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Professor Ravi Naidu
Professor Ravi Naidu joined the University of South Australia in January
2003 as Professor and inaugural Director of the Centre for Environmental
Risk Assessment and Remediation. He has been involved with contaminants
research for over 20 years and has gained advanced leadership and management
experience in environmental sustainability throughout this period.
Professor Naidu was awarded his BSc degree (Chemistry-Mathematics) from the
University of the South Pacific in 1975.
The following year he was appointed Lecturer in Chemistry at the University
of the South Pacific and subsequently completed a joint MSc degree in soil
chemistry from the University of Aberdeen and the University of the South
Pacific. In 1985 he completed his doctoral studies at Massey University for
studies into lime-aluminium-phosphate interactions in soils.
From 1985 to 1989 he was Senior Lecturer in Chemistry and Dean of the School
of Pure and Applied Sciences at the University of the South Pacific.
Prior to commencing work at the University of South Australia, Professor
Naidu was employed with CSIRO Land and Water as a Chief Research Scientist,
Research Group Leader and Leader of the Remediation of Contaminated
Environments Program as well as co-ordinator of the Restoring Contaminated
Environments Component.
From 1992 to 1994 Professor Naidu led the sodic soils program for the CRC
for Soil and Land Management and was also program leader of the Soil
Contamination and Remediation Program in the CRC from 1995 to 1997.
In 1993 Professor Naidu changed the main focus of his research to
environmental contaminants. His research interests currently include the
fate and behaviour of metal and organic contaminants and innovative
techniques for cost effectively remediating contaminated sites.
Professor Naidu has co-authored 300 technical publications and co-edited 8
books in the field of soil and environmental sciences. In recognition of his
contribution to environmental research he was awarded the Gold Medal in
environmental science in 1998 by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and
elected to Fellow of Soil Science Society America in 2000. He is the Chair
of the Standards Australia Technical Committee on Sampling and Analyses of
Contaminated Soils, Chair of the Global Committee on Bioavailability and
Risk Assessment, Chair of the of the International Union of Soil Sciences’
Commission for Soil Degradation Control, Remediation and Reclamation, Member
of the Executive Committee, Environmental Geochemistry of Tropical Soils,
and sitting member of the Victorian EPA Contaminated Sites Auditor panel.
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