Clive is an Emeritus Professor, University of Queensland (UQ) where he was Head of the Department of Agriculture and Director of the Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation. From 1994 to 2006, he was Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Minesite Rehabilitation Research (ACMRR) and subsequently the Australian Centre for Minerals Extension and Research (ACMER). He has a BAgrScHon degree from UQ, a PhD from Iowa State University and was a Queen Elizabeth Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Western Australia. He is a Fellow of ATSE, the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology.

For outstanding contributions to the technology of minesite rehabilitation in northern Australia: - Professor Clive Bell has led ecological and biological research that underpins much of the current minesite practice in northern Australia.

Since 1975 he has been responsible for 25 major research programs conducted under contract to the Australian mining industry. Students whom he has trained play an important part in minesite rehabilitation throughout the industry.

He has also contributed very significantly to research and training in soil chemistry for agriculture. In February 1994 he became Director of the Australian Centre for Minesite Rehabilitation Research.