Title:Professor, Korea University Business School, Korea

About: Professor Jay Hyuk Rhee is a leading authority on ESG and sustainable management at Korea University Business School. As a pivotal leader bridging academia and practice, he serves as Director of the ESG Research Institute and pioneered the university’s first ESG curricula. Professor Rhee has profoundly shaped national policy as the chief architect of the South Korean government’s "K-ESG" guidelines and through key advisory roles with the International ESG Association (IESGA), the Korea Exchange (KRX), and the National Pension Service (NPS). An acclaimed scholar, he has been inducted into the Korea University Hall of Fame and is a recipient of multiple prestigious awards for excellence in both research and teaching. His influential authored works include 'Sustainability and ESG Management' and 'Stakeholder-Centric Management'. Today, he remains a premier advisor to major conglomerates and multinational firms, steering the future of sustainable strategy in Korea and beyond.

Title:Professor ,Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. ,Hong Kong

About: Prof. Dan Tsang is the Executive Director of School of Engineering, Director of Research Center on Decarbonization Technology, and Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He holds fellowships at the Institution of Civil Engineers (FICE), Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (FIMMM), Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), and Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (FHKIE). Dan also serves as the founding Editor-in-Chief of npj Materials Sustainability (Nature Portfolio), Chairman of the Hong Kong Waste Management Association (2023–2025), and Waste Management Subcommittee Chair (2023&2024) of the Advisory Council on the Environment of the Hong Kong Government.

Title: Staff Scientist ,Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

About:Edward Baidoo, Ph.D., is a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Deputy Director of Functional Genomics in the Technology Division of the Joint BioEnergy Institute. His research interests lie in the use of metabolomics analyses to characterize engineered biosynthetic and metabolic pathways towards addressing key environmental challenges and engineering robust plant and microbial platforms for producing valuable renewable bioproducts. He received his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Sheffield Hallam University in the UK (2003), where he was advised by Prof. Malcolm Clench, Dr. Robert Smith, and Dr. Lee Tetler. Prior to his doctoral studies, he earned his master’s and bachelor's degrees in Biomedical Sciences and Biochemistry, respectively, at the University of Wolverhampton in the UK.

Title: Associate Professor, Dept. of Convergent Biotechnology & Advanced Materials Science, Kyung Hee University South Korea

About:Dr. Hwang Sung Yeon is a researcher showing the most excellent research results in the field of plastics sustainability, one of the national challenges, and is leading the recent research trend in the field of bioplastics. He is serving as a planning committee member of the ministerial research project including the Ministry of Environment to solve social problems and is serving as a director of the Korea Bioplastics Association (KBPA), which aims to foster the bioplastics industry.
The developed bioplastics was introduced to the president at the 2020 Ministry of Science and ICT work report and recognized as an innovative growth achievement in resolving issues felt by the people. It has been selected in the TOP 100 of environmental field and is leading the related research. In terms of award history, he has been awarded the Minister of Science and ICT's Citation in 2021, the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology in 2020, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy in 2019, and the Minister of Science and ICT in 2018. In addition, as the first biodegradable bioplastic manufacturing technology, the technology was transferred to a large company through domestic R&D and is about to be commercialized soon.

• (Former) Head, Bio-based Chemistry Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology
• (Former) Associate Professor at University of Science and Technology
• Member of Directors at Korean Bioplastics Association
• Member of Directors at International ESG Association
• Committee of 2021 Nature Conference (Hosted by NATURE based in UK)
• Organizing Chairman, Global ESG Forum (Waste: Plastic) parallel with Nature Forum (2022)
• Program Committee [Polymers and Environment], IUPAC-MACRO2020+ (2021)
• Chief-program Chairman of Global Symposium on Bio-based Polymeric Materials (KRICT) (2018~2022)

Title: Professor,Bergische University Wuppertal, Germany

About:Dr. Jörg Rinklebe is Professor for Soil- and Groundwater-Management at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. He has been selected as ISI Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. Prof. Rinklebe was Vize-President, President and Past-President of the International Society of Trace Element Biogeochemistry (ISTEB). His academic background covers environmental science, bioavailability of emerging contaminants, and remediation of contaminated sites. His main research is on soils, sediments, waters, plants, and their pollutions and linked biogeochemical issues with a special focus in redox chemistry. He also has a certain expertise in soil microbiology.

Prof. Rinklebe published plenty of scientific papers in leading international and national journals. According to SCOPUS data base (10.12.2025), he published 603 articles, which have been cited 53,784.0 times with h-index = 124. The Google Scholar total citation= 64,530.0; Google h-index = 134, and i10-index = 519. Also, he published six books entitled "Trace Elements in Waterlogged Soils and Sediments” (2016), “Nickel in Soils and Plants” (2018), “Soil and Groundwater Remediation Technologies” (2020), “Vanadium in soils and plants” (2022), “Methylmercury Accumulation in Rice” (2024), Green Technologies for Pollutants Remediation and Recovery from Water and Soil (2026) as well as numerous book chapters.

Prof. Rinklebe was serving as Editor in Chief for Environmental Pollution, and he was Chief Editor of special issues of the Journal of Hazardous Materials; Co-Editor in Chief of the international journal Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) and guest editor of the international journals Environment International, Chemical Engineering Journal, Science of the Total Environment, Chemosphere, Journal of Environmental Management, Applied Geochemistry, and Environmental Geochemistry and Health. Also, he is member on several editorial boards (Ecotoxicology, Geoderma, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Archive of Agronomy and Soil Science).

Prof. Rinklebe was the chair of the first joint international conferences of Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements” (ICOBTE) and “International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment” (ICHMET) in September 2023,. He was an invited speaker (plenary and keynote) at many international conferences. In 2016, Prof. Rinklebe got an appointment as Honorable Ambassador for Gangwon Province, South-Korea which was renewed in June-2018. Also, he got an appointment as Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, Visiting Professor at the Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea and Guest Professor at the China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

He got those awards:

• Award as "Distinguished Scientist" by the Academy of Sciences, China
• Award for internationalisation of research and teaching: Weltlöwe
• JIOMICS & Proteomass Scientific Society Career Awards
• IESGA Fellowship Award 2023

Title: Professor,Department of Environmental Sciences,Central University of Jammu, India

About:Dr. Richa Kothari is Professor at Department of Environmental Sciences, Central University of Jammu, Jammu, (J&K), India. She was a WARI Fellow (IUSSTF) at Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, USA. She has more than 22 years of teaching and research experience at Amity University, Noida (U.P.), Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (Central University), Lucknow (U.P.), India.

Dr. Kothari has been actively involved in research in the areas of algal-based biofuel production, bio-hydrogen production and utilization of renewable energy for wastewater treatment. She is also the recipient of prestigious research fellowships from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) by Government of India.Also, he published six books entitled "Trace Elements in Waterlogged Soils and Sediments” (2016), “Nickel in Soils and Plants” (2018), “Soil and Groundwater Remediation Technologies” (2020), “Vanadium in soils and plants” (2022), “Methylmercury Accumulation in Rice” (2024), Green Technologies for Pollutants Remediation and Recovery from Water and Soil (2026) as well as numerous book chapters.

Dr. Kothari has published more than 180 research papers/book chapters in reputed international peer-reviewed (SCI/Scopus) journals with high impact factor and supervised several M.Sc.(>50), M.Phil.(02), M.Tech.(>20) and Ph.D. students (10).

She has written a textbook titled Environmental Science for Undergraduates and edited thirteen books with National and International publishers. She has more than 7000 citations with h-index 50 and i-10 index 121. She has delivered several keynote/invited lectures in different countries (Vietnam, Malaysia, South Africa, USA, India). She is listed for 2% Scientist since 2020 continuous by Database published by Stanford's University and Elsevier.

Title: Professor,University Mohamed 6 Polytechnic (UM6P), Morocco.

About:Pr. Hicham ELARROUSSI is Professor, in Algal Biotechnology, MAScIR, University Mohamed 6 polytechnic, Morocco. With 20 Years’ experience on natural resources valorization using biotechnological tools, his research team was involved during last 10 years in several projects related with microalgae and seaweeds production and valorization in different applications such as wastewater treatment, agriculture, environment and bioenergy. .

Prof. ELARROUSSI’s research focuses on based algae bioprocess, and studies of theirs intercations with biological and chemical of wastewater. In addition, Prof. ELARROUSSI has developed strong expertise in the microalgae-bacteria studies consortium for watewater tretament and biomass production and valorisation to biofuel development.

