Maria Reis is a Full Professor in Environmental Biotechnology at FCT-UNL. Main research interests have been in the area of Environmental/Industrial BioEngineering, with special focus on the development of sustainable bioprocesses for the removal of pollutants from water and wastewater streams and for the exploitation of industrial wastes for the production of biopolymers and bulk chemicals, in the scope of circular economy. She created and is the head of the research group BIOENG at FCT-UNL comprising 42 members (http://sites.fct.unl.pt/bioeng/people/maria-m-reis). Within this research area, published more than 300 papers in scientific journals with peer review. H index 69. She is the co-author of 18 Book Chapters. Presented more than 200 oral presentations in international conferences. Is co-author of 4 National patents and 6 International patents and she has coordinated (as team leader) 28 international projects (20 in the last 10 years) and participated as a team member/coordinator in 34 national research projects. Eight projects were co-funded by industrial companies. Co-supervised 30 PhD students and is currently co-supervisor of 10 PhD students. Co-supervised 15 PostDoc and is currently co- supervisor of 9 PostDoc/Researchers. Her scientific contributions have been recognized with several awards, including the prestigious Solvay & Hovione Ideas Challenge SHIC’08 Prize-Solvay prize in 2008. She was nominated and elected to the Portuguese Academy of Engineering in 2009 and elected as IWA Fellow in September 2010. Maria Reis also serves as an Editor of Water Research (Elsevier).

Dionissios Mantzavinos serves as a Professor of Wastewater Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras. He holds a Diploma (MEng equivalent) in chemical engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (1991), and M.Sc. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996) degrees in chemical engineering from Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, UK. After a short spell as a Research Fellow and Lecturer at Edinburgh and Leeds Universities (1998-2001), he returned home to take up an academic position as an Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor in the Department of Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Crete (2001-2013) before his move to University of Patras. His research interests focus on water/wastewater treatment by advanced oxidation technologies, as well as on environmental catalysis. Prof. Mantzavinos serves as Editor-in-Chief to the Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology, and Associate Editor to Chemical Engineering Journal Advances. Information about his publication record can be found at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KvFFsVMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao.

Dr. Giorgio Mannina is Full Professor of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering at the Engineering Department of Palermo University – Italy. He is the Director of the Water Resource Recovery Facility at Palermo University, including the Water & Resource Recovery Lab. His research interest and focus are on advanced wastewater treatments (MBR, MBBR, hybrid processes, IFAS, Granular systems, etc..), BNR processes, environmental water quality mathematical modelling, etc. He is the author of more than 400 papers, of which >180 are on ISI Journals, and the Editor of around 12 books with more than 40 authored chapters. He has been invited to give several plenary/keynotes and invited talks, seminars, and lectures at international conferences as well as at universities/research institutions. Prof. Mannina has been visiting Professor/Researcher at several Universities: Columbia University, New York (USA), Tongji University (Shanghai, Cina), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, (Belgium), Laval University (Canada), The University of Queensland, Australia, Gdansk University (Poland). Prof Mannina is the recipient of several international awards, including the prestigious prize: Biennial Medal Award 2022 from the International Environmental and Software Society in recognition of his “Exceptional Research Contributions”.Prof. Mannina is Associate/Guest Editor of multiple ISI Journals: Journal of Bioresource Technology, Journal of Environmental Management, Journal of Hydrology etc. He is Chair of the International Water Association (IWA) Task Group on Membrane Bioreactor modelling & control and Member of the IWA Specialist Group "Membrane Technology". Prof. Mannina is a Fulbright Research Fellow at Columbia University (New York, USA)- 2018. He is/has been Chair of International Conferences, seminars and Advanced courses supported by the International Water Association - IWA. He is IWA Fellow.

Francesco Fatone is professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy). He is Fellow of the International Water Association, Ambassador of Water Europe, Doctor Honoris Causa, Expert/Advisor for the European Commission and for the Italian Ministry of the Environment for the science-policy interface. His R&D&I focuses on ecoinnovative solutions to deliver circular economy and bioeconomy for urban environment and industrial symbiosis, up to demo and full scale. He is or has been coordinator or WP/Task leader for more than 20 EU-funded projects and scientific advisor/consultant for several water and waste utilities/industries. He published more than 150 SCOPUS-INDEXED papers cited more than 5000 times (Hindex 43). LINKEDIN profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-fatone-0662821/

Dr. Michihiko Ike is a Professor at The University of Osaka (U-Osaka), Japan from 2006, and also serves as Director of the Center for the Study of CO*Design which deals with social-collaborative higher education of U-Osaka. He was awarded MSc and PhD in Engineering from U-Osaka in 1987 and 1993, respectively. After working for Kubota Co. in the section of wastewater treatment plant/facilities, he joined U-Osaka as an academic member from 1990. He has stayed at Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany as a guest researcher from 1998 to 1999. The research focuses on the technologies concerning conservation of environment and resources using biological/ecological means. Recently, the hot topics are the bio-recovery and -production of valued products, e.g., biomethane and bioplastics, from waste streams, the uses of symbiotic relationships between aquatic plants/algae and coexisting microbes for eco-friendly and efficient water purification systems coupled with biomass resource production, and the application of metal/metalloid metabolisms of specific microbes for cleanup of metal-contaminated environment and metal resource recovery. More than 270 refereed journal papers have been published related to his research so far.