Denys Villa Gomez

Dr. Denys Villa Gomez is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, and a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. With a PhD from IHE-Delft/Wageningen University (2013), she specializes in biotechnological processes for resource recovery from mine waste and wastewater, including omics approaches and microspectral tools.

• Academic Appointments
  • Senior Lecturer, School of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland
  • Research Fellow, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
• Research Themes
  • Critical metals recovery from mine waste
  • Synbio Mining (UQ Biosustainability Hub)
  • Bioprocesses for circular economy
  • Bioremediation of acid mine drainage
  • Wastewater valorization

Research Trends: Her publications focus on biogenic sulfide applications for metal recovery, synthetic biology in mining, and waste-to-resource conversions using microbial systems. Key technologies include sulfate-reducing bioreactors, microbial fuel cells, and peptide-based biosorption.

Supervision and Leadership: She has supervised multiple PhD candidates and served as Chief Investigator in the ARC Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future. Her work has influenced international standards for mine water treatment and metal recovery.