INVITED SPEAKERS

BRIAN ROBINSON LECTURE

Honourable Balarabe Abbas Lawal 
Minister of Environment, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Balarabe Abbas Lawal was born on 5 February 1958 in Kachia, Kaduna State, and hails from Zaria Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. He holds an MSc in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and has undertaken executive training in management and leadership at various institutions, including Cranfield University (UK) and Harvard University (USA).He began his career as a lecturer during his National Youth Service Corps and later served at the College of Advanced Studies, Zaria. He subsequently held senior management roles, including Principal Management Development Officer at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria and Principal Manager at the National Electric Power Authority.

Lawal has held several high-level public appointments, including Special Assistant to ministers in the Education and Defence portfolios, Special Assistant to the President, and Chief of Staff to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. He served multiple terms as Secretary to the Kaduna State Government.

Appointed Minister of Environment in October 2023, he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Climate Action. He holds key leadership roles in national environmental and climate initiatives, advancing sustainable development and environmental stewardship in Nigeria. He is the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Hydrocarbon Remediation Project (HYPREP), which is responsible for large-scale remediation of hydrocarbon-degraded land (soil and groundwater), shoreline cleanup, and mangrove restoration in Nigeria. 

Honourable Balarabe Abbas Lawal will be presenting "People and Planet: Shared Responsibilities and Policy Lessons from Large-Scale Remediation in Ogoniland, Nigeria ".



PLENARY SPEAKERS

Mirco Barbero 
Policy officer, Soil Protection and Sustainable Land Use 
Land Use and Management Unit, Directorate-General Environment,
European Commission

Mirco Barbero is a policy officer in soil protection and sustainable land use; he leads the Soil Team since June 2019 within the Unit Land Use and Management, Directorate-General Environment, European Commission.Mirco has a degree in physics and has worked for a dozen of years in the private sector as responsible for the quality assurance of products and services. He has joined the Commission in 2005, where he worked mainly as a team leader in internal audit, advising the management on how to improve performance, governance and risk management in several policy areas.He and his team have prepared the EU Soil Strategy and the proposal for the EU Soil Monitoring and Resilience Directive, negotiating it with the European Parliament and Council, now contributing to the implementation.

Mirco Barbero will be presenting "Addressing soil contamination in the EU: the Soil Monitoring Law contribution.



Dr. Lauren Heine
Inaugural Senior Fellow at the Green Science Policy Institute USA and Co-founder of ChemFORWARD

Dr. Lauren Heine is a recognized leader in greener chemistry, advancing products and processes that eliminate waste and reduce the use of toxic chemicals through green engineering, alternatives assessment, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. She is an inaugural Senior Fellow at the Green Science Policy Institute and a co-founder of ChemFORWARD, where she works to expand access to high-quality chemical hazard profiles to support informed decision-making across supply chains. Her work builds on earlier leadership developing GreenScreen for Safer Chemicals and CleanGredients. For the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, she drafted Policy Principles for Sustainable Materials Management and criteria for sustainable plastics. She has served on the California Green Ribbon Science Panel and co-chairs the Apple Green Chemistry Advisory Board. She began her career as an AAAS Fellow at the U.S. EPA and holds a doctorate in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University.

Dr Lauren Heine will be presenting "Making Safer Solutions Usable: Bridging Science, Tools, and Industry Decisions".



Dr. Ian Ross Ph.D., FRSC 
Global PFAS Practice Lead, CDM Smith

Ian has >33 years’ experience in the environmental impact of xenobiotics and has focused solely on PFAS management for the last 12 years in a global role, after first evaluating solutions to manage PFOS in 2005 after the Buncefield fire near London, then started developing PFOS destruction technologies whilst working on a PFAS project for Guernsey airport from 2007. He has written over 100 articles, academic publications, and book chapters on PFAS, including the 204-page chapter on PFAS in the Emerging Contaminants Handbook. 

Ian is a biochemist by training and works as a technical expert for assessment of contaminated land sites and PFAS decontamination. He was the first to commercialize the total oxidizable precursor (TOP) assay and apply this at several sites in Scandinavia from 2014 and has applied high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to characterize PFAS. He has acted as expert witness for governments managing PFAS and is currently working on 5 SERDP projects investigating PFAS supramolecular assemblies.

