PAULA MARIA LIMA E CASTRO

Universidade Católica Portuguesa, CBQF - Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina – Laboratório Associado, Escola Superior de Biotecnologia, Porto, Portugal

Paula Castro is a Resercher at Centro de Biotecnologia e Química Fina, Full Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and currently Director of Escola Superior de Biotecnologia. Her main research interests focuses on developing bioprocesses and nature based solutions, including biodegradation of pollutants and wastewater treatment and soil phytomanagement. She has participated in > 50 projects in the field of environmental publication, co-authored 5 patent applications, > 240 publications in indexed journals and > 20 chapters in books/book series with peer review.

Thomas Held

Arcadis Germany GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany

Thomas Held is a senior specialist for biological, chemical, and physical in-situ remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater at the international consulting company Arcadis. His main research interests are improvement of innovative remediation technologies and analysis and remediation of emerging contaminants like e. g. PFAS. He has participated in hundreds of site investigation and remediation projects in the field. Her is author of numerous papers and a book on in-situ remediation.

Nicolas Kalogerakis

Technical University of Crete, School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Chania, Crete, Greece

Nicolas Kalogerakis is Professor Emeritus of biochemical engineering at TU-Crete where he served twice as Department Head and as Vice-President of the University Council. Prior to that he was a Professor at SUNY-Buffalo (USA) and at the University of Calgary (Canada). In 1997 he returned to Greece as a founding member of the Environmental Engineering Dept. His area of expertise includes environmental biotechnology focusing on bioremediation and phytoremediation technologies. Ongoing funded research activities include: (i) Combating hydrocarbon releases in deep sea environments (>200 bar), (ii) Bioremediation of contaminated marine sediments and (iii) biodegradation of plastics and microplastics in the marine environment and in agricultural soils. Currently his group is participating in 3 EU funded research projects (H2020 & HEU) and he is the coordinator of the ERA-MIN2 project nanoBT. His publication record includes 223 papers, 12 editorials and 6 patents.

Víctor de Lorenzo

Environmental Synthetic Biology Laboratory, Systems Biology Department. National Center of Biotechnology CSIC, Campus Universidad Autónoma, Madrid, Spain

Victor de Lorenzo is Professor of Research and head of the Environmental Synthetic Biology Laboratory at the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid. He specializes in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of soil bacteria (particularly Pseudomonas putida) as agents for decontamination of sites damaged by industrial waste. He has published over 350 articles in scientific journals and specialized books (https://goo.gl/byXfGT). He has served as advisor of numerous international panels—always advocating the value of engineered microorganisms for large-scale bioremediation. His current work maps at the interface of Synthetic Biology with Environmental Biotechnology.

Rainer U. Meckenstock

University of Duisburg-Essen, Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Essen, Germany

Rainer Meckenstock is a full professor at University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. His main research interests are: biochemistry and ecology of anaerobic degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in groundwater and oil reservoirs. A special focus is on developing stable isotope technology to assess microbial degradation in the environment. He has participated in over 30 projects in the field of environmental microbiology, received an ERC-advanced grant, co-authored 4 patent applications, and over 130 publications in indexed journals with peer review.

Paula Vasconcelos Morais

University of Coimbra, Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes, Department of Life Sciences, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal

Paula V Morais is an Associate Professor with Habill at the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Coimbra, and a researcher at the Centre for Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Processes - CEMMPRE. Her main research interests are microbial communities from contaminated environments, biochemical and genetic characterization of bacterial metal resistance and bacterial production of biopolymers for environmentally sustainable applications. She has participated in 38 projects related to new sustainable processes supported by microorganisms, co-authored 2 patent applications, >124 publications in indexed journals and 11 chapters in books/book series with peer review.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1939-6389

Mohammad Taherzadeh

Biotechnology research group, Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, Sweden

Mohammad Taherzadeh is professor in Bioprocess technology since 2004 at University of Borås in Sweden and chairman of Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery. Prof. Taherzadeh has PhD in Bioscience from Sweden, and MSc and BSc in Chemical Engineering from Iran. He is developing bioprocesses to convert wastes and residuals to value added products with focus on pretreatment and fermentation. With more than 400 publications, he is internationally well known on working with filamentous fungi and anaerobic digestion.

Homepage www.taherzadeh.se
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4887-2433

Lawrence Wackett

Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, USA

Lawrence Wackett is the Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota. He specializes in discovering and characterizing new microbial enzymes. The enzymes have been applied in the synthesis of β-lactone cancer and weigh loss drugs, the development of rapid sensors and for bioremediation. He has helped commercialize processes for the bioremediation of herbicides in soil and a disinfection byproduct in water. He has published over 300 articles and contributed 20 patents. He co-authored the textbook Biocatalysis and Biodegradation published in English by ASM Press and in Chinese by Chemical Industry Press in Beijing.

Willy Verstraete

Graduated as engineer at the Ghent University and subsequently obtained a Ph D degree in the field of microbiology at the Cornell University, Ithaca (USA).

He then returned to Ghent , where he became professor and started the Laboratory of Microbial Ecology and Technology (LabMET - Faculty of Bioscience Engineering). Since October 2011, he is emeritus professor. His R&D has as central theme: Microbial Resource Management ; ie the design, operation and control of processes mediated by mixed microbial cultures , more specifically by microbiomes . W. Verstraete has been instrumental in the creation of several spin-offs of the Ghent University in the field of applied microbial ecology (environmental technology; food and feed).