CSRW26
Keynote Speakers
Mathias Ernst
"Advanced NOM characterization and relevance for drinking water supply: selected results from the EU-SafeCREW project"
Mathias Ernst is a Full Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH). His research interests include water quality control and water treatment processes, investigating the relationships between water constituents (NOM; heavy metals) and their impact on the whole drinking water supply chain. In particular, his research focuses on the application and modification of membranes/materials for the removal of NOM/organic contaminants and heavy metals. Mathias is also Director of the DVGW Research Unit at the TUHH and spokesman for the Energy and Environmental Systems Research Unit at the TUHH.
Dimitrios Bikiaris
Dr Dimitrios N. Bikiaris is Chemist and Professor at the Chemistry Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (https://bikiarislab.wixsite.com/bikiarislab, email:dbic@chem.auth.gr). His research interests include the synthesis and characterization of polyesters and copolymers, biobased polymers, preparation and characterization of composites and nanocomposites, polymer blends, 3D printing, polymer recycling, modification of natural polymers, use of polymers for contaminants removal, microplastics and application of new biocompatible polymers in tissue engineering and pharmaceutical technology. His scientific work has been published in more than 615 papers, with over 30.500 citations, and h-index 92 (scopus). He has also written 4 chapters in international scientific books and he holds 15 international patents. He has participated in more than 64 research projects and is coordinator in 3 EU funded projects. In 2024 he was ranked in the first position in Materials Science in National ranking and at 1128 position in World ranking.
Javier Hernandez Borges
"Tracing microplastic pathways in wastewater treatment"
Javier Hernández-Borges is Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry (2022) at the Department of Chemistry at the University of La Laguna (ULL) in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain). He obtained his Bachelor in Chemistry at the ULL in 2001 as well as his PhD with European mention at that university in 2005, after which, he carried out a postdoctoral stay at the Institute of Chemical Methodologies of the National Research Council of Italy (2006-2007), obtained a Juan de la Cierva contract at the Canarian Institute of Agrarian Research (2007-2008) and a Ramon y Cajal contract at the ULL (2009-2013). Afterwards, he was promoted to Associate professor (2014) and Associate Professor with tenure (2017). He has published around 150 papers in international indexed journals and 34 book chapters, most of them dealing with analytical method development, in particular, with the determination of microplastics, pesticides, antibiotics, phthalates and estrogenic compounds residues in environmental and food matrices using mainly chromatographic and electromigration techniques also coupled to mass spectrometry detection. He has directed 9 PhD Thesis, 7 of them awarded with the ULL’s PhD Extraordinary Award. Since 2018, he is coordinator of the Applied Analytical Chemistry Research Group (AChem) at the ULL, which incorporated from the very beginning a pioneer research line at the university devoted to microplastics research, trying to follow a multidisciplinary approach. In particular, his group has been studying the presence of microplastics in air, soils, food, coastal and deep-sea sediments and also in the water column, monitoring environmental contaminants in microplastics, and determining the microplastic content in different living organisms as well as improving analytical methodologies for microplastics determination and analysis.
Hatem M.A. Amin
Natasa Kalogiouri
"Incorporating automated systems for the determination of PAHs in environmental waters. The green and blue analytical perspectives"
Natasa Kalogiouri is an Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, in the Department of Chemistry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). She studied Chemistry in the same University and graduated in 2011. She continued her studies in the same Department, from where she received her Master’s Degree in 2013 in Advanced Analytical Chemistry, with specialization in automated analytical techniques. In 2017, she was awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), with a specialization in Analytical Chemistry. She has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, in NKUA on several foodomics projects. She was granted a Postdoctoral Researcher Scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) for her proposal on the development of green microextraction protocols for the chromatographic separation of bioactive molecules and residues to guarantee food quality and safety. Her research interests focus on the development of analytical methods using green microextraction techniques prior to liquid or gas chromatographic analysis, including multidimensional chromatographic systems coupled to high resolution mass spectrometric detectors. She is specialized in omics analysis and the identification of unknown metabolites, and has developed in-house chemometric tools for data mining (data analysis, modeling, classification, and forecasting). Overall, she has worked in 18 scientific programs and counts more than 65 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals with an h-index of 18, she counts more than 60 conference announcements and she has co-authored 4 Chapter Books. She is a member of the Association of Greek Chemists, METROFOD-RI, Interdisciplinary Agrifood Center of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and Member of European Chemical Society – Division of Analytical Chemistry (EuChemS-DAC).
