Wits Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy ~1980

Wits University
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa


Chemical Engineering 1979

ChemEng 1979
Back Row: A Marini, J Hardy, JR Derbyshire, M Philip, B Cole, J Rodrigues, PJ Nofal
Middle Row: R Humphris, DF Stewart, L Weiss, C Mitchell, AP Field, EJ Steel, NS Martin
Front Row: Dr DF van der Merwe, Professor AW Bryson, Professor OB Volckman, Professor D Glasser (Head), Professor WF Harris, Mr DF Williams


Chemical Engineering 1980

ChemEng 1980
Back Row: J Kopinsky, AC Ferramosca, MJ Lazer, KM Sherman, T Gluck, CH Bijsterveld
Middle Row: MS Flower, KS Brooks, RJ King, M-L Potgieter, IA Cullum, DL Gale, RB Bailie
Front Row: Dr DF van der Merwe, Dr DJ Pickett, Mr DF Williams, Professor D Glasser, Professor OB Volckman, Professor WF Harris, Dr MH Moys
Absent: GT Anderson, S Anagnostopoulos, DJ Bailie, GJ Campbell, KJ Danielsen, JR Derbyshire, AP Field, M Gordon, AM Hearn, MD Heydenrych, G Iorio, RT Jones, GT Leven-Marcon, A Marini, NS Martin, BDR McIntosh, BL Morris, PJ Nofal, EJ Steel, DF Stewart, CP van der Merwe, D van der Wath, VT van Heerden, EGK Woods


Chemical Engineering 1981

ChemEng 1981
Back Row: D van der Wath, MD Heydenrych, JdeK Batty, CJ Jones, CM Stegehuis, JB Armstrong, GJ Campbell, M Gordon, CP van der Merwe, MP Oberholzer
Middle Row: E-A Klintworth, GW Else, NJ Chase, F Danninger, DG Newport, MM Orbach, MD Bentley, CH Bijsterveld, DE Hildebrandt, D Peterson, RT Jones (Class President)
Front Row: Mr DAF Williams, Professor AW Bryson, Professor OB Volckman, Professor D Glasser (Head), Professor WF Harris, Dr MH Moys


Chemical Engineering 1982

ChemEng 1982
Back Row: GKE Louw, AP Hamman, B Lurie, JP van der Vorst, DG Hart, RW Beardsworth, DM Rogans
Middle Row: RB Morris, A Charnock, SH Batzofin, TPC Young, DL Hofman, J Dienst, G Herder, M Iminitoff, H Fynes-Clinton
Front Row: Dr PJ van der Walt (Honorary Lecturer), Mr DAF Williams (Senior Lecturer), Professor AW Bryson, Professor D Glasser (Head of Department), Professor WF Harris, Professor A Orell, Dr MH Moys (Lecturer)
Inset: Dr B Verbaan


Chemical Engineering 1983

ChemEng 1983
Back Row: Robert Huberts, Ian Ralston, Bruce Young, Pieter Lamprecht, Howard Markham, John Cullum, Lionel Tehini, Adrian Viljoen, Peter Comninos
Third Row: Brett Cronje, Benjamin Coetzer, Gerbrandt Venter, Cavan Hill, Bruce McConnell, David Oberholzer, Antony Visconti, Michael Rex
Second Row: Christopher Ogilvie-Thompson, Phillip Duncan, Brian Rainier, Mark Mack, Clinton Boucher, Jonathon Kopel, Luigi Visentin, Frank Crundwell
Front Row: Dr Ehud Finkelstein (Senior Lecturer), Mr DAF Williams (Senior Lecturer), Professor AW Bryson, Professor D Glasser (Head of Department), Professor WF Harris, Dr B Verbaan (Senior Lecturer), Dr MH Moys (Lecturer)


Metallurgy 1980 (including postgraduates)

