Hunter Branch Meeting 2023-2

“Invention, Innovation, Impact — the I’s have it!”

Kevin Galvin FAA FTSE FIEAust CPEng

Laureate Professor and Director
ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-efficient Beneficiation of Minerals

Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources
University of Newcastle

Date: Thursday 11 May 2023, gather from 5.00 pm for 5.45 pm (AEST) 
Registration:  Registration is required by 5.00 pm on Wednesday 10 May 2023 through Membes. Max: 100 people
Venue:  Hunter Room, Newcastle City Hall, 290 King St, Newcastle NSW 2300
Entry:  Society members, $15; Non-members, $25; Students, $5
Enquiries:  Via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Society Members, Fellows, and members of the public are welcome

The Hunter Branch of the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals are pleased to jointly host this public lecture in Newcastle.

In this presentation, Laureate Professor Kevin Galvin will use the term Invention as a higher-level concept, not necessarily predicated by a patent, to describe the enabler for creating a new platform, perhaps even a new paradigm. He will explore Innovation as the process for delivering change within an existing or new paradigm, and Impact as the added value arising from change. If there is no change (or use), there is no impact.

He will then explore the notion of the three “I”s in the context of universities, why we have universities, and examine the incremental nature of innovation versus transformational change, illustrated by his own experience in the context of mineral separations. He will reflect on the need to educate our engineers with the right brand of critical thinking. Finally, he will address the long-standing question concerning the measurement of research impact in universities, offering a “simple” way forward.

Kevin Galvin is the inventor of the Reflux Classifier used in the gravity separation of fine mineral particles. With over 240 installations around the world, the technology has been used to beneficiate iron ore, mineral sands, metallurgical coal, potash, chromite, lithium, and other base metal oxides. New innovative systems are emerging including the Reflux Flotation Cell and a novel agglomeration technology. Kevin Galvin is a Laureate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and a previous recipient of numerous awards including the Ian Wark Medal, the ATSE Clunies Ross Award, and the Antoine Gaudin Award in mineral processing. He is the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals.