Thava Palanisami

Dr Thava Palanisami is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle with a PhD on the risk assessment and remediation of mixed contaminants. His research changed the decades-long assumption that chemicals in contaminated sites occur as single contaminants and demonstrated that they occur as mixtures instead, with chemical mixtures of PAHs and metals having higher toxicity and more bioavailability. Dr Palanisami and colleagues have led the first field level implementation of a Risk-Based Land Management approach to managing contaminated sites in Australia, which has significant implications for paradigm change in risk assessment and management.