Metallurgy 1980
Back Row: HJ Brunger, A Minassian, JR Fraser, GS Dean, SM Pagani, D Nel
Fourth Row: X Kirigin, ML Coetzee, RD Tudhope, GJ Wurts, MW Johns, W Barrett, GCV Wade, M Reeves
Third Row: SAS Akers, DP Spencer, PV Raymond, E Roos, PRG Anderson, A Barnes, CJ Gross, D Wellbeloved, SJ Lennon, CS Kucukkaragos
Second Row: P Sesinye, D Mailula, J Ndengeza, C Motumi, AC Harris, A Raftopoulos, C Cronje, Mrs W Manye, J Matsaung
Front Row: Miss R Bruch, Mrs V Abery, Mr A Koursaris, Prof CE Mavrocordatos, Prof GG Garrett, Prof RP King, Prof FPA Robinson, Dr CWP Finn, Mrs S Bauer, Mrs G Duncan, Mrs T Itay


Metallurgy 1981

Metallurgy 1981
Back Row: B Ward, PA Dean, JJ Lourens, K Beard
Middle Row: R De Pretto, K Peacocke, D Nel, D Dahlmann, J Bannister, D Spottiswoode
Front Row: Dr SH Algie, Mr A Koursaris, Prof GG Garrett, Prof RP King, Dr CWP Finn, Dr AA Hejja, Dr JV Bee


Adrian Marini

Adrian works for Fluor.

E-mail: Adrian.Marini@fluor.com


Albert Minassian

Albert Minassian Albert Minassian trained as a metallurgist, and is now Vice President at JP Morgan Securities Ltd in London. (He joined the mining equities team in 2002.)


Bill Barrett

Bill Barrett

E-mail: WBarrett@xstrata.co.za


Brian Lurie

Brian Lurie was at Wits from 1978-1982.

E-mail: Brian.Lurie@sap.com


Bruce Bailie

Bruce Bailie is at Honeywell in the USA.


Bryce Ward

Bryce Ward apparently worked on a catalyst furnace in Houston, Texas.


Chris Ogilvie Thompson

Chris lives in Hampshire, England, and works for De Beers in the field of chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of diamonds.

Home Address: Vale House, Frensham Vale, Lower Bourne, Fernham, Surrey, UK
Phone (H): +44-1252-970-812
Phone (W): +44-1344-638-229
E-mail: cogilvie@debeersindustrial.com or ogilviethompson@btopenworld.com


Corrie van der Merwe

Corrie is working for Fluor Daniel in Calgary, Canada.


Dallas van der Wath

Dallas van der Wath is Manager, Paul Wurth International SA. He has two daughters (9 and 5 years in July 2002).

Work Address: Ground Floor, Block A, Libertas Office Park, 3 Libertas Road, Bryanston, 2055, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-706-7624
E-mail: macellum@worldonline.co.za


Dave Bentley

Dave is currently General Manager of Skorpion Zinc in Namibia. (He was previously Vice President Metallurgy in the Technical Group of Anglo Base Metals.)

Work Address: Skorpion Zinc, Rosh Pinah, Namibia
Phone (W): +264-63-271-2380 (was +27-11-638-3425)
E-mail: DBentley@skorpionzinc.com.na (was DBentley@angloamerican.co.za)


Dave Hart

Dave Hart Dave worked for AECI from 1985 to 1997, then, in January 1998, moved to Sasol Technology where his present position is Engineering Manager. Dave is currently living and working in Secunda. He is married to Jenny, and they have two children, Gemma in Grade 7, and ten-year-old Matthew.

Home Address: 4 Thomas Baines Street, PO Box 7025, Secunda, 2302, South Africa
Phone (H): +27-17-634-7294
Cellphone: +27-82-443-9185
E-mail: Dave.Hart@sasol.com or HartDG@telkomsa.net
Skype: hart_david_g


Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart was at AECI.


Deon Nel

Deon Nel Bradley Nel Deon runs his own (small) consulting firm called Radeon Decision Support. They are contracted to a UK Water Utility and based in SA, with Deon heading up the local office as Business Development Manager. Deon specialises in strategic advisory work/consulting, business systems, and a variety of institutional and customer relations management topics.

Deon has a son called Bradley who is ten years old.

