Skills
Higher education teaching
Academic advising
Laboratory experience
Quality management
Research
Teaching
Funding proposal writing
Book editing
Students supervision
Staff mentoring
Strategic planning
Presentation skills
Project management
Writing skills
About
Professor Elvis Fosso-Kankeu holds a doctoral degree in Bioprocessing from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, he is a Professor in at the University of Johannesburg. He is currently working on an innovative project for the extraction of values from complex minerals and the remediation of acid mine drainage while promoting circular economy; academically he has been very much involved with research as well as teaching in the fields of engineering and applied science. His research focuses on the development of sustainable processes (e.g. bio-based/microbial-based), the prediction of the dispersion of pollutants from mining and metallurgical areas into surface-water sources, and development of treatment methods to remediate the pollution. Working in collaboration with research institutes and companies nationally and internationally he has contributed enormously in the field of “mining and environment”. Major achievements include, among others, the registration of two patents: [1. The use of struvite in treating AMD (Ref: P87086ZA00), 2. Copper dissolution from chalcopyrite (Ref: P89251ZP00)], the publication of papers in nationally and internationally accredited journals and presentation at conferences all over the world. Recent conferences attended were organised by the International Mine Water Association (IMWA) in Australia (2012), USA (2013), China (2014), Chile (2015), Germany (2016), Russia (2019) and New Zealand (2022), where he also had the opportunity to be a member of the scientific committees and chaired sessions, and won the best paper in 2012 in Bunbury-Australia. He is also the conference co-chair of the International Conference on Advances in Science, Engineering, Technology and Waste Management, and co-editor of the conference proceedings books for the past seven years. His recent awards include: achievement of NRF-rating status; awarding of the prize for the best young researcher of the Faculty of Engineering in 2015 – his group was awarded the co-best group of the Faculty of Engineering in 2016 and 2017; and being awarded the NSTF Award (National Science and Technology Forum: largest science, engineering, technology and innovation awards in South Africa and are known as the “Science Oscars” of recent times) Engineering Research Capacity Development, in 2019; and being finalist in the same year for the TW Kambule-NSTF (National Science and Technology Forum) Award: Emerging Researcher and the NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award. In 2018 he was finalist for two national awards (National Science and Technology Forum), namely the TW Kambule-NSTF Awards: Emerging Researcher and the NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award. He was also the recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award (TEA) at the North-West University in 2019. In recognition of his expertise in the field, he is continuously invited by international peers to review manuscripts. He is currently reviewing for more than 38 internationally accredited journals, among which Chemical Engineering Journal, Carbohydrate Polymer, Minerals Engineering, Journal of Environmental Management, RSC Advances, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research Journal, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Water Research, World Journal of Microbiology, Water Air Soil Pollution, Waste Management Research, RCI Springer, Toxicology Research, Open Geosciences, Journal of Polymers and the Environment, ESPR Springer, ACS Omega, International Journal of Biological Macromolecules and Journal of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. He has been serving as reviewer and member of panels at the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, the Water Research Commission (WRC) of South Africa, the African Academy of Sciences (AAS; based in Kenya) and The Royal Society (Based in England) for rating of researchers, funding applications and awarding of scholarships. He has also been serving as external reviewer of more than 30 theses from various universities. At several occasions, he has been member of the scientific committee for national and international conferences. He is the Guess Editor for the Journal of Minerals and the Journal of Water. He is equally a member of scientific bodies such as the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), Water Institute of Southern Africa and the International Mine Water Association (IMWA). He has published around 251 papers, including conference proceedings, journal articles, book chapters (31) and books (8); more than 100 of these were published in the last five years. He has been able to secure research funds from the NRF, WRC and Eskom to carry out research. He has supervised to completion six PhD students, seventeen masters students and more than sixty honours students. He was also the founder and head of the Water Pollution Monitoring and Remediation Initiatives Research Group (WPMRIRG) when at the North-West University, which has strong links with other research institutions around the country and abroad.