Prof. ELARROUSSI is researcher with important contributions include several international patents and publications in algae biotechnology for bioproducts and new process development in different field such as wastewater treatment and bioproducts development for sustainable bioeconomy. Prof. ELARROUSSI has set up and led several projects on a national and international scale. Prof. ELARROUSSI is the founder of TECALGA, an innovative startup focused on the development and production of plant biostimulants based on microalgae biotechnology.

Title: Professor,Gyeongsang National University, South Korea.

About:Dr. Seung Gu Shin studied environmental engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology, Korea. He is currently a tenured professor at Gyeongsang National University. His research focuses on anaerobic digestion, biogas production, microbial ecology, and organic waste-to-energy technologies. He has contributed to interdisciplinary studies on microbial community analysis, process stabilization, and sustainable bioenergy recovery from organic residues.

Title: Emeritus Professor,University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA.

About:Michael Stekoll is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Alaska Southeast and is a Collaborating Faculty at the Juneau Center, College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks. He received a BS in chemistry from Stanford and a PhD in biochemistry from UCLA. He has spent the last 40+ years in Alaska teaching university classes in chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, aquatic pollution and phycology. His research interests have focused on two major areas: aquatic pollution effects on fish, invertebrates and marine algae (seaweeds) and research on the mariculture of seaweeds. His research on the culture of kelps such as Saccharina latissima and Nereocystis luetkeana marked the beginning of the seaweed mariculture industry in Alaska. His lab created the first seaweed “hatchery” in Alaska and continues to provide kelp seed to commercial farmers. He is currently involved in several applied research projects that are contributing to innovations in seaweed hatchery and outplanting methodology. Some of this research led to his team being awarded Grand Champions of the inaugural US DOE Algae Prize competition.

Title: Associate Director and Professor,Jain University, Bangalore, India

About:

Prof. S.K. Nataraj is currently working as Associate Director and Professor at the Centre for Nano and Material Sciences (CNMS), Jain University, Bangalore, India. He obtained his PhD on “Membrane Based Separation Processes for Industrial Effluent Treatment” in 2008 from the Centre of Excellence in Polymer Science (CEPS), Karnatak University, Dharwad, India.

After completion of his PhD, he moved to the Alan G. MacDiarmid Energy Research Institute (AMERI), Chonnam National University, South Korea, as a Postdoctoral Associate (2007–2009) to work on Energy Materials. During 2010–2011, he worked as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute of Atomic Molecular Sciences (IAMS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, where he developed ion-exchange membranes for Fuel Cell applications.

Further, he was awarded the Qatar University Visiting Fellowship at the University of Cambridge (2010–2011) and continued as a full-time Postdoctoral Research Associate (2011–2013) at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK.

Later, he moved to India to work as a DST-INSPIRE Faculty Fellow (2013–2015) at CSIR-CSMCRI, Bhavnagar, where his major research areas included Sustainable Materials and Processes for Energy and Environmental Applications such as Supercapacitors, Fuel Cells, Membrane Processes for Wastewater Treatment, Functional Nanomaterial-based Devices for Wastewater Treatment, and Value Addition of Bioresources.

Dr. Nataraj serves as a Member of the Editorial Board of the prestigious Chemical Engineering Journal and several other reputed journals. He teaches postgraduate courses in Separation and Purification Technologies, Battery-Fuel Cells, and Solid-State Materials.

He has published more than 220 research articles, holds 14 US/PCT patents, authored over 45 book chapters, 6 books, and 1 edited book. He has received more than 9100 citations and delivered over 60 invited talks. His socially relevant works have been highlighted in magazines and news articles including Nature Asia and Outlook.

Prof. S.K. Nataraj has appeared in the list of Top 2% Researchers issued by Stanford University for the last six consecutive years.

Title: Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), USA.