Work Address: Severn Trent Africa (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 1109, Sunninghill, 2157, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-807-8017
Cellphone: +27-83-700-2449
E-mail: deonel@icon.co.za
Website: www.stwaterinternational.com


Diane Hildebrandt

Diane Hildebrandt Diane Hildebrandt, BSc(Eng) MSc(Eng) PhD (Witwatersrand), MSAIChE, is the Unilever Professor of Reactor Engineering and a Director of the Centre for Optimisation, Modelling and Process Synthesis at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She obtained her BSc (Chem Eng), MSc(Eng) and PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has been awarded a B2 rating as a scientist by the NRF. Diane has authored or co-authored over 50 scientific papers and is features editor for the South African publication, Chemical Technology.

In 1996 she was awarded the Presidents' Award by the Foundation for Research and Development as well as the Distinguished Researcher Award by the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1997 the Royal Society of South Africa awarded her the Meiring Naude Medal.

Diane has worked at the Chamber of Mines, Sasol, and the University of Potchefstroom and has spent a sabbatical at Princeton.

E-mail: dihil@chemeng.chmt.wits.ac.za


Gareth Campbell

Gareth Campbell Gareth Campbell is Chief Executive Officer of Ozz Foundries.

(This photograph shows Gareth Campbell, Messer Fedgas managing director, from Chemical World, October 1998, page 6.)

Work Address: 15 Birmingham Road, Benoni Industrial Sites, PO Box 5017, Benoni South, 1502, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-747-5000
E-mail: Gareth.Campbell@ozzfoundries.co.za


Greg Wurts

Greg Wurts Wurts family Ted Wurts
Greg graduated as a metallurgical engineer, and now works for Chemdes Technologies. He is married to Sandy, and has two children, Helen (1989), and Julia (1994). Greg's father, Ted Wurts, is also a chemical engineering graduate from Wits University.

Home Address: Sunward Park, Boksburg, 1459, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-472-1610
E-mail: Greg.Wurts@chemdes.co.za


Guy Leven-Marcon

Guy worked for AECI, Modderfontein, then HTH as part of NCP / Sentrachem. He joined Gemini Consulting (management consultants) in 2001. Guy is married to Janet, and has a daughter, Anne. They are active members of St Luke's Church in Orchards, where they have been for the past ten years.

Work Address: Parkview, Johannesburg
Phone (H): +27-11-646-2676
Phone (W): +27-11-280-6000
Cellphone: +27-82-338-2741
E-mail: Guy.Leven-Marcon@za.geminiconsulting.com or GuyLM@xsinet.co.za


Heather Smith (used to be Fynes-Clinton)

Heather Smith (nee Fynes-Clinton) Heather has previously worked for DRA (Dowding Reynard & Associates) in Johannesburg, and as a Senior Process Specialist for Hatch in Perth. Heather currently works for Kenwalt, and has been living in Perth since about 1999.

Work Address: KWA Kenwalt Australia, 5/18 Stirling Highway, PO Box 17, Nedlands, (Perth), WA 6909, Western Australia
Phone (W): +61-8-6389-2924
Cellphone: +61-0408-568-602
E-mail: Heather.Smith@syscad.net


Ian Ralston

Ian Ralston Ian works as a Principal Process Engineer at Anglo American's Technical Division in Johannesburg. He is a registered Professional Engineer.

Work Address: Anglo Technical Division, 5th Floor, 45 Main Street, PO Box 61587, Marshalltown, 2107, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-638-2787
Cellphone: +27-83-308-2106
E-mail: iralston@anglotechnical.co.za


Irene Cullum

Irene married Mike Lazer, and is living in Surrey, UK. She works for Fluor in Camberly. Irene and Mike have a seven-year-old daughter called Kirsty.


Javier Kirigin

Javier Kirigin Javier started his working career with JCI at their head office, then spent about four years at Matthey Rustenburg Refiners. He also worked as production manager and acting metallurgical manager at Vansa Vanadium in Mpumalanga. In 1991, Javier joined the research department of Magotteaux (a manufacturer of mill balls for the mining industry) and worked initially in Belgium, then in Portugal, then back in South Africa. In 1996 he moved to Brazil for a project with CVRD. He returned to South Africa in 2000 and now works in marketing and sales for Maggoteaux. He is a registered Professional Engineer.

Javier (originally from Bolivia) married a South African Greek wife, and they have a daughter (8 years old) born in South Africa, and a son (6 years old) born in Brazil.

