Dr. George P. Cobb is a professor at Baylor University, where he serves as Chair of the Department of Environmental Science. Prof. Cobb is an American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellow and a Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Fellow. He previously served as Chair of the American Chemical Society’s Division of Environmental Chemistry and President of SETAC North America. Prof. Cobb currently serves in various roles within the ACS. He chairs the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of South Florida. Throughout his career, Prof. Cobb has used novel sampling and analysis techniques for biotic and abiotic media to evaluate toxicant transport, transformation, and biological exposure processes. His exposure assessments within agricultural monocultures have also been integral parts of data packages for regulatory consideration of pesticide registration and reregistration. His research has also evaluated novel airborne transport processes that distribute synthetic anabolic steroids near concentrated animal feeding operations. The Cobb research group has also performed novel exposure and effect assessments of nanomaterials, metals, chlorinate hydrocarbons, and explosives in the environment. His most recent work includes monitoring and evaluating paraben’s chemical transformation in Texas wastewater.

From drain to grain: Opportunities and Challenges in Wastewater Reuse for Agriculture
Prof. Dr. Ester Heath is currently a researcher at the Jožef Stefan Institute and a Professor of Ecotechnology at the International Postgraduate School Jožef Stefan in Ljubljana, Slovenia. After earning her PhD in Chemistry – Environmental Organic Analysis in 1998 from the University of Ljubljana, she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Montreal, QC, Canada. Prof. Heath has been the Head of the Group for Organic Analysis within the Department of Environmental Sciences at the Jožef Stefan Institute for 20 years. Her research focuses on the application of organic analytical chemistry to the occurrence, cycling, and effects of residues of contaminants of emerging concern in environmental, food, and health-related matrices. Prof. Heath also serves as the Slovene representative to the Division of Chemistry in the Environment of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) and is an Editor of the Springer journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research. In 2022, she received the Zois Award for her outstanding achievements in the use of organic analysis in the fields of environment, food, and health.

Begoña Jiménez is Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Institute of Organic Chemistry from the Spanish Research Council (IQOG-CSIC), Spain.
Her main research interest is the environmental chemistry of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems with the ultimate goal of understanding their fate and behavior in the global environment. She has contributed to the scientific knowledge on the presence of POPs in the environment and the potential effects of POPs in wildlife species from protected or hot spot areas such as the Antarctica, Doñana National Park or the Mediterranean Sea using nondestructive approaches. Dr. Jiménez has participated in different Antarctic campaigns and in the Malaspina Circumnavigation Expedition.
She currently leads the Spanish Monitoring Program on POPs, funded by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic challenge, for the assessment of levels and temporal trends of legacy and emerging POPs in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures taken under the Stockholm Convention. Dr. Jiménez has been Government Observer on Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention, United Nations.
She is member of the International Advisory Board of the International Symposium on Halogenated Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and the Spanish Society of Chromatography and Related Techniques (SECyTA).

Mathias Ulbricht is since 2001 a Full Professor for Chemical Technology in the Department of Chemistry at University Duisburg-Essen, Germany (www.uni-due.de/tech2chem).
He had studied Chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and received his doctoral degree in 1987. He had worked at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, USA, from 1992 to 1993. He had received his “Habilitation” from Humboldt University in 1997. From 1997 to 1999 he was a researcher at GKSS Research Centre in Teltow, Germany. In 1999 he had founded ELIPSA Inc. in Berlin and was CEO of this private company until 2003.
Until now, more than 80 doctoral and over 130 master students have successfully graduated under his supervision. He has published more than 360 peer-reviewed papers, 16 book chapters, and he has 20 granted patents. His research is in the field of functional polymeric and nanohybrid materials and is focused on synthetic membranes and membrane-based technologies for water purification, bioseparation and energy conversion.

