Denys Villa Gomez

Denys Villa Gomez holds a joint appointment at the University of Queensland as Senior Lecturer at the School of Civil Engineering and as a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. She obtained her PhD at the world-leading institute’s IHE-Delft/Wageningen University, The Netherlands in 2013. She applies advanced methodologies such as omics approaches and micro spectral tools to develop biotechnology processes that reduce carbon emissions and recover resources from mine waste and wastewater. She is the leader of the key area “Synbio Mining” within the recently created UQ Biosustainability Hub and chief investigator at the ARC Training Centre in Critical Resources for the Future. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers cited more than 500 times, and has served as editor and reviewer for leading journals and advisory roles in industry and scientific committees (e.g. International Mine Water Association). Critical metals recovery; Bioprocesses enhancing circular economy; Pollution prevention and control

[2026] Bioremediation of acid and metalliferous drainage using sulfate-reducing bacteria [2026] Fungal tolerance to bauxite residue as a pathway to circular metal recovery [2026] Selective protein-based separation of critical elements from mine wastes [2026] From waste to resource: reframing end‐of‐life materials for a circular future: within MSE symposium sustainable reprocessing of end‐of‐life materials and side streams [2026] The suitability of fermenter liquor from MSW as an electron donor for hypersaline sulfate reduction [2025] Editorial: Biotechnologies to recover critical metals [2025] Improving fungal strain performance for red mud bioleaching through adaptive laboratory evolution. [2025] Evaluation of red mud tolerance of bacteria isolated from Australian bauxite residue [2025] B