Dr Ian Ross will be presenting "The Sting in the Tail: How Nature Reacts to PFASs".



Professor Craig Simmons 
Pro Vice-Chancellor, College of Engineering, Science and Environment 

Professor Craig T. Simmons FAA FTSE is a leading groundwater scientist, recognized for contributions to groundwater science, science leadership, education, and policy reform, working across the public and private sectors. He is the Chief Scientist for South Australia. Craig is Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Engineering, Science and Environment at the University of Newcastle. 

Craig was Foundation Director of the ARC National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research at Flinders University, and Executive Director for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences at ARC.  

Craig is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and American Geophysical Union. 

He has received awards including the Australian Academy of Science Anton Hales Medal for distinguished contributions to research in the Earth Sciences, South Australian Scientist of the Year, Australian Water Professional of the Year, and International Association of Hydrogeologists Presidents’ Award. He is a lead author of the United Nations World Water Development Report “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible” and coauthor of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report. 

Professor Craig Simmons will be presenting "Groundwater Contamination and Remediation: Approaches, Challenges, and Opportunities".

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Professor Paul Bardos 
Chartered Environmentalist, Managing Director r3, UK

Professor Paul Bardos is a Chartered Environmentalist with more than 30 years of experience in soil science and biology; contaminated land and brownfields, circular economy, waste treatment and risk management, particularly biological treatment technologies, sustainability assessment, soil and water issues.  He has >300 publications. He is managing director of r3 which he established in 1997. Prior to 1997 he worked with Nottingham Trent University and before that a UK government research institute, the Warren Spring Laboratory. He has worked with a wide range of clients in worldwide including multinationals, businesses, stakeholder networks and government agencies. He a visiting professor at the University of Reading and visiting researcher at University of Southampton. He is co-chair of the Steering Group of the cross-sectoral Sustainable Remediation Forum in the UK (www.claire.co.uk/surfuk); and was a contributor to the International Standard ISO 2017:18504 Soil quality -- Guidance on sustainable remediation.  He provided technical support on eco-efficiency evaluation of circular economy value chains in China. He was also an expert consultant for the Government of China and the World Bank on sustainable and risk based remediation.  He has also consulted for the government agency AIST (Japan) for the sustainable reuse of contaminated soil in the impacted areas of Fukushima.  He has carried out a number of remediation project evaluations and audits for various authorities, Public and Private Sector clients around the world, including remediation sustainability assessment in the UK, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Poland.  He has been a partner in several recent leading edge European (H2020 and HE) and Chinese R&D projects related to advanced bioremediation, production of biofibres on brownfields, re-use of soil and management of persistent organic pollutants. He has a major book publication in English and Chinese, due in 2026 on “Sustainable risk based land management in practice”.  His current projects include the HE ISLANDR project (sustainable restoration of brownfields); LIFE4ZOO (circular water use in zoos); Ground Zero (building a Roblox game to support youth soil literacy), international expert witness work related to circular economy; supporting market entry for a PFAS treatment; European proposal build support for various clients.

Professor Paul Bardos will be presenting "The Future of Legacy Contaminated Sites: Risk, Sustainability and Adaptive Remediation in Complex Environments".



Stephen Beaman
Executive Director Operations,  EPA NSW 

Steve has worked for almost 30 years on developing and implementing policy change and programs, enabling practical solutions to improve the quality of the NSW environment. In 2017 he was awarded a Public Service Medal (PSM) for his outstanding contribution to the environment. He has worked across a diverse range of policy and program areas, including natural resources management, environmental planning and regulation, resource recovery and community programs. His areas of expertise include evidence-based analysis of complex policy issues and delivering innovative regulation programs to protect the community and environment. Steve has a strong interest in the power of building and leveraging strategic relationships with stakeholders to achieve aligned responses in sensitive or contentious environments. He holds a Bachelor of Science and is completing a Master of Emergency Management.

Steve Beaman will be presenting "TBA".



Dr Bhabananda Biswas
Research Lead – Sustainable Minerals and Materials, crcCARE.

