Plenary/Keynote Speakers

Dr. Paul Balcombe
Queen Mary University of London, UK
Plenary Speaker

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Dr. Steven C. McCutcheon
University of Georgia, USA
Plenary Speaker

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Dr. Irene Xagoraraki
Michigan State University, USA
Plenary Speaker

Topic of Keynote:

Dr. Edgar Quiñones-Bolaños
University of Cartagena, Colombia
Keynote Speaker

Edgar Quiñones. Bolaños is a Civil Engineer graduated from the University of Cartagena. He also holds a Specialization in Physical Sciences from the National University of Colombia, and a master’s and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Guelph (Canada). His research interests are in the field of environmental management, including modeling and studies related to fate mechanisms of pollutants in water, air, soil and their interaction with human health, biota, and the cultural heritage of the Colombian nation. He has more than 32 years of experience as a researcher, with more than 100 publications (books, peer-reviewed articles, presentations), of which books such as “Environmental Factors in the Walls of Cartagena de Indias” and “Assessment of Environmental Risk Levels in the District of Cartagena de Indias” stand out. He has international experience with the development of projects with Toronto Metropolitan University and Guelph University in Canada, Macquarie University in Australia, Purdue University and the University of Southern California in the United States. He is currently the director of the environmental modeling research group (Category A1), coordinator of the master’s degree in environmental engineering and the PhD program in engineering at the University of Cartagena.

Topic of Keynote: A Knowledge Management Model for Strengthening Coastal Aquifers Resilience in Latin-American Countries Against Potential Climate Change Impacts.
Keynote Abstract

Dr. Zhe Yang
The University of Queensland, Australia
Keynote Speaker

Dr. Zhe Yang currently is an ARC DECRA fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering/Dow Centre for Sustainable Engineering Innovation at the University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD degree in Environmental Engineering in 2018 at the University of Hong Kong (PhD supervisor: Prof. Chuyang Tang). He was appointed as research assistant/post-doc fellow in HKU from Nov 2018 to July 2021 and was further promoted to Research Assistant Professor from July 2021 to Dec 2023. He was recognized as a Top 1% Scholar worldwide ranked by Clarivate Analytics by citations in 2023. Dr. Yang has more than 10 years of R&D experience in membrane technology in the context of desalination, water reuse, and water/wastewater treatment. To date, he has published over 70 papers and two book chapters, with total citations of over 6,600 and an h-index of 42 based on Google Scholar. Most of these papers (90%) are published in Nature indexed/top tier journals in the field of environmental engineering and membrane technology, including Nature Communications, Nano Letters, Chemical Society Reviews, Environmental Science & Technology, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, Water Research, and Journal of Membrane Science. He has been awarded numerous prestigious awards, including The First Prize of the Water 2023 Young Investigator Award, Early Career Stars of Separation & Purification Technology, The 2022 ACS ES&T Engineering Best Paper Award, the Geneva International Exhibition of Inventions Gold Metal in 2019, etc. He currently serves as the Early Career Editorial Board member of the leading journal in his field (Desalination, IF 8.3).

Topic of Keynote: Membrane-Based Energy-Efficient Resource Recovery From Wastewaters
Keynote Abstract

Dr. Nariman Yousefi
Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Keynote Speaker

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