keynote speakers

Prof. Damien Batstone, The University of Queensland – Australia

Dr Damien Batstone is Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering and Deputy Director of the Advanced Water Management Centre of The University of Queensland – Australia. He has a doctorate in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Queensland, Australia, 2000. He has over 20 years experience in wastewater process modelling, design, and environmental biotechnology. He is current holder of an Australian Research Fellow from the Australian Research Council.

Prof. George A. Ekama, University of Cape Town – South Africa

Professor George A. Ekama, PhD, has 35 years research experience into activated sludge systems at the University of Cape Town. Over the years he has been at the forefront of developments in biological nutrient removal activated sludge systems modelling, filamentous bulking, secondary settling tank design and modelling. He and his research group have been co-authors of 4 of the International Water Association (IWA) Scientific and Technical Reports (STR) on activated sludge modelling, community analysis and secondary settling tanks.

Prof. Bruce Jefferson, Cranfield University – United Kingdom

Dr Bruce Jefferson is  professor at Cranfield University with a BEng and PhD from Loughborough University and joined the staff in Water Sciences in 1997. He was subsequently appointed to the post of Senior Research Fellow in 2003 and the Senior Lecturer in 2006. Current posts include visiting positions at RMIT (Australia), University of New South Wales (Australia). His research interests involve understanding how the underlying process pathways can be better managed to deliver a paradigm shift in how we apply technology for sewage treatment and drinking water production.

Prof. Ulf Jeppsson, Lund University – Sweden

Dr Ulf Jeppsson is Full Professor at the Department of Industrial Electrical Engineering and Automation of the Lund University. He has a doctorate in Industrial Automation, from the Lund University, Sweden, 1996. His professional fields of interest are automation and control, mathematical modelling, simulation, benchmarking and control applied to urban water and wastewater systems and wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). He has over 20 years experience on all aspects concerning with WWTP modelling, benchmarking and control.

Prof. Piet Lens, UNESCO-IHE – Netherlands

Dr. Lens is professor of Environmental Biotechnology at the Pollution Prevention and Resource Recovery Chair Group of the Department of Enivonmental Engineering and Water Technology of UNESCO-IHE. His research focuses on biofilms, sulfur biotechnology, metal speciation, bioavailability and removal, natural treatment systems, anaerobic wastewater and waste gas treatment for resource recovery and reuse. His awards include a Marie Curie Excellence Grant (2004) and a nomination as IWA fellow (2010).

Prof. Ingmar Nopens, Ghent University – Belgium

Dr Ingmar Nopens is Associate professor at Ghent University. He his a Bio-science Engineering He has a doctorate in Applied Biological Sciences, from Ghent University, Belgium, 2005. He his head of BIOMATH research group at Ghent University. He has over 10 years experience on wastewater modelling.  His professional fields of interest are model-based process analysis, biokinetic modelling, computational fluid dynamics, population balance modelling.

Prof. Hallvard Ødegaard, Norwegian University of Science and Technology – Norway

Dr Hallvard Ødegaard is Professor Emeritus at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.  He is Civil Engineer and has a doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering, from Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH), 1975. Since 1977 he has been professor in Water and wastewater treatment at the NTNU. He and his research group developed the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) process. He has over 30 years experience on wastewater treatment and advanced processes.

Prof. Gustaf Olsson, Lund University – Sweden

Gustaf Olsson is Professor Emeritus at Lund University, Sweden since 2006. He has devoted his research to control and automation in water systems, electrical power and process industries. He has served in various positions within the International Water Association (Director, Honorary member). He has received the Lund University pedagogical award for “distinguished achievements in the education”. The Lund University engineering students have elected him as the “teacher of the year”. In 2010 he received the IWA Publication Award.

Prof. Mark C.M van Loosdrecht – Delft University of technology, Netherlands

Dr Mark C.M van Loosdrecht is Full Professor at the Department of Biotechnology of Delft University of Technology. He has a doctorate in Microbiology, Wageningen University, The Netherlands, 1988. He has spent over 20 years on the key research topics surrounding around wastewater treatment: Biofilm and Granular Sludge Systems, Microbial storage polymers, Nutrient removal processes, Microbial ecology of engineered systems. He won the 2014 Spinoza Prize for his research and development on the field of the behaviour of biomass in dynamic conditions.