About:Eakalak Khan is a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Department and the Director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Water Resources, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). From 2002 to 2017, he was a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, North Dakota State University (NDSU). He also served as the Chair of Civil Engineering Department, NDSU from 2010 to 2013. Prior to NDSU, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, New York University (formerly Polytechnic University), New York from 1999 to 2002. He received his Bachelor of Engineering in Environmental Engineering from Chiang Mai University, Thailand in 1990, M.S. in Agricultural Engineering from University of Hawaii in 1993, and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1997. In 1998, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Environment, UCLA. Eakalak has published more than 200 refereed journal articles. His research has been well supported (~13 million U.S. dollars) by various governmental and private agencies. His contributions to the field of water and wastewater were recognized by many honors and awards such as Fair Distinguished Engineering Educator Medal, Water Environment Federation in 2023 and International Water Association Fellow in 2024.

Title: Professor, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Poland.

About:Professor Patryk Oleszczuk is a Full Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Head of the Department of Radiochemistry and Environmental Chemistry at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. His research focuses on: (1) ecotoxicology and environmental chemistry, (2) the behavior and fate of organic and inorganic contaminants in environmental matrices (soil, water, and sediments) and anthropogenic materials such as sewage sludge, composts, and food, (3) nanoparticles in the environment, (4) sustainable waste management and resource recovery, and (5) the properties, production, and environmental applications of biochar. With more than 20 years of research experience, Professor Oleszczuk has made significant contributions to understanding the environmental behavior, remediation, and ecotoxicological impacts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, nanomaterials, and emerging contaminants. He has authored over 250 peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals and is a frequent invited speaker at scientific conferences and universities worldwide.

Professor Oleszczuk currently serves as Associate Editor of Chemosphere, Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes, and New Contaminants, and is a member of the Editorial Boards of Environmental Sciences Europe and Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. His international experience includes research stays and collaborations with institutions such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA), Duke University (USA), Texas Tech University (USA), and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (Norway), and Kunming University of Science and Technology (China).

His scientific achievements have been widely recognized internationally. He has been included among the World's Top 2% Most-Cited Scientists every year from 2017 to 2023. According to Google Scholar, his work has received more than 18,500 citations and his H-index exceeds 73.

Professor Oleszczuk is currently ranked as the No. 1 Environmental Scientist in Poland according to the 2026 Research.com ranking in Environmental Sciences and has received the Research.com Environmental Sciences in Poland Leader Award for multiple consecutive years.

His expertise in biochar and waste-derived materials is also internationally recognized. According to ScholarGPS, he is ranked among the world's leading experts in this field, holding the 1st position worldwide for the keyword "Sewage Sludge" and the 6th position worldwide for "Biochar" and “Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons” among highly ranked scholars based on research productivity, impact, and quality.

Through his interdisciplinary research, Professor Oleszczuk continues to advance sustainable remediation technologies, circular economy solutions, environmental risk assessment, and the development of innovative biochar-based materials for environmental applications.

Title: Chair Professor,Universidad de Cordoba, Spain.

About:Rafael Luque (PhD in 2005 from Universidad de Cordoba, Spain) has significant experience in biomass and waste valorization practices to materials, fuels and chemicals including nanoscale chemistry, green chemistry and catalysis as well as environmental remediation with a particular interest on plastic waste (>1000 publications, h-index 121, >65,000 citations, 7 patents, >10 edited books). He was named 2018-2022 Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate Analytics) and received Honorary Professor titles (Doctor Honoris Causa) at Universitá degli studi Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria and RUDN University.

Prof. Luque is currently Head of B4 group (Bioresources, Biopolymers, Biotechnology and Biorefineries) and Project Director at National University of Science and Technology Polytehnica Bucharest (Romania), holding various positions as DFSP Chair Professor at King Saud University (Saudi Arabia), Distinguished Visiting Professor at University of Lahore (Pakistan) and International Distinguished Scientist and Rectoral Advisor at Universidad ECOTEC (Ecuador). .

Title: Professor,Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea.

About:Dr. Sung Kuk Lee is a Professor in the Department of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST (Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology; https://sites.google.com/site/skleelab/), Korea. He received his BS (1994) from the Department of Microbiology at Kyungpook National University, Korea, and his MS (1997) and PhD (2001) from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Korea. Before joining UNIST, he worked at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA (2001–2003), SynBERC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) (2004–2007), and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI)/LBNL, where he served as Co-Director of the Fuel Synthesis Division (2007–2008). Prof. Lee is an Editorial Board member of Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering (BBE) and the Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology (JMB), and serves in professional societies including KSBB, KMB, MSK, and the Korean Society for Synthetic Biology. His major research interests include metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for the development of microbial platforms and recombinant DNA tools to produce biofuels, bioplastics, chemicals, cosmetics, and drugs. His work has been recognized with multiple BBE Best Paper/Best Article Awards. Dr. Lee has mentored numerous graduate students, published more than 80 peer-reviewed research papers, and filed or registered many domestic and international patents and patent applications.