Dr Bhabananda Biswas is Research Lead - Sustainable Minerals and Materials at crcCARE and an Affiliate Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle, with over 15 years of interdisciplinary experience in clay minerals, nanomaterials, and environmental remediation. His work focuses on mineral-based solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving fertiliser efficiency, and managing pollution across soil, water, livestock, and aquaculture systems. He is also co-CI of an ARC project related to clay-based low-emitting fertiliser. A Humboldt Fellow and recipient of the South Australia Governor’s Award for Research Excellence, he has published over 56 papers in leading Q1 journals, and led three patents as inventor related to modified clays for emission reduction and contamination remediation. He serves as Chair of the Standing Committee (Media and News Editorial) at the Clay Minerals Society (USA), Chair of the Teaching Committee of The International Association for the Study of Clay (AIPEA), and Associate Editor for Environmental Geochemistry and Health, Clays and Clay Minerals, and Environmental Pollution, Risk, and Remediation Insights.

Dr Bhabananda Biswas will be presenting "Turning Naturally Occurring Minerals into Eco-Remediation Solutions: Addressing Gaseous Emissions, Climate Change, and Food Chain Implications".



Roger Brewer
Senior Environmental Scientist,
TOS Environmental (retired Hawaii Department of Health), USA

Dr. Brewer has over thirty years of experience in environmental site investigation and human health and ecological risk assessment. He retired after twenty years with the Hawai’i Department of Health in 2024 and currently works as a free-lance consultant (TOS Environmental LLC). His academic background includes a PhD in geology and post-doctoral research at Nanjing University in China. His environmental experience includes regulatory compliance audits; characterisation of contaminated soil, water and air; contaminant fate and transport; vapor intrusion and human health and ecological risk assessment. He has also worked as an environmental consultant in the US, Asia and South America and as a senior geologist and environmental risk assessment specialist for the California Environmental Protection Agency. He has given numerous formal and informal training classes on methods to identify and address environmental hazards at contaminated industrial sites and is actively involved in the continued development of state and federal environmental risk assessment programs. He is currently assisting various regulatory agencies and environmental institutes in preparation of guidance on the investigation and assessment of environmental risks posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs).

Roger Brewer will be presenting "How to Simplify Risk Assessment of Complex Mixtures of PFASs: Example Investigation of PFAS-Impacted Agricultural Lands and Food Crops".



Paul Ekins
Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources University College London.

Paul Ekins has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of London and is Professor of Resources and Environmental Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources at University College London. He was a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre from 2004-2019. He is currently a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel. He was one of two global Co-Chairs of UNEP’s Global Environment Outlook, published in 2019. His academic work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. He has worked extensively on indicators for a sustainable economy and sustainable development, and contributed a chapter to UNEP’s Measuring Progress (2021) publication, which assesses the environmental indicators of the Sustainable Development Goals. His book Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth appeared in 2000. In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme. In the UK New Year’s Honours List for 2015 he received an OBE for services to environmental policy.

Paul Ekins will be presenting "Defining the Safe Operating Space at National Level through the Environmental Sustainability Gap (ESGAP) Framework".



Philip Goodrum, Ph.D., DABT
Principal Toxicologist GSI Environmental Inc. USA .

Dr. Philip Goodrum is a Principal Toxicologist with GSI Environmental Inc. with 35 years of experience in the health and environmental science fields, working on behalf of both government and private sector clients. He serves on the adjunct faculty of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF) where he taught a course in environmental risk assessment and currently advises PhD students conducting research on PFAS mixtures toxicology.  He is board-certified as a Diplomat in toxicology by the American Board of Toxicology and is also a certified ecologist with the Ecological Society of America. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Technology from Cornell University, and both a Master’s of Science in Water Resources and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from SUNY ESF. He has served on national science advisory committees for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), USEPA, National Institute of Health, and the Consumer Products Safety Commission on matters related to lead (Pb) exposure and toxicity, heavy metals risk assessment, and the development of environmental models to support national health-protective standards. His current research interests involves risk assessment and risk communication of chemical exposures in the context of medical toxicology and public health policy.

Philip Goodrum will be presenting "When is ecological risk the driver for cleanup actions? and "The Lead Paradox: Rising Childhood Exposure in the Face of Expanding Science and Global Investment".



