Ernesto Villaescusa possesses over 25 years of applied research experience. He has worked with mining houses such as MIM Holdings, Noranda, WMC Resources, Penoles, Minera Autlan, CODELCO, BHP Billiton, Placer Dome Asia Pacific, and Normandy to develop guidelines for effective underground mining leading to the safe, economical extraction of ore. For the past 16 years, he has served as professor of mining geomechanics at the Western Australian School of Mines, where he has secured over $21 million of industry-funded mining research income, supervised over 30 masters and 10 Ph.D student theses, and been appointed to an industry chair in mining rock mechanics.