Dr. Dimitra Lambropoulou is Chemist and a Professor on Environmental Chemistry in the Environmental Pollution Control Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh). She is a member of the ENVIGREEN group of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI) of AUTh. Her main research interests are the development and application of novel sample preparation techniques coupled to advanced mass spectrometry approaches in the field of environmental chemistry, design and application of new materials in analytical and separation sciences, occurrence, transport, fate and effects of emerging contaminants (endocrine disruptors and pharmaceutical products, illicit drugs, polar pesticides, transformation products, nanomaterials and microplastics) in the environment (in waste and natural water), identification and structure elucidation of organic contaminants by high resolution mass spectrometry, application of “omics” techniques (Suspect Analysis & Non Target Analysis) to environmental problems, wastewater- based epidemiology. She is also interested in the development of effective degradation and purification processes for the mineralization of organic micropollutants such as Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOPs). She has published more than 240 ISI papers (plus 2 books and 18 book chapters) that have received more than 11250 citations (Scopus, h index 59). She serves as Associate Editor for the journal Science of Total Environment and as editor in the journals Total Environment Advances and Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health. She has been included in the list of World Top 2% Scientists for 2019- 2022 which is compiled by the Stanford University (USA) based on standardized citation indicators.
Natalia Manousi
"Green(er) sample preparation methods for the monitoring of pesticides in environmental water samples"
Natalia Manousi is a Post-Doctoral researcher in the Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics of TU WIEN, Vienna, Austria. She received her PhD in Chemistry from the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry of the Department of Chemistry of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2022. Currently, her research interests focus on the development of green and sustainable microextraction methodologies combined with chromatographic and spectrometric techniques. Up to now, she has published approximately 100 research articles and book chapters. She is among the leaders of task force Green metrics of the sample preparation study group and network of the European Chemical Society-Division of Analytical Chemistry.
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Antonio Marcomini
"Groundwaters as environmental archive of PFAS contamination"
Antonio Marcomini, professor of Environmental Chemistry and deputy rector at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, was post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto, Canada, and then research associate at the Polytechnic of Zurich, ETH-EAWAG, Switzerland. Coordinator/partner of several international and national research projects, he is author/coauthor of over 350 papers published by international peer reviewed journals, editor and coauthor of two books (SCOPIUS: H-index 70, citations>16000; Google Scholar: H-index: 86; overall citations: >23000). Main current research subjects: environmental behaviour of priority and emerging chemical contaminants including engineered nanomaterials; development and application of environmental risk assessment procedures and risk-based decision support systems addressing chemical pollution, climate change and sustainability. Member of national and international advisory/expert committees on environmental quality. His current teaching activity includes courses for MSc and PhD students in Chemistry, Environmental science, Environmental humanities. Member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Italian Chemistry Society (SCI), is a recipient of SCI and Ca’ Foscari outstanding research awards, and is in the 2% Top World Ranking Scientists.
Marco Carnevale Miino
"The importance of assessing sustainability in circular economy projects"
Marco Carnevale Miino received his PhD in Design, Modeling and Simulation in Engineering from the University of Pavia. He worked at the Brno University of Technology studying the presence of emerging contaminants in wastewater and has been Visiting Fellow at Riga Technical University where he carried out research mainly on the assessment of the sustainability in industrial processes with the Life Cycle Thinking approach. He is currently Postdoc at the University of Insubria and his research is mainly focused on emerging contaminants in water, wastewater treatment, and Life Cycle Assessment.
Stefan Panglisch
"Advances in scaling reduction for antiscalant-free inland desalination with high recoveries"
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 IWW Institute for Water Research, 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 office, 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 water technology at the IWW for more than a decade and carried out numerous research and consultancy projects in this role.
