Speakers

Serkan Saydam received his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees in Mining Engineering from Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Türkiye, and completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He then worked at De Beers for three years as a Project Manager in Johannesburg, South Africa. Serkan joined the School of Mining Engineering at UNSW Sydney as a Senior Lecturer in 2006, and since 2017, he has been working as a Professor. He is currently Chair of Mining Engineering at the School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering at UNSW.

A key focus of his research is to address the minerals industry's current needs and future challenges. These are generally complex engineering problems as mining environments become more extreme and constraints are imposed due to increasing social, environmental, and health and safety standards. His research fields include space resources engineering, ground control, mining systems and mine design, mine Internet of Things, and technology integration and management. He has established research collaborations with more than 50 research organisations and universities globally.

Prof Saydam has authored more than 270 publications and graduated 31 PhD students. He has attracted more than $35 million in research grants and is known for founding and chairing the AusIMM’s International Future Mining Conference Series, as well as co-chairing AusIMM’s AusRock Conference Series and Off-Earth Mining Forums.

He currently serves as Director of the ARC Research Hub for Next Generation Mining Methods (NextGenMIN), leading multidisciplinary collaborations between academia, industry and government to drive innovation in sustainable mining. He is also a member of the ARC College of Experts, contributing to the strategic assessment of research proposals across Australia.

Professor Saydam has received multiple academic awards, including the 2020 UNSW Dean’s Award for Global Impact, the 2019 UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Postgraduate Research Supervision Award, and the 2017 Society of Mining Professors’ International Tim Shaw Innovation in Teaching Award.

Serkan is a Fellow of the AusIMM, President of the ISRM Commission on Planetary Rock Mechanics, Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) at UNSW, and the Deputy Secretary-General and Council Member of the SOMP (The Society of Mining Professors). He also served as President of the SOMP for 2023/2024.