Rob is an associate professor at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, specialising in innovation and new technologies within the energy and resource sector. He also serves as a member of the United Nations Resources and Energy Expert Group and is a technical adviser to several resource sector technology start-up companies around the world. The world’s transition to green energy will require significant amounts of so-called “technology minerals”—including metals like lithium and cobalt, which are commonly found in rechargeable batteries, or the tellurium that is used to make solar cells—but the mining community is not currently on track to satisfy anywhere near the anticipated demand for many of these feedstock materials.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Rob will develop an integrative framework for the policy- and business-related aspects of applying blockchain technology to make supply networks for technology minerals “smart,” thereby helping to provide these inputs for green energy technologies.