Meet the ESRs – Part 2

Tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Pritii Tam and I am a graduate of UQ’s BE/ME Chemical and Environmental Engineering. I am currently pursuing PhD via the REDMUD programme with National Technical Univerisity of Athens (NTUA) and Aluminium of Greece (AoG) being my key institutes and supervisory talents. I love hot air balloons and long walks on the beaches… just kidding! I’m into sporty stuff, video games and often am happy with a good game of chess with my dad. I have always been intrigued with the opportunity of PhD, and with this REDMUD programme, I am really excited to be involved in a project that fits well with my background and that it was closely related to environmental challenges and the opportunity to improve and make a change in the world.

How is your PhD going? What is your upcoming research about?

My PhD topic investigates the recovery of remainder aluminium in the bauxite residue after Bayer processing. We have been investigating on the use of ionic liquids in the leaching process and hopefully in the future, will be able to develop a feasible multi-recovery method of aluminium and other elements, and thus a method of effectually using bauxite residue as a secondary resource.

What or who motivates and inspires you? Any thoughts and life musings you’d like to share with us?

Among the many people in my life, the ones that left the greatest impression have been those few that dared to inject passion, enthusiasm, intelligence, and loving kindness in the things that they do. My wonderful family, my uncle and aunt that were like my second parents, my amazing group of friends, even the most intelligent and kindest professors and colleagues I have been working with throughout my life have always served to be a motivational figure in times of need.

If a chicken had lips, could it whistle?

I don’t know much about chickens but if they had lips and could do more than just whistle, I guess you could say they talk in fowl language.