Waste Bioremediation

Dr. Sunita Varjani is a scientific officer at Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gandhinagar, India. She holds an M.Sc. degree in Microbiology (2009) and Ph.D. in Biotechnology (2014). Her major areas of research are industrial and environmental microbiology/biotechnology and molecular biology. Dr. Varjani has authored 35 publications and has won several awards and honours, including the Young Scientist Award at the AFRO-ASIAN Congress on Microbes for Human and Environmental Health, New Delhi (2014) and Best Paper Awards for oral presentations at national and international conferences in 2008, 2012 and 2013. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Energy and Environmental Sustainability.

Prof. Edgard Gnansounou graduated with an M.S. in Civil Engineering and Ph.D. in Energy Systems at the EPFL. He is a professor of Modelling and Planning of Energy Systems at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) where he is the director of the Bioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group. He is currently investigating the techno-economic and environmental assessment of bio-refinery schemes based on the conversion of agricultural residues. He is leading research projects in that field in several countries including Brazil, Colombia and South Africa. He has published numerous papers in leading scientific journals. He is a member of the editorial board of Bioresource Technology.

Prof. G. Baskar is currently working as a professor of Biotechnology at St. Joseph’s College of Engineering, Chennai, India. He has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals and five book chapters. His research expertise is in biofuels, therapeutic proteins, microbial enzymes, nanomedicine and nanocatalysis. He received the International Bioprocessing Association’s Young Scientist Award (2015) and the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE)-Sayed Sajed Ali National Award (2016).

Dr. Deepak Pant is currently the dean and head of Environmental Science, Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamsal. He received the Silver Jubilee Research Fellowship award in 2003 from Kumaun University, Nainital (India); the UCOST Young Scientist Award 2009, INSA Fellow (2010), DST-SERC Visiting Fellow 2010), and DST-SERC Young Scientist Award (2011). Dr. Pant has 5 patents in the area of waste management using green techniques and published 10 books, 45 research papers in various national and international journals. Dr Pant recently received Visitor’s Award 2017 from the President of India for his innovations in the area of waste management.

Dr. Zainul Akmar Zakaria is an associate professor at the Department of Bioprocess and Polymer Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia. He is currently a research fellow at the Institute of Bioproduct Development (IBD), UTM, which is a National Centre of Excellence for Plant and Microbial Bioproducts. He has published two research books, four edited books and eight book chapters. Dr. Zainul has served as a guest editor for some various journals; an evaluator for research grants from the American Chemical Society, Saudi Arabia, Australia and South Africa; as well as an external examiner for Ph.D. candidates from South Africa, India and Pakistan.