Home Address: Cramerview, South Africa
Work Address: Maggoteaux (Pty) Ltd, Process House, 13 Sloane Street, Epsom Downs, Bryanston, PO Box 98571, Sloane Park, 2152, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-463-6876
Cellphone: +27-82-853-4643
E-mail: Javier.Kirigin@magotteaux.com


Jeremy Mann

Jeremy Mann Jeremy graduated from Wits in 1983, and is currently General Manager of Anglo Research.

Phone (W): +27-11-377-4621
E-mail: JMann@angloresearch.com


Joe Iorio

Joe Iorio Joe worked, until recently, in the Hydrometallurgy Division at Mintek. He is currently working on a copper project in Peru.

Cellphone (W): +27-83-268-6664
E-mail: Joe@cybertrade.co.za or JoeIorio@telkomsa.net


John Armstrong

John Armstrong John Armstrong John Armstrong was appointed Country President of Sasol's China Venture in March 2008 to take responsibility for the delivery of the feasibility study and subsequent approval for a CTL venture in China which will be developed in partnership with Shenhua Ningxia Coal Group as a CTL demonstration project. He Joined Sasol in 1986, and in 1989 was appointed as manager group product optimization, responsible for the techno-economic optimization of the production output of the Sasol group. At Sasol Oil, he assumed responsibility for the day-to-day management of the supply contract for liquid fuels from Sasol to the South African oil industry. He then moved to Sasol Group Limited in 1998 as New Business Development Manager and took charge of Chemicals at Sasol Polymers in 2003 before his role in China.

John obtained an MBA degree from Wits Business School in 1989, and a BSc Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Witwatersrand in 1981, and became a registered professional Engineer in 1988.

Work Address: Country President, Sasol China, Sasol Synfuels International (Pty) Ltd, Beijing Representative Office, 12th Floor, Tower B, Gateway Plaza, No 18 Xiaguangli, North Road, East Third Ring, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100027, PR China
Phone (W): +86-10-5926-1234 or -1111
Cellphone: (was +27-82-554-3509)
E-mail: John.Armstrong@ap.sasol.com


John Batty

John Batty John is Operations Manager: Metallurgy & Mineralogy at SGS South Africa Ltd. (since January 2009). Previously, he was the Manager: Process Engineering for BHP Billiton's Johannesburg Technology Centre.

Work Address: 58 Melvill Street, Booysens, 2091, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-680-3466
Cellphone: +27-82-886-3131
E-mail: (was John.Batty@bhpbilliton.com)


John Derbyshire

John Derbyshire John now lives in Pretoria. He spent ten years working at Zincor, as well as some time as metallurgical manager at Northam Platinum. He was Manager Metallurgy at Messina Platinum Mines Ltd until 2005 (commuting to the Pietersburg / Polokwane area during the week). He is currently Metallurgical Manager at Boynton Platinum.

Work Address: Boynton Investments (Pty) Ltd, Private Bag X11, Highveld, 0067, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-12-661-4280
Cellphone: +27-82-651-2416
E-mail: jderbyshire@boyntonplatinum.com or j.derbyshire@absamail.co.za


John Visser

John Visser John Visser After graduating in metallurgy, John started work at Samancor, Meyerton in 1985 and left there in 1988 to develop his skills in capital sales until January 1993. He also worked for a reinsurance company as an actuary for five years. John worked for Anglovaal Mining (Avmin) from December 1996 to September 2003. He was Manager Metallurgy in the Ferrous Metals Division, involved with the five Assmang operations, two smelters (FeCr and FeMn), and three mines - chrome, iron, and manganese ore.

John and his family relocated to Perth, Australia in 2003 and now live there.˙ He is currently Principal Advisor for the Technology and Innovation services unit in Rio Tinto. John is a registered PrEng, and also holds an MBL qualification. John is married to Susan (nee Darby), who is Senior Manager for Relationships Australia. Shaun (19) is studying Marketing and the Media at Murdoch University, and Carolyn (17) is studying for a BSc degree at University of Western Australia.

March 2011: John is now Metallurgical Manager at METS.

Work Address: Rio Tinto, Central Park, 152-158 St Georges Terrace, Perth, 6000, Australia
Phone (W): +61-8-9327-2941
Cellphone: +61-42-428-6731
E-mail: John.Visser@riotinto.com


Ken Beard

Ken is a partner in a management consultancy called Rethink.


