Alfred J. Vella received his education in Government primary schools in Bormla and Żejtun and later went on to St Joseph Secondary Technical School in Paola, the Junior College and the University of Malta. He graduated in B.Sc. in Physics and Chemistry in 1971 and M.Sc. in chemistry in 1975. In 1971, he joined the Junior College/Upper Secondary School to teach Chemisty. In 1981, Vella continued with higher studies in the USA to graduate in Ph.D. in organic geochemistry in 1984 from Colorado School of Mines. On his return, he re-joined the Upper Secondary School after a short stint (1984-85) at the Police Laboratory during which
time he served as a forensic chemist. In 1987, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Malta where he taught chemistry and researched mainly the areas of environmental and pollution science in the Department of Chemistry. Vella had his work published in international journals on environmental chemistry and pollution science, petroleum geochemistry, forensic chemistry and chemical education.
For many years, Professor Vella served as Head of Chemistry and as Dean of the Faculty of Science between 1997-2007. He was appointed Pro-Rector for Academic Affairs and served in this role for 10 years between 2006 and 2016 where he helped transform the University into an institution with an important teaching and research agenda. Vella was elected Rector by the University Council in July 2016 and was given a second five year mandate in July 2021. During this period, the University has continued to flourish both in teaching excellence and research achievements and is now ranked 344th place out of over 3000 universities in Europe.
For over 30 years, Vella’s outreach commitments extended beyond University walls serving the Magistrates Court as forensic expert in judicial inquiries on fires, explosion and chemical accidents. In addition, he was a consultant to state and non-state entities including acting as environmental advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Dr George Vella as vice-chair of the Consultative and Advisory Board for the Environment (CABE) (1996-1998).
Vella was a Board member of the Planning Authority (1992 – 1998); he later sat on the board of governors of the Malta Council for Science and Technology and Heritage Malta and most recently was an ERA board member for 7 years until February 2023.
Over a period of over 50 years, Professor Vella has effectively contributed to the environment through his work, both as a researcher and as a trainer. He has trained hundreds of students, many of whom today work in the environmental field, including scientists, University academics, in regulatory agencies, manufacturing industries and teachers of science in schools and colleges. Vella’s research on the quality of Malta’s environmental resources include years of work on the contamination of coastal seawater, marine biota and sediments by tributyltin then used in ship antifouling paint: this contaminant was shown to be pervasive and even present in settled outdoor and indoor dust.
Professor Vella forced into national focus awareness and discussion of such issues as nitrates in tap and bottled water; black dust deposition; benzene in air; particulate dust pollution from the construction and ship repair industries and widespread and persistent pollution by toxic metals and perchlorate from fireworks.
