Rhys Thomson Email & Phone Number

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Supporting the provision of remote (via Zoom), paper-based or computer-based (via Inspera) examinations. Skills and experience as part of this work include:• Liaising with separate examination teams and staff to set-up exam venues, including seating arrangements, power supply, hardware provisioning, administrative requirements and student announcements.• Communicating unfolding issues and providing solutions to the Chief Invigilator and Support Coordinator during exams.• Managing and leading technical support staff during examinations to identify and solve problems early on, thereby helping to provide a smooth and fair exam for all students.• Monitor for subtleties in behaviour that may indicate cheating, and professionally manage any conflict arising when students are in breach of exam regulations.• Support students facing difficulties as a result of unintentional breach of exam regulations, such as providing them administrative advice and helping to keep them calm for the remainder of their exam.

Australia

My research is in the mathematical modelling of plantwide and metabolic processes in wastewater treatment, namely biological phosphorus removal, recovery, and associated microbial ecology. This work is focused on the application of these models to side-stream process configurations, as these promote biological phosphorus removal. Skills and experience as part of this work include:• Data cleaning, analysis, and visualisation using a combination of Python and Excel.• Bioinformatic analysis of metagenomic sequencing data to understand the taxonomy and function of important microbial wastewater systems.• Analysis of the metabolic pathways available to organisms within wastewater treatment, and how best to integrate these within plant-wide models.• Depth of understanding of a range of wastewater processes, and their interactions with wider engineering systems.• Application and communication of modelling research, including presentations to industry partners and international water/wastewater conferences (ecoSTP23, MEWE23, WWC&E24, and NRR24).Specifically, my research involves the development and integration of mechanistic metabolic models with plant-wide models. The advantage of metabolic models is their ability to mechanistically describe the behaviour of microbial systems, supporting the well-established yield correlations used more often in plant-wide models for biological processes. For biological phosphorus removal in particular, this integration enables dynamic organic and inorganic substrate cycling systems to be more accurately described and predicted. Mechanistic models thereby reduce the need for intensive calibration between varied process configurations and operational conditions, but also reduce the re-calibration efforts required as conditions change over time within the same treatment plant.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Short-term project where I investigated underlying drivers of performance and stability in wastewater treatment and resource recovery systems. This included anaerobic digestion, shortcut nitrogen removal (e.g. nitrite-shunt), and enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR or BioP) processes. Activities included development of process control models, optimisation studies, capacity assessments, investigating nutrient profiles under varied operating conditions, and rate tests.

Teaching of engineering courses including Statistics, Environmental Systems, Heat/Mass Transfer and Thermodynamics, and Process Principles and Control. Topics covered include hypothesis testing, regression, process modelling and control, experimental design, planetary boundaries, carbon/nutrient cycles, sustainable design, systems thinking, and mass/energy transfer/balancing. Skills and experience as part of this work include:• Teaching of complex and unintuitive topics to students, using a variety of learning styles.• Facilitating and running of tutorials, lectures, field work and field trips.• Development and marking of assessment, including practical assignments and final exams.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Process engineering consulting role within drinking water treatment, as well as industrial and municipal wastewater treatment. Skills and experience as part of this work include:• Process modelling of municipal wastewater treatment plants in BioWin, industrial water treatment systems in EVS:Water Plant Designer/Optimiser (formerly AqMB), and off-gas production from tailings ponds in OLI Studio Stream Analyser.• Operational data analysis and troubleshooting, such as investigating issues with the performance of RO units within an industrial water treatment facility, quantifying the Scope 1 emissions produced by a municipal wastewater treatment plant, and conducting energy audits to identify poor performing processes.• Updating and developing functional descriptions for municipal wastewater and drinking water treatment plants.• Conducting Health Based Target assessments over drinking water treatment plants.• Options studies on topics such as brine minimisation and disposal, helminth management, treatment of trade waste to agriculturally suitable water, and treatment of acid-mine drainage.• Conceptual design level costing involving discussions with vendors, estimation of chemical and power costs, estimation of waste disposal costs, and conducting NPV analysis.• Assisting the development of project tenders.• Supporting the development of business cases for projects on topics such as helminth management, biosolids, and irrigation schemes.