Ken Sherman

Ken has been living and working in Toronto since about 1987/88. He initially spent a number of years working for a consulting company called Stone and Webster, Canada. Since 2000, he has worked for Colt Engineering, a specialist petrochemical process engineering consulting company, where he is Chief Process Engineer in their Toronto office. (Their Toronto office has about 120 people, and the company has a staff of 2000.)

Ken is married to Deena, and has two children, a boy aged 9, and a daughter aged 6.

Work Address: Colt Engineering (Toronto Office), 2nd Floor, 90 Tiverton Court, Markham, ONT L3R 9V2, Canada
Phone: +1-416-492-0507
Work Phone: +1-905-940-4774
E-mail: KSherman@petro-canada.ca or Deena.Sherman@rogers.com


Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks Kevin Brooks Kevin Brooks
Kevin went to school at Woodmead, graduated with a BSc(Eng) in chemical engineering at Wits in 1980, and then went on to do a PhD. Kevin spent eight years in academia at Wits, followed by a period at AECI working as a Senior Process Engineer specialising in reacting systems. He then worked as a Senior Consultant at Honeywell, developing dynamic simulators for operator training. Kevin was Engineering Manager at Honeywell Hi-Spec Solutions.

Kevin is currently a Principal Consultant at BluESP.

Work Address: Honeywell Hi-Spec Solutions, Knightsbridge Manor, 33 Sloane Street, PO Box 98855, Sloane Park, Bryanston, 2152, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-463-5524
Cellphone: +27-83-628-9509
E-mail: Kevin.Brooks@honeywell.com or kbrooks@netactive.co.za


Louise Potgieter

Louise has lived in Sydney for the past decade or so.

E-mail: Louise.Potgieter@spr.gases.boc.com


Mark Coetzee

Mark was Vice President Metallurgy for Anglo Base Metals. He died suddenly from a heart attack in South America in 2007/8.

Work Address: Anglo American, Johannesburg
Phone (W): +27-11-638-3060
Cellphone: +27-84-869-3456
E-mail: MCoetzee@angloamerican.co.za


Mark Flower

Mark Flower Mark is Managing Director (previously General Manager, Business Development) at Fluor SA in Sunninghill.

Mark Flower is regional Vice President for Fluor in Southern Africa, where Fluor is a leading company in the execution of projects for global clients in the Energy and Chemicals, Infrastructure, Mining, Services, and Power industries. Mark has 30 years experience in the petrochemical and engineering contracting industries. He made his first acquaintance with Fluor working as a graduate engineer for Sasol on the Sasol Two and Three CTL complexes, in construction at the time by Fluor. Since joining Fluor in 1995, he has held roles in process engineering, sales, project management, and operations management.

Phone (W): +27-11-519-6011


Martin Reeves

Martin worked as a metallurgist at Haggie Rand, and later at the CSIR (Mattek?). His current position is Resource Manager at the Defence Institute. He now lives in Benoni. Married to Jenny.

Phone (W): +27-12-428-2921
Cellphone: +27-83-287-1588
E-mail: MartinR@sadi.co.za


Martin Stegehuis

Martin Stegehuis After graduating, Martin worked for Sapref near Durban for three years, followed by a short stint at Sastech in Rosebank. He then became a partner in an electroplating business which later diversified into furniture manufacturing as well. He and his family emigrated to Australia in about 1993. Martin is currently the owner of a computer software support company called ATS solutions that employs six people undertaking systems integration and business software. Martin is married to Gail, and they have two daughters aged 16 and 14. Martin currently lives in Dianella, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.

Cellphone: +61-8-419-906-429
E-mail: martin@atswa.com


Michael Orbach

Michael Orbach Mike moved to Manchester in the UK in 1984 where he worked at ICI and then later at Simulation Sciences.˙ They decided to take SimSci public in 1996, which caused him to move from England to California. ˙After SimSci was sold to Foxboro (which was later acquired by Invensys), Mike joined AspenTech to run their corporate development group, which took him to Seattle.˙ He decided to leave Chemical Engineering behind in 1997 to help start a business process modelling software company. ˙This business was sold to ABB in 2000 which resulted in further 'steps' away from his engineering roots towards corporate finance, venture capital, and eventually what he does now, investment banking.