Prof. Deyi Hou
Director of Soil and Groundwater Division, Tsinghua University, China

Prof. Deyi Hou is the Director of Soil and Groundwater Division at Tsinghua University. He is also serving as the Vice Chair of the UN-FAO International Network of Soil Pollution (INSOP). Prof. Hou obtained his BS from Tsinghua University, MS from Stanford University, and PhD from University of Cambridge. His research has focused on contaminant transport and distribution in soil and groundwater, synthesis of innovative environmental functional materials, green and sustainable remediation. He also had over 10 years of industrial experience in the US and the UK in the field of soil and groundwater remediation (2006-2015). Prof. Hou has conducted numerous projects involving soil and groundwater pollution at site-level, regional-level, and national level. He has published 5 books and over 200 journal papers on top journals including Nature, Science, Nature Climate Change, Nature Sustainability, Nature Review Earth & Environment, etc.

Prof Deyi Hou will be presenting "Global soil pollution by toxic metals: impact to agriculture and sustainable remediations".



Chair Professor Irene Lo
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong 

Irene Lo is currently a Chair Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She is an Elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, and Elected Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Engineering. She is also a Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, and Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She was appointed by HKSAR Government as Justices of the Peace (JP) in 2017. She was also Adjunct Professor of Tongji University, Tianjin University, Jilin University and Harbin Institute of Technology. She had been Visiting Professor of Technical University of Denmark and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Prof. Lo is an internationally renowned scholar and is among the first to invent iron-based nanomaterials and photocatalytic materials for the removal of heavy metals, organics, and emerging pollutants such as antibiotics from water and subsurface environment. She was the recipient of numerous prestigious international research awards, such as 2025 Career Award, 2025 IETI Distinguished Fellow, 2012 ASCE EWRI Best Practice-Oriented Paper Award, 2009 ASCE Wesley W Horner Award, and 2007 ASCE Samuel Arnold Greeley Award, etc. She has been invited to give over 100 plenary/keynote/invited speeches at many international and regional conferences. Her citation is 24400+ with H-index 84, as reported by Google Scholar.  She was recognised as "Top 2% Scientists in the World” by Stanford University in the past years since 2019.

Chair Professor Irene Lo will be presenting "Sustainable Removal of PFAS from Drinking Water by Adsorptive and Electrochemical Process".



Dr Rainer Lohmann
Professor,  University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography

Dr. Rainer Lohmann is a Professor at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. He obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering and a Doctorate in Environmental Science. He is Director of the URI-led Superfund Research Program Center on the Sources, Transport, Exposure and Effects of PFAS (STEEP). His research focuses on the detection, bioaccumulation, transport and fate of anthropogenic pollutants in the environment, often relying on passive samplers in the process. Since 2000, he has published > 200 publications and book chapters. Dr. Lohmann was a member of the U.S. EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (2017-2023), and serves as Editor of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship as part of the Fulbright Arctic Initiative III in 2020, and an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellowship in 2011.

Dr Rainer Lohmann will be presenting "Bioaccumulation of PFAS in the marine foodwebs" and "Trends of organic contaminants in global waters from AQUA-GAPS/MONET network".



Dr. Heather Lord 
Global PFAS Practice Lead ALS

Dr. Heather Lord joined ALS in 2025 as the Global PFAS Practice Lead, where she drives the company’s global PFAS strategy with a focus on leading client and regulatory engagement. She collaborates closely with the regional PFAS practice leads of ALS across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, guiding innovation, quality, and technical excellence.

Dr. Lord earned her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Waterloo, Canada, and brings more than 25 years of experience leading scientific teams in innovation, product development, and technical excellence. For over a decade, she has been at the forefront of PFAS analytical science, spearheading the development of PFAS testing services and sharing her expertise through numerous presentations on PFAS-related issues. Recognized as a trusted advisor, Dr. Lord supports clients in navigating complex and non-routine PFAS testing requirements with confidence and clarity.

Dr Heather Lord will be presenting "PFAS Testing: The Successes, the Challenges, and What’s Next".



Professor Megharaj Mallavarapu
Global Centre for Environmental Remediation
College of Engineering, Science and Environment, University of Newcastle 

Professor Megharaj Mallavarapu is a Professor at the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), School of Science, within the College of Engineering, Science and Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He is an internationally recognised environmental scientist with expertise in pollutant–biota interactions, ecotoxicology, and bioremediation. Over his distinguished research career, Professor Mallavarapu has published more than 500 peer-reviewed journal papers and has made significant contributions to advancing knowledge on contaminant fate, bioavailability, remediation, and environmental risk assessment.  Over the past decade, his research has focused on understanding the environmental behaviour, plant uptake, food chain transfer, and ecological implications of PFAS and microplastics in agricultural systems.  

