Vanessa is a passionate environmental research and consulting scientist, who sees it as her moral obligation to use her talents wisely to care for the earth and its people.

Vanessa has a PhD in Environment Management (University of Pretoria), an MSc degree in Environment and Development (University of KwaZulu-Natal) and an undergraduate qualification in Horticulture and Landscape Design. She is a certified Professional Natural Scientist and an Environmental Assessment Practitioner. Vanessa leads the Environmental Sustainability, Governance and Policy Theme at the INR and has over 20 years’ experience in environmental research and consulting, with the following areas of specialisation:

Sustainable Minerals Research, Mine Closure, Mine and Degraded Land Rehabilitation – Vanessa’s PhD, completed in 2020, investigated the development of an integrated rehabilitation risk assessment model for use in South Africa and Australia, for surface-strip coal mine rehabilitation risk assessment. The PhD was initiated at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia and then transferred to the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Collaborative co-supervision and journal article co-authorship links were established with the University of Queensland, University of Southern Queensland, University of Nottingham-Malaysia, University of Pretoria and the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON). The project was funded by the Coaltech Research Association and the University of Pretoria. The project focused on quantitative integrated environmental risk assessment, with linkages into the environmental impact assessment, risk assessment (ISO 31000) and mine closure processes and policy. The integration of multi-disciplines and the application of Artificial Intelligence, i.e. Bayesian network modelling were fundamental to the project.