Michael Orbach is a managing director at Pagemill Partners, where he serves as the co-head of the software and services practice. He has been with Pagemill since March 2004 and brings more than 20 years of operational, entrepreneurial, transactional, and domain experience, and has specific expertise in enterprise and Internet software, the service industry and business process outsourcing (BPO).

Prior to joining Pagemill, Michael was a partner at Stonecroft Capital LLC. Previously, he was a founding member of ABB New Ventures, the corporate venture capital and corporate finance group of ABB Ltd, where he was Managing Director of the $250 million ABB Industrial IT Venture Fund, and was responsible for the sale of non-core ABB assets. While at ABB New Ventures, Mike was also responsible for managing spin-outs and recapitalizations of non-core ABB assets. Prior to ABB New Ventures, in 1997, he co-founded Skyva International, an enterprise software company, where he raised $60M in equity and debt and then, in 2000, sold the company to ABB Ltd for $130M in cash. Before that, Mike led technology and service company mergers and acquisitions for Aspen Technology. Prior to this, he managed the international business of Simulation Sciences, an enterprise software company, which was later consolidated into a single global entity, taken to a public offering and then sold to Foxboro Corporation. His education includes a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MBA from the University of Washington.

Mike and his wife, Pam, live in Seattle, Washington, USA. They have three daughters (19, 17, and 9). The eldest attends Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Their middle daughter will attend Brandeis University in Boston in August (2007), and their youngest lives at home.

Phone (W): +1-650-354-4044
E-mail: morbach@pmib.com
Website: http://www.pmib.com/bio_orbach.html


Mike Heydenrych

Mike Heydenrych Mike Heydenrych, CEng PrEng FSAIChE FIChemE, is one of the vice presidents of SAIChE, and has been helping SAIChE for most of his career by serving on the Gauteng (previously Northern) Branch committee, serving as treasurer and later chairman from 1994. He was elected to the SAIChE council in 1996. He is a North-Westerner, having spent his school-going days in Rustenburg. He studied at Wits in the early eighties and also completed his MSc(Eng) degree there in 1989. He worked for a while at Matthey Rusttenburg Refiners (Wadeville), before realising that his passion lay with research. He moved to the CSIR where he spent most of his career in process development of synfuels and later high-temperature combustion and reduction processes, especially fluidised beds and rotary kilns.

He moved to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 1997, teaching design-based subjects. He specialised in research on rotary kilns, and obtained his Doctorate at the University of Twente (Holland) in 2001. He now holds the position of Associate Professor at the University of Pretoria.

Phone (H): +27-12-664-3523
Phone (W): +27-12-420-2199
Cellphone: +27-83-603-1530
E-mail: Mike.Heydenrych@up.ac.za


Mike Lazer

Mike is Vice President, Process Consulting at KBC in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, UK. Mike is married to Irene Cullum, and they have a seven-year-old daughter called Kirsty.

E-mail: mlazer@kbcat.com


Mike Oberholzer

Mike is currently a partner in a Risk Consulting company specializing in Risk Assessments, air dispersion modelling, thermal radiation effects from fires, Process Hazard Analysis, and conducting Major Hazardous Installation assessments.

He is married with two children, Stuart (age 14), and Adrian (age 11), and lives in Northcliff, Johannesburg.

Phone (W): +27-12-668-1047
Cellphone: +27-82-457-3258
E-mail: MichaelO@yebo.co.za


Richard Quarmby


E-mail: rquarmby1@btinternet.com


Rina King

Rina King

E-mail: rking@infodoor.co.za


Rob de Pretto

Rob works for De Beers Research Labs.