Maria Petala
"From Crisis to Policy: advancements of Wastewater Epidemiological Surveillance in EU under the Revised Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive"
Maria Petala is a Chemical Engineer (PhD, MSc) specializing in environmental engineering. Her postgraduate studies focused on chemical and environmental technology, while her doctoral and postdoctoral research concentrated on wastewater recovery and reuse—particularly the production of water of suitable quality for the replenishment of underground aquifers. Since 2013, she has been working as a Researcher and permanent member of the Specialized Laboratory Teaching Staff (SLTS) at the Laboratory of Environmental Engineering and Planning, Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). She has participated in more than 30 nationally and EU-funded research projects. Her scientific interests include water quality, liquid and solid waste management, wastewater-based epidemiology, water and wastewater treatment methods for recovery and reuse, and the environmental impacts of wastewater discharge. Her research has been published in over 45 peer-reviewed international journals (h-index: 20) and presented at numerous international scientific conferences. She serves as a reviewer of research proposals for EU-funded programs, and she is a certified evaluator of research projects funded through the NSRF and COST programs. In addition, she collaborates with public bodies on issues related to water resource management, water supply network improvements, and water quality. Since April 2020, she has been an independent, non-executive member of the Board of Directors of EYATH S.A. (Water and Sewerage Company of Thessaloniki) and has served on the Audit Committee of the Company since May 2020. She is actively involved in matters related to governance, with a focus on ESG principles, the Internal Governance Code, and the Regulatory Framework. Her work aims to enhance corporate operations, promote transparency, strengthen resilience, and improve sustainability. She is a member of the International Water Association (IWA), the Technical Chamber of Greece and the Global Consortium for Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance for Public Health (GLOWACON).
Konstantinos Plakas
"Advances in Membrane and Redox Processes for Sustainable Water and Wastewater Treatment: Insights from Research for Development Projects"
Dr. Konstantinos Plakas holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering, is an Associate Researcher (C’ Grade) at the Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute (CPERI) of the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) and Director of the Natural Resources and Renewable Energies (NRRE) laboratory. Dr. Plakas’ research focuses on the development of advanced technologies for desalination, water and wastewater treatment, pollution abatement and the recovery of materials and energy with added value, taking into account the principles of circular economy and sustainability. His work focuses on membrane processes, advanced oxidation processes (including heterogeneous photocatalysis, homogeneous and heterogeneous Fenton oxidation, H2O2/UVC, H2O2/TiO2/UVC) and electrochemical processes [electro-Fenton, (solar) photo-electro-Fenton, anodic oxidation]. His research activities have resulted in 40 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 5 book chapters, 2 patents and more than 110 contributions to international and national conference/workshop publications. He has been involved as coordinator or scientific responsible in numerous research and technological development projects funded by the European Commission, the chemical industry and other national funding agencies.
"Valorization of degradation products of PET plastic: the ProPla project and much more..."
Loredano Pollegioni graduated in Biology at the Università degli studi di Milano (Italy) and spent post-doc periods at the Universitat Konstanz (Germany) and at the University of Michigan (USA). He is full professor of Biochemistry and Treasurer of International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB). He is author of 270 publications on main international journals in the field of Biochemistry, Molecular and Structural Biology and Biotechnology. His scientific career focused on the investigation of human enzymes involved in pathologies and in important biochemical processes and on the evolution of enzymes for biotechnological applications.
Elia Psillakis
Elia Psillakis is Full Professor in Water Chemistry at the School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete. Her research activities focus on (i) studying the presence and photolytic fate of emerging groups of pollutants in natural and engineered systems, (ii) studying the concepts and practice of green analytical chemistry and green sample preparation, and (iii) the fundamentals and development of novel sample preparation methods. In 2007, she received a Fulbright Award and used it at Caltech, USA and in 2025, she was awarded the Silver Jubilee Medal from The Chromatographic Society. In 2021 she featured in the Power List of the magazine “The Analytical Scientist” as one of the Top 100 most influential people in analytical science. To date, her investigations have resulted in six book chapters more than 100 publications in ISI Journals, with more than 10000 citations (h-index=52) and six “Top cited article” awards. She is Editor-in-Chief of “Advances in Sample Preparation” from Elsevier (Q1 Journal with IF=5.2), Specialty Chief Editor of “Environmental Analysis” for Frontiers in Analytical Science (Frontiers) and served as an Associate Editor of the “Journal of Separation Science” (Wiley). Professor Elia Psillakis is also Head of the Sample Preparation Study Group and Network of the European Chemical Society-Division of Analytical Chemistry (EuChemS-DAC), an elected member of EuChemS-DAC, and an Affiliate Member of IUPAC. She is the Founder and Director of ExtraTECH Analytical Solutions, a Spin-Off Company of the Technical University of Crete. She has acted as an expert evaluator in several national and European evaluation panels, and in 2012 and 2013, she was vice-chair of the Chemistry evaluation panel for the EU Marie-Curie excellence fellowships. From 2014-2016, she was the Deputy Rector of Academic Affairs and Research at the Technical University of Crete and has served twice as the Director of postgraduate studies.
