Extraordinary Professor | Numerical & computational modelling of multiphysics phenomena in pyrometallurgy

Short Bio

Quinn holds an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, a master’s degree in Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cape Town. He has worked in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek since 1998, a research institute conducting applied research and development on technologies serving the extensive mineral processing and metallurgical industry in South Africa and worldwide.

Quinn is a registered professional engineer and an active member of both the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) and the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS). He has served as a member of the Industry Forum at the NICIS/CSIR Centre for High Performance Computing since 2013, and has also served on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Johannesburg since 2019. In 2022 he was co-opted to the executive committee of the South African Association for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (SAAM). During the past two decades he has served on the organizing committees for numerous local and international conference events in the field of pyrometallurgical engineering.

As author or co-author he has published over 60 papers in academic journals and conference proceedings. He was awarded the SAIMM Silver Medal for two of his papers in 2013 and 2016.

Research Interests

Quinn’s research interests cover mathematical and computational modelling of complex coupled phenomena in high temperature processes, and in particular the application of high-performance computing and open-source modelling software to the study of challenging multiphysics problems in pyrometallurgy. His current areas of research include magnetohydrodynamic modelling of electric arcs, multiphysics fluid flow problems in furnace tapping and phase separation, reacting flows in converting and pre-reduction applications, and discrete element modelling for particle flow problems. He has also performed extensive work in the experimental characterization of the dynamic behaviour of direct-current plasma arcs and other pyrometallurgical phenomena using high-speed photography.

Selected Publications

A list of his published works can be found on his Google Scholar profile.