Rodney Jones

Rodney Jones Jones family Rodney Jones has worked in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek since 1985, and is currently a Specialist Consultant. He holds a BSc(Eng) degree in chemical engineering from Wits University, a BA degree in logic and philosophy from the University of South Africa, and a MSc(Eng) degree in metallurgy from Wits University. He is a registered Professional Engineer, a Fellow and Vice President of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), a Fellow of SAIChE, and a full member of CSSA. He was a Visiting Professor at the Center for Pyrometallurgy, University of Missouri-Rolla, during July and August 1996, and in 2002 and 2003 has also lectured in pyrometallurgy at Murdoch University, Perth where he was an Adjunct Associate Professor. The SAIMM awarded him an Honorary Life Fellowship in 2010. Rodney is also a member of the Board of Trustees for OneMine.org. Rodney is married to Debbie, with two children, David (25) and Sarah (22).

His main research interests are in the field of computer simulation and design of high-temperature processes, and the development of thermodynamic software. He is the author of Pyrosim software, for the steady-state simulation of pyrometallurgical processes. This software is in use in 22 countries around the world. Rodney is also one of the inventors of the ConRoast process.

Rodney's current interests include digital photography, trail running, hiking, climbing, travel, reading, computers, mathematical puzzles, philosophy, and playing the guitar when he has the time.

Home Address: 51 Adderley Street, Kensington B, Randburg, 2194, South Africa
Work Address: Mintek, 200 Malibongwe Drive, Private Bag X3015, Randburg, 2125, South Africa
Phone (H): +27-11-787-1489
Phone (W): +27-11-709-4602
E-mail: rtjones@global.co.za
Website (Mintek): http://www.mintek.co.za/Pyromet/RTJones.htm
Website (Germiston High School): http://www.amethyst.co.za/GHS1976/
Website (Wits University): http://www.amethyst.co.za/Wits1980/


Scott Dean

Scott works for Hatch in Perth, Western Australia.

Work Address: Hatch, 144 Stirling Street, Perth, WA 6016, Western Australia
E-mail: sdean@hatch.com.au


Sergio Pagani

Sergio was sadly killed in a car accident.


Stanley Batzofin

Stanley Batzofin Stanley Batzofin, BSc Eng (Chemical), MSc (Automation), BCom, PrEng, CEng, FIChemE, FSAIChE, is Operations Director for Added Value Engineering Consultants (Pty) Ltd (previously Kvaerner) in Sandton.

Stanley has over 20 years engineering experience in process design for both the contracting environment and in plant operator technical departments. As director of Operations, he has responsibility for hydrocarbon process design and development, as well as technology and process engineering execution of projects to the refinery, oil and gas, petrochemical, and chemical industries. He is currently focusing on business objectives to provide all clients with value added engineering services.

Work Address: 1st Floor, Sandton Court, 5th Street, Sandown, PO Box 781133, Sandton, 2146, South Africa
Phone (W): +27-11-884-8710
E-mail: Stanley.Batzofin@avec.co.za


Tom Gluck

Tom worked for a number of years for Manganese Metal Company, and is currently Development Manager (Superintendent), Minc (Pty) Ltd. Tom was recently made a Fellow of SAIMM.

Cellphone: +27-82-465-2811
E-mail: Thomas.Gluck@bhpbilliton.com


Vaughn van Heerden

Vaughn van Heerden After matriculating at St Benedicts college in Bedfordview, Vaughn studied chemical engineering at Wits with a Sasol bursary. His career with Sasol began in 1981 at Secunda with commissioning activities on the chemical work-up plant at Sasol 3. He was also responsible for troubleshooting and the implementation of various process modifications to maximize production at Sasol 2. In the latter half of 1982, he was transferred to Sasol 1 in Sasolburg where he was responsible for the identification and elimination of bottlenecks in the Synthol Product Recovery area. His work involved general troubleshooting, plant test runs, computer simulation - especially in the field of distillation - and engineering proposals to optimize performance at higher throughputs. The highlight of his early career was the opportunity to spend a year working in an engineering contractor's office in the USA. Vaughn's training and work at UOP in Chicago involved mainly hand calculations in process and project design on a range of refinery processes. His stay in Chicago also offered him and his wife some fantastic travel opportunities. Since his return to Sasol I at the beginning of 1986, his activities have been focused on the co-ordination of various refinery debottlenecking and reactor expansion projects.

Vaughn is a passionate golfer and also enjoys an occasional game of squash and tennis. He enjoys being outdoors and socialising with friends.


Copyright © 2002-2013 Rodney Jones, rtjones@global.co.za.
12 November 2013