Extracting Innovations ― Mining, Energy, and Technological Change in the Digital Age

The book focuses on affects of digital technology advances in the mining, oil, and gas sectors. It synthesizes a series of questions including: Why have these sectors been historically slow to innovate? What specific strategies can improve innovation and uptake of new technologies? What new forms of technology will shape the sector in the decades ahead? What impact will new technologies have on resource extraction and energy production? How are digital technologies changing the competitive landscape and industry architecture? How will new technologies impact sustainability of the sector and can technologies improve social performance and environmental stewardship?

Prior to joining the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia as an Associate Professor in 2011, Rob Perrons worked in a wide variety of roles and locations for Shell International’s Exploration & Production division. He started his career in Shell’s Strategy & Economics team in 1997, and then worked for several years as a production engineer in the company’s overseas operations (offshore and onshore). He then left Shell for three years to work as an Industrial Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge, but re-joined Shell again in 2004 to become the company’s Executive Coordinator of R&D. He has a B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from McMaster University in Canada, a S.M. degree in Technology & Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in engineering from the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He is a Fellow of both the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and Engineers Australia, and is chartered as a Eur. Ing. in Europe. Also, he is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, and continues to stay connected to the University of Cambridge as an Affiliated Researcher. In addition to his QUT position, Rob is a board member for several resource sector technology companies. He also serves the Australian Government on an ad hoc basis as a member of its “Expert Network,” where he provides advice about the energy industry and emerging innovations in that field.

Professor Saleem Ali holds the Chair in Sustainable Resources Development at the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI). Established in 2015 - the year the United Nations has committed to launching the Sustainable Development Goals - UQ will use the Chair's mandate to focus research and training efforts towards reaching these goals in the most ecologically and economically efficient way. He is also Affiliate Professor of Politics and International Studies at UQ where he is part of the Rotary International Centre for Studies in Peace and Conflict. Professor Ali retains an Adjunct Professorship in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Natural Resources, where he was the founding director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security.

Prior to this, Prof. Ali was a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and the Director of the Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security at UVM's James Jeffords Center for Policy Research. He was also on the adjunct faculty of Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies and the visiting faculty for the United Nations mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica). Before embarking on an academic career, Prof. Ali worked as an environmental health and safety professional at General Electric (based at GE headquarters in Fairfield, CT), and at his most recent book is Environmental Diplomacy: Negotiating more Effective Global Agreements (with MIT's Larry Susskind, Oxford University Press, 2015). He has authored 3 other peer-reviewed books and edited 4 anthologies and over 80 peer-reviewed journal articles.

Professor Ali is also a frequent contributor to popular media publications including The Conversation, The Huffington Post, Scientific American, National Geographic online, Foreign Policy and the Carnegie Council's Policy Innovations blog. He is also a series editor for the University of Chicago Press Summits Series on Environmental Science Law and Policy. Prof. Ali’s book Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale University Press, 2010) was selected by Scientific American as one of the best books of 2010 and had cover endorsements from two Nobel laureates. Professor Ali received his doctorate in Environmental Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an M.E.S. in environmental law and policy from Yale University, and his Bachelors in Chemistry from Tufts University (summa cum laude).

Dr. Tim Grice is a natural resource governance specialist with broad experience working across the private sector, public sector and civil society in Asia Pacific, South America and Africa. Tim’s research interests address the sustainability challenges associated with the global resources sector, with a focus on resource governance, transparency and the social, economic and environmental impacts of extractives projects. Dr. Grice holds a PhD in organisational psychology from the University of Queensland; has held senior sustainability roles with Newcrest Mining; and has worked in organisational development roles for Deloitte and Prospect Consulting. Tim is also an Honorary Senior Fellow at The University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute, and a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the World Future Society.