Judith Kinnaird (Prof)

Co-Director of DSI-NRF CIMERA University of the Witwatersrand

Judith Kinnaird graduated with a BSc Honours degree from London University, and an MSc and PhD from the University of S. Andrews in Scotland for research on tin-tungsten and columbite-bearing granites in Nigeria.  She has taught for the Open University in UK and University College Cork in Ireland where research studies focused on zinc and copper deposits.

Prior to taking up a post in South Africa in 1999, Professor Kinnaird was an independent consultant who has worked on the tin-bearing potential of granites in Namibia, South Africa, Argentina; zinc and copper deposits in Ireland; uranium in Namibia, and Li-Be-Sn-Nb-Ta and gem-bearing pegmatites in Namibia, Nigeria and Somaliland. In 1999 she was appointed a research fellow in the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and in 2002 accepted a permanent post. In 2014, she instigated an MSc course in Economic Geology, which is popular with national and international students. At Wits she has led a team undertaking research on the Bushveld Complex, including studies on the Main Zone, chromite formation and platinum mineralisation especially in the Platreef and new Waterberg deposit, and a project on the continuity of mineralisation under cover from Namibia through Botswana to Zambia. Since 2004 she has supervised more than 100 postgraduate research projects across a range of commodities, and has published more than 100 papers and book chapters.

She is currently co-director of a National Centre of Excellence (CIMERA) for Minerals and Energy Research Analysis, funded by the NRF/DST of the South Africa government. She is a member of the UK Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa and a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists. She has received several awards recognising her contribution to South African academic and economic research.

She has recently retired from the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and now divides her time between teaching at Wits and consultancy on various projects related to Critical Metals, especially lithium, uranium and platinum group elements.