s research has focused mainly on the problem of occupational tuberculosis in high risks population such as health workers and the challenges and inefficiencies of compensation systems designed to mitigate the impact of occupational diseases. Efforts have been put into both research and engagement with regulatory agencies to improve screening strategies, policy formulation and compensation systems in an attempt to mitigate the poor occupational health outcomes related to occupational lung disease diagnoses. Current research topics include: prevention of occupational TB in Health workers, Immunodiagnostic tests as screening tools for latent TB infection, Epidemiology of TB in health workers, Failure of Compensation systems in mineworkers and health workers; development of strategies for dealing with impairment and disability assessment

Grobler L, Mehtar S, Dheda K, Adams S, Babatunde S, van der Walt M, Osman M. The epidemiology of tuberculosis in health care workers in South Africa: a systematic review. BMC Health Services Research (2016) 16:416 DOI 10.1186/s12913-016-1601-5

Adams S, Ehrlich R, Baatjies R, van Zyl-smit RN, Hartley QS, Dawson R and Dheda KD. Incidence of occupational latent tuberculosis infection in South African health care workers. European Respiratory Journal 2015. DOI: 10.1183/09031936.00138414

Ngajilo D, Adams S. Jeebhay MF. Occupational allergy and asthma in tobacco farmers: a review of literature. Current Allergy & Clinical Immunology. June 2018. Vol 31 (2): 2-9

Ehrlich R, Adams S, Manjra S, Mokoena T, Jeebhay MF. Fate of outstanding COIDA occupational disease claims following closure of the Western Cape Provincial Medical Advisory Panel in 2008 – an audit. Occ Health Southern Africa, 21(6);6-10, 2015

Adams S, Burdzik A, Jeebhay M. How to claim compensation for work-related injuries or diseases. In Mash B and Blitz J eds. South African Family Practice Manual. 3rd edition, Van Schaik Publishers, Pretoria, 2015,161:542-548. ISBN: 9780627031236

Adams S, Ehrlich R, Ismail N, Quail Z, Jeebhay MF. Occupational health challenges facing the Department of Health: Protecting employees against tuberculosis and caring for former mineworkers with occupational lung disease. In: Padarath A, English R, editors, South African Health view 2012/13. Durban: Health Systems Trust; 2013, 5:67-82 (ISBN 978-1-919839-73-8)

Jarand J, Shean K, O’ Donnell M, Loveday M, Kvasnovsky C, Van der Walt M, Adams S, Willcox P et al. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) among health care workers in South Africa. Tropical Medicine and International Health (2010). 15(10): 1179-1184.

Johanna is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town focusing on dust generated by mining activities and its impact on communities and the environment. Her background is in aeolian processes and mechanisms, with her PhD completed in Environmental and Geographical Sciences, focusing on natural dust emission from desert regions in Southern Africa. She has a broad range of experience starting in private industry where she worked for SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) in their minerals division laboratory and air quality monitoring section performing compliance testing for a variety of clients.

Her research career developed during her time at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University and at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria where she was involved in several research studies on soils and materials for road construction. She also wrote and implemented the ISO17025 quality system in the Built Environment lab at the CSIR. Johanna built on her research experience by pursuing her postgraduate studies at the University of Cape Town and completed her MPhil in 2013 during which she shifted her focus to aeolian mechanisms, processes and impacts. She has developed several successful collaborations during her time at UCT, including providing expertise on the influence of soils and aeolian processes on spatial vegetative patterning as part of a research team based in Biosciences, lecturing on soils in Landscape Architecture, and facilitating the Honour’s field trip in Geology.

Current Positions

• Postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town

Previous Positions

• Candidate researcher/technician, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (2 years)
• Research Laboratory Technician, Texas Transportation Institute (part of Texas A&M University system) (3 years)
• Mineral Services Technician and Chemical Trade Analyst, Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS) South Africa (5 years)

Johanna’s research interests have focused on aeolian sediment dynamics, the sources, mechanisms and controls of emission, as well as the impacts of the transport and deposition of wind-blown sediments on air quality, the environment and people. This has included assessing the methods used to study dust emission at different spatial and temporal scales and how these methods are connected from the use of satellite data at the landform-scale to electron microscopy at the grain-scale. Her current focus is on applying her aeolian expertise to the study of mine dust with emphasis on the monitoring and measurement, exposure and health effects, environmental impacts and mitigation strategies. Her research aims to advance knowledge and solutions suited to resource-limited developing countries.

von Holdt, J. R. C., Eckardt, F. D., Baddock, M. C. & Wiggs, G. F. S., 2019. Assessing landscape dust emission potential using combined ground-based measurements and remote sensing data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 124.

von Holdt, J.R. and Eckardt, F.D., 2018. Dust activity and surface sediment characteristics of the dustiest river in southern Africa: the Kuiseb River, Central Namib. South African Geographical Journal, 100(1), pp.104-121.

von Holdt, J.R., Eckardt, F.D. and Wiggs, G.F.S., 2017. Landsat identifies aeolian dust emission dynamics at the landform scale. Remote Sensing of Environment, 198, pp.229-243.

Cramer, M.D., von Holdt, J.R. and Midgley, J.J., 2019. Causes of landscape mega-ripples: The kommetjies of South Africa. Geoderma, 340, pp.25-37.

Cramer, M.D., von Holdt, J.R., Uys, V.M. and Midgley, J.J., 2017. The present and likely past climatic distribution of the termite Microhodotermes viator in relation to the distribution of heuweltjies. Journal of Arid Environments, 146, pp.35-43.

Cramer, M.D., Von Holdt, J., Khomo, L. and Midgley, J.J., 2016. Evidence for aeolian origins of heuweltjies from buried gravel layers. South African Journal of Science, 112(1-2), pp.01-10.

Eckardt, F.D., Livingstone, I., Seely, M. and Von Holdt, J., 2013. The surface geology and geomorphology around Gobabeb, Namib Desert, Namibia. Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography, 95(4), pp.271-284.