Title: Associate Professor,Korea University, South Korea.

About:Sun-Mi Lee is an associate professor in the Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering at Korea University. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She worked as a research scientist at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) for twenty years. She serves on the expert committee of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology in Korea and holds editorial roles as an Associate Editor for Biomass & Bioenergy and an Editorial Board Member of Bioresource Technology. Her research focuses on applying synthetic biology tools to address energy and environmental challenges. Her work primarily involves engineering yeast as a cell factory for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass, as well as for the bio-upcycling of plastics. To enhance the efficiency and expand the capabilities of these cell factories, she evolves enzymes, optimizes cellular networks, and develops integrated bio-chemical processes.

Title: Associate Professor,Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Petroleum & Energy (IIPE), Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh (An Institute of National Importance, Govt. of India) ,India

About:Dr. Ravi Kumar Sonwani is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy. He also serves as an expert member of the Consent Management (CTE & CTO) cum Monitoring Committee of the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board. He obtained his M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) in 2016 and 2020, respectively. During his Ph.D., he was awarded the SPARC Fellowship by the Government of India and worked as a visiting research scholar at Hanyang University, where he developed highly porous metal-organic frameworks (MOF-199) for VOC (BTEX) removal. He also visited National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology under a faculty mobility program in December 2024.

His current research focuses on hydrogen generation, corrosion mitigation, wastewater treatment, air pollution control, bioenergy, and waste-to-energy conversion technologies. He is currently working on projects (1) “H₂ Generation from Seawater through Flue Gas Desalination (GH₂-FGSW DeSal Plant): Development and Design” and (2) “Development of Sustainable and Cost-Effective Strategies for Corrosion Mitigation at NTPC Simhadri.” Dr. Sonwani has published more than 55 peer-reviewed research articles and 3 book chapters, and has presented his work at several international conferences. He has also received multiple awards and actively serves as a reviewer and guest editor for reputed international journals published by Elsevier, Springer Nature, and Wiley.

Title: Professor,Chonnam National University,South Korea

About:Dr. Hyeun-Jong Bae is a Professor in the Department of Bioenergy Science and Technology and Director of the Bioenergy Research Center at Chonnam National University, Republic of Korea. He received his BS and MS degrees from Chonnam National University and earned his Ph.D. in Phytology from Université Laval, Canada, in 2002. Since 2006, he has led research programs in bioenergy and biotechnology, serving as Principal Investigator for several major national initiatives, including the Biogreen 21 Program, BK21 Program, and the University Priority Research Center Program. Dr. Bae has extensive international academic experience, including serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. More recently, he has been active as a guest professor at Qingdao Agricultural University, China, and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan. His research focuses on lignocellulosic biomass pretreatment, enzymatic deconstruction, second-generation bio-sugar production, and integrated biorefinery strategies for renewable fuels, chemicals, and biomaterials.

Title: Professor,University of Campinas,Brazil

About:Arnaldo Walter is Professor at University of Campinas (Unicamp) and former Director (from 2009 to 2013) of the Sustainability Research Program at the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory (CTBE). He has a background in Mechanical Engineering, with M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and Ph.D. in Energy Planning. He has received a specialization degree in Argentina (Energy Planning) and developed post-doctoral research at the NREL-US, at King’s College-UK and at KTH, Sweden. Along the years developed professional activities in different countries, and taught in Ecuador, Peru, Sweden, Mexico, Colombia and Argentina. He acted as executive-editor of Energy – the International Journal (Elsevier) from July 2011 to July 2013 and was co-convener of an ISO project that allowed the approval of the standard ISO 13065 Sustainability Criteria for Bioenergy. Arnaldo Walter joined groups that developed projects in the context of the European Commission and IEA (International Energy Agency) Bioenergy Agreement. His recent research activities have been focused on sustainability of biofuels and market assessment of biofuels (including trade).