Dr. Saskia Duyvesteyn is the Chief Advisor of R&D for Rio Tinto Copper. She has worked in a number of commodities in the mining industry, including gold, borates, and copper. Before working in industry, she was an Assistant Professor in the Metallurgical Engineering Department at the University of Utah. Her research areas included ion exchange & carbon adsorption, bioleaching, flotation and on-line education. Duyvesteyn has degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from MIT and Extractive Metallurgy & Mineral Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She is also the holder of 3 patents in precious metal processing.