Dennis has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Universidad de Santiago (USACH), a Master of Waste Treatment from Universität Stuttgart, Germany, and a PhD from Imperial College London, where he did his doctoral thesis on optimizing hydrocyclone design using CFD simulations. He worked for several years on projects involving (bio)leaching of low-grade ores and physical characterization of mineral pulp. More recently he worked in academia on research projects in mineral processing, particularly comminution and particle classification with national and international funding. His areas of interest include mineral processing, CFD and process simulations, equipment design and sustainable mining.