Professor Megharaj Mallavarapu will be presenting "Biosolids in Transition: From Nutrient Resource to PFAS Challenge- Implications for Soil Health, Biota, and the Food Chain".



Shaily Mahendra
Richard G. Newman AECOM
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering UCLA,  USA 

Dr. Shaily Mahendra is the Richard G. Newman AECOM Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UCLA, and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and the Molecular Toxicology Program. She received Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley. 

Shaily has developed enzyme-vault nanocatalysts for water purification, omics-based tools for environmental assessments, antifouling coatings for medical and environmental applications, energy-positive wastewater treatment approaches, and abiotic and biological transformation of emerging contaminants, including 1,4-dioxane, PFAS, pesticides, munitions, dyes, bisphenol analogs, and tire-derived organic pollutants. 

Dr. Mahendra received the CH2M-Hill/AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, NSF CAREER Award, DuPont Young Professor Award, Northrop Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award, AEESP Distinguished Service Award, Walter Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize, and Paul Busch Award from the Water Research Foundation. Shaily has published over 100 papers and book chapters, 5 awarded patents, and delivered over 300 invited talks and conference presentations. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters.

Shaily Mahendra will be presenting "Emerging Contaminants in Water:  Innovative Treatment Approaches and Corresponding Microbial Ecologys".



Charles J Newell, PhD, PE, BCEE

Vice President/Principal Engineer
GSI Environmental Inc. USA

Dr. Charles Newell is a Vice President at GSI Environmental Inc. in Houston, Texas. He is a Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE) through the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES) and an Adjunct Professor at Rice University. Dr. Newell has co-authored more than 30 technical publications on PFAS fate, transport, and remediation, and has led multiple PFAS research projects funded by the U.S. Department of War. His honors include the 2014 SERDP Project of the Year Award as Co-Principal Investigator, the 2016 ITRC Environmental Excellence Award, the 2019 AEHS Foundation Achievement Award, and the 2024 Gordon Maskew Fair Award from AAEES.

Charles Newell will be presenting "Overview of PFAS Remediation for Soil, Groundwater, and Stormwater: A Case Study Perspective".



Dr Md Nuruzzaman
Research Scientist – Pesticide Formulations and Environmental Safety, crcCARE.

Dr Md Nuruzzaman is an environmental scientist with over 12 years of experience in environmental chemistry, contaminated land assessment, and sustainable agricultural technologies. He is currently a Research Scientist affiliated with the University of Newcastle and has led nationally significant project investigating the fate, transport, and risk of pesticide including herbicide.

His research focuses on pesticide behaviour, environmental exposure pathways, and the development of innovative environmental remediation technologies (InERTs) such as controlled release pesticide formulations, nano-enabled delivery systems and bio-rational pest management strategies. Along with pesticide pollution, Dr Nuruzzaman has also contributed to understand other diffuse pollution generated from agricultural activities such as fertilizer and manure application, wastewater irrigation and soil erosion. In recognition of his work, he was invited to give a keynote lecture at the 37th Japan Agricultural Formulation and Application and the 35th Japan Environmental Pesticide Science Joint Symposium in 2017.

Dr Nuruzzaman has published extensively in high-impact journals, including Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Langmuir, Applied Nano Science and Nature Reviews Bioengineering. He works at the interface of science, policy, and practice, with a strong focus on translating complex environmental data into practical solutions for industry and regulatory applications.

Dr Md Nuruzzaman will be presenting "Pesticides and Productivity: Balancing Agricultural Gains with Environmental Fate, Exposure Pathways, and Risks".