A 10 week research placement focused on assisting the development of a business case for phosphorus management technologies in wastewater. Technologies included side-stream enhanced biological phosphorus removal (SSEBPR) and phosphorus recovery.Responsibilities:• Conduct literature reviews on SSEBPR technologies;• Conduct literature reviews on phosphorus recovery technologies;• Compilation and analysis of data on the CAPEX and OPEX of 'mainstream' EBPR retrofits;• Estimation of basic SSEBPR retrofit CAPEX;• Investigate the potential market size of SSEBPR retrofits in countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, the USA, and Australia; and• Investigate the economics of phosphorus recovery technologies.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Undergraduate process engineering work, supporting the senior engineering staff within the Jameson Cell team. Skills and experience as part of this work include:• Developing generalised mass balance spreadsheets to be used for marketing Jameson Cell technology to prospective clients.• Summarising and analysing previous Jameson Cell design spreadsheets, for use in future cell sizing.• Conducting literature reviews comparing competitor technologies, to be used in marketing.• Investigating alternative technologies for implementation within Jameson Cell design.

Albion, Queensland, Australia

Full-time undergraduate process engineering placement for 6 months as part of my Master's thesis. Responsibilities:• Conduct literature reviews on hydrometallurgical topics;• Design and conduct bench scale experiments based off literature findings;• Conduct marketing studies, comparing the OPEX and CAPEX of various processing options;• Formulate PFDs and process design criteria on the preferred processing option; and• Liaise with external laboratories and suppliers to obtain timely analysis of samples and maintain reagent supply.In addition, between mid-June and August of 2017 I was part of a team of 4 tasked to maintain a $1.5 million, 1.7 tonne/d feed throughput, Albion Process pilot plant. My individual duties were to work as a technical operator on the precipitation circuit, along with assist in the leaching and neutralization stages.This included preparing reagents, achieving and maintaining set-points, and solving operational issues on the spot. As the role was during nightshift, each operator had to be able to work independently, but also be ready to assist others in the team.In conjunction with my work at Core Resources, I completed my Master’s thesis on key aspects of the Toowong Process.

Responsibilities:• Assisting students to develop the skills needed to understand increasingly difficult concepts;• Coordinating with lecturers to ensure the necessary content is delivered timely and efficiently;• Providing regular feedback on student progress to course coordinators, highlighting areas where students are struggling, or excelling; • Providing students with the direction needed to improve problem solving skills.

Assisted in developing a case study on an emerging industry, focusing on the business named SunSHIFT.The content of the study was then used to develop lecture materials for a new course.This was run through the faculty of Business, Economics and Law (BEL) at The University of Queensland.

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Supported clients with mental and/or physical disabilities, improving their quality of life. This involved:• Supporting clients to develop life skills such as cooking and cleaning for themselves;• Caring for clients with cognitive and/or behavioural issues, including monitoring of medications;• Improving clients capacities to interact positively with members of society through interpersonal and social skills;• Assisting clients with their education, including literacy and numeracy. Depending on the client, this also included expanding their vocabulary and ability to communicate through various means.

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Chemical Engineering

Metabolic Modelling of Fermentative and Conventional Polyphosphate Accumulating Organisms in Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal

Bachelor Of Engineering (Hons) And Master Of Engineering (Be(Hons)/Me), Chemical Engineering, 1St Class Honours

Activities and Societies: Chemical and Environmental Engineering Student Society (CHESS) member (2014-2018), Engineering Undergraduate.

Academic Exchange Program, Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: Exiles Mens Rugby (2016)

Queensland Certificate Of Education (Qce), Electives: Physics, Information Programming Technology, And Chemistry, Op 3