Dr Branimir Jovančićević performed his basic studies in Chemistry at the FCUB. He finished his Magister of Science thesis in 1988 and PhD in 1993. In 2000 and 2002 he finished post doctor study, as Alexander von Humboldt scholar (BGR, Hannover, Germany). In the last three Serbian Ministry of Science project periods he has been the chief of project in the field of organic geochemistry and environmental chemistry. He has been co-manager of two TEMPUS and one ERASMUS + projects, participant of Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) project and chief of bilateral projects with Germany and China. His research focused on the organic geochemistry and environmental chemistry (organic pollutants, bioremediation). His research involved the supervision a number of students at the BSc, MS, Diploma, and PhD level (21 students with completed doctoral studies). He is/was associate editor of journal Environmental Chemistry Letters (Springer), expert for the evaluation of FP7 projects, President of Humboldt club in Belgrade, dean of FCUB, president of Serbian Ministry of Science committee for geo- and astro-sciences, president of European Association of Chemistry and Environment (ACE). He is author of 7 books (5 by Springer), 7 book chapters, 3 editions and 127 SCI papers.

Prof. Dr. Bruno Glaser is a renowned soil scientist and Professor of Soil Biogeochemistry at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. His research focuses primarily on soil processes, particularly carbon and nitrogen stabilization, and the innovative use of biochar—a type of charcoal used to improve soil fertility and carbon sequestration. Prof. Glaser has made significant contributions to the study and application of Terra Preta (anthropogenic fertile soils) and is a leading expert in biochar research, which explores the environmental benefits and agricultural applications of biochar in sustainable resource management.

Throughout his career, he has applied advanced methodologies, such as meta-analysis, to clarify the efficacy and debunk myths surrounding biochar’s role in soil and environmental sciences. Prof. Glaser is also active in studying paleoecology and the impacts of global change on soil ecosystems. His expertise has earned him recognition as a highly cited researcher, underscoring his influence in the fields of sustainable agriculture and ecological soil management.

Dr. Hideyuki Inui received his Ph.D. degree from the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Japan in 1999. He has been working as an Associate Professor in Biosignal Research Center, Kobe University since 2016 and as a scientific member in Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz since 2023 after working as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor in Kobe University since 1999. During his professional career he conducted basic researches on the uptake, transport and metabolism of persistent organic pollutants by plants and their metabolism and degradation by mammalian xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes and microorganisms. In 2001-2002, he joined the Laboratory of Plant Biology at Rockefeller University, USA, to develop biomonitoring plants for dioxin and endocrine disruptor contamination in the environment. He has received many types of grants from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS). International scientists and students are usually present in his laboratory as he continues to receive grants to invite them. His research interests include monitoring and remediation of environmental pollutants using biological functions to produce safe crops.

Stefan Panglisch is responsible for the Chair of Mechanical Process Engineering/Water Technology (MVT/WT) at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE). Linked to the professorship is a position as Scientific Director at the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wasserforschung (IWW), a nationally and internationally renowned research and consulting institute. He is also Managing Director of the German Society for Membrane Technology (DGMT), a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the WIS Defence Science Institute of the German Armed Forces and a board member of the ZWU – Centre for Water and Environmental Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Before taking up this position, Stefan Panglisch was head of the R&D department at inge GmbH (now a DuPont brand), one of the world’s leading technology providers for ultrafiltration technology. Prior to this, Stefan Panglisch was responsible for the department „Water technology” at IWW for more than a decade and carried out numerous research and consultancy projects in this role.

His research interests are:

• Membrane, adsorption and combined membrane processes
• Influence of climate change on water infrastructure
• Utilisation of heavily polluted water resources (e.g. oily or eutrophic)
• Process optimisation and simulation
• Water reuse

Gaëlle Uzu is responsible for the Atmospheric chemistry team at Institute for Environmental Geosciences in Grenoble. She has been working for 15 years for the long-term purpose to scientifically integrate health exposure within air quality monitoring and forecasting. This is why she has been developing strong collaborations in the field of environmental sciences for answering new questions at the frontier of disciplines, including geochemistry and health sciences. In 2023, she led the very first international intercomparison of oxidative potential protocols. Overall, at 42 years-old, she has published 78 papers, with a H-Index of 33 and participated in about 27 research projects. Finally she’s also actively disseminating atmospheric science participating in podcasts, TV, radios to aware people to act in favour of ait quality.

Her research interests are:

• Atmospheric chemistry, PM sources
• PM reactivity, free radicals
• Health indicators, oxidative potential,
• Strong connections with epidemiology, toxicology and modelling