Slavica Ražić
"Use of novel biofunctionalized magnetite-geopolymer composites for the removal of phenolic compounds from wastewater"
Slavica Ražić is a full professor and head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade. She is a member of the EuChemS Executive Board and a member of the DAC-EuChemS Steering Committee). She is also a titular member of ACD-IUPAC and its representative in the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development. Slavica's current research interests lie in the development of analytical methods for environmental samples and greener approaches to sample preparation. Another focus is the development of innovative sustainable methodolgies for the removal of pollutants from wastewater.
Nikolaos Thomaidis
"HRMS Methodologies for the Characterization of Biomaterials and Water Resources in the Circular Economy: Applications in Wastewater Reuse, Agricultural Sustainability, and Risk Assessment"
Nikolaos Thomaidis is the Vice President of the University of Athens and Professor of Analytical Chemistry. He is specialized in Analytical Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry, with an emphasis in environmental analytical chemistry of emerging contaminants and the full characterization of organic fraction of environmental and food samples. He leads Trace Analysis and Mass Spectrometry (TrAMS) research group whose current research interest focuses on the development of cutting-edge HRMS methodologies and data processing chemometric tools, following targeted and untargeted workflows. These methodologies have been implemented in numerous national and EU funded projects, also for the characterization of food byproducts in the frame of a circular economy strategy of the agricultural/food sector. He has a constant research activity over the last 30 years in Analytical Chemistry with, mainly, environmental and food applications, summarized in >430 articles, 25 book chapters, receiving >17,700 citations and an h-index of 77 (Scopus). https://nikosthomaidis.gr/# https://trams.chem.uoa.gr/
Konstantinos Triantafyllidis
Urs Von Gunten
"Role of matrix components during oxidative water treatment"
Urs von Gunten is an emeritus professor with a joint appointment at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He is an internationally recognized expert on oxidation processes in water and wastewater treatment, including disinfection, micropollutant abatement, and formation of transformation products and disinfection byproducts from reactions with matrix components. He has published close to 300 peer-reviewed papers and a co-authored a book on ozone chemistry. In the last two decades he was strongly involved in the application of ozone for enhanced municipal wastewater treatment for micropollutant abatement, from laboratory experiments to full-scale implementation. He collaborates regularly with Swiss practitioners from the water and wastewater sector, e.g., he was the head of the trans-disciplinary projects “Water Supply for the 21 st Century (2004-2008)” and “Regional Water Supply Basel-Country (2013-2016)”.
Maria Touraki
"Sustainable bio-strategies for addressing wastewater treatment for the removal of organic contaminants and microplastics"
Maria Touraki is an associate professor of the Department of Genetics, Developmental and Molecular Biology, at the School of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). She studied Chemistry at the same University, graduated in 1984 and continued her studies as an undergraduate and PhD candidate in the Department of Biology, graduating in 1989 and awarded the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Biology from the AUTH with a specialization in Animal Physiology-Biochemistry. She specializes in Analytical Biochemistry with emphasis in the study of the bilateral interactions of beneficial or toxic compounds with animal models, including probiotic bacteria, pathogens, fungi, crustacea and insects, and their ability to decompose pollutants through their analysis in the corresponding biological matrices. In addition, she studies the incorporation of beneficial compounds of biological origin with antibacterial activity in carriers constructed from biological byproducts. These methodologies can be implemented in the frame of a circular economy, in the food/health/ environmental sector.