Kurt Pennell, PhD, PE BCEE, F. ASCE, F. AEESP
250th Anniversary Professor of Engineering School of Engineering, Brown University

Dr. Kurt Pennell is the 250th Anniversary Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering at Brown University.  Previously, Dr. Pennell was Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University, and the Bernard M. Gordon Senior Faculty Fellow in Environmental Engineering.  Prior to moving to Tufts, Dr. Pennell was a Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and held an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine.  His current research focuses on the environmental fate and remediation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the use of high resolution mass spectrometry to characterize the exposome and associated metabolic responses.  Dr. Pennell has published over 250 referred journal articles and book chapters, is a registered Professional Engineer (PE), a Board Certified Environmental Engineer (BCEE), a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and a Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP).  He has received several research and teaching awards, including the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) Project of the Year in Environmental Restoration, National Institutes of Health K25 Career Award, and the Order of Omega Faculty Member of Year Award.    

https://vivo.brown.edu/display/kpennel1
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CX4EQ9YAAAAJ&hl=en
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kurt-Pennell

Kurt Pennell will be presenting "The Importance of Interfacial Processes in PFAS Fate, Transport and Remediation".



Distinguished Professor Biswajeet Pradham
Director of the Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial Information Systems (CAMGIS) University of Technology Sydney

Professor Biswajeet Pradhan is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Centre for Advanced Modelling and Geospatial Information Systems (CAMGIS) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. He is internationally recognised for his contributions to GeoAI, Earth observation, remote sensing, GIS, spatial modelling, environmental risk assessment, and natural hazard management. Professor Pradhan has published more than 900 scientific publications and is consistently recognised among the world’s most highly cited researchers by Clarivate Analytics. His research integrates artificial intelligence, satellite remote sensing, geospatial analytics, and environmental modelling to address complex challenges related to land degradation, environmental contamination, water resources, climate resilience, infrastructure sustainability, and disaster risk reduction. He has successfully led numerous internationally funded research projects and received multiple prestigious awards for research excellence. His current work focuses on developing AI-enabled spatial intelligence systems to support sustainable environmental management, remediation planning, and evidence-based decision-making.

Professor Biswajeet Pradhan will be presenting "GeoAI, Remote Sensing and Spatial Intelligence for Environmental Remediation and Sustainable Land Management".



Dr. Ajit K. Sarmah

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Faculty of Engineering & Design
The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Dr. Ajit K. Sarmah is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia and serves as an Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He obtained his PhD from the University of Adelaide and has previously worked in the USA, Australia, Thailand, and India.

Professor Sarmah has pioneered research on the application of biochar (biomass-derived carbon material) beyond traditional soil systems, particularly in wood–plastic composites, the construction and building sectors, and decarbonisation technologies, including CO₂ sequestration in concrete. His innovative work in these areas has gained significant international recognition. His broader research interests include the environmental fate modelling of emerging contaminants such as steroid hormones (pioneering work on free and conjugated forms), veterinary antibiotics, and pharmaceutical compounds. His current research also focuses on the fate and transport of tyre-wear particles and other microplastics, as well as life cycle analysis of biomass-derived biochar for applications across diverse sectors aimed at reducing carbon footprints and promoting sustainability.

Professor Sarmah was recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in 2021, 2022, and 2023. To date, he has published more than 200 papers in ISI Web of Science-indexed journals, along with several books and book chapters. He has also delivered over 30 plenary and keynote addresses at international conferences and symposiums worldwide.

Dr. Ajit K. Sarmah will be presenting "Rolling Pollution: The Dark Reality of Tyre Wear Particles in Runoff- Chemistry and Environmental Fate".



Sergejus Ustinov

Environmental Risk Assessment & Regulatory Lead 
Sanofi, Global Pharmaceutical Company

Sergejus Ustinov is an Environmental Risk Assessment & Regulatory Lead at the pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, specialising in the evaluation of pharmaceuticals in the environment and their impacts on soil and water systems. He holds a Research Master’s degree in Earth Sciences and brings over nine years of international experience in environmental risk assessment, pollution assessment and management, chemical safety and compliance. 

Prior to joining the private sector, Sergejus spent five years at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a soil pollution specialist, where he coordinated the International Network on Soil Pollution (INSOP) and supported countries across the Global South in assessing, managing, and mitigating soil pollution. His work focused on contaminants such as heavy metals, pesticides, and microplastics, contributing to the development of technical guidelines, capacity building, and project management. 

He has supported soil pollution projects across Latin America and the Caribbean, West Africa, Ukraine, and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and is passionate about using Nature-based Solutions to protect ecosystems and promote sustainable development.

Sergejus Ustinov will be presenting "From prediction to stewardship: Advancing environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals in a lifecycle framework".



Scott Warner

Principal Hydrogeologist, Pacific Basin Leader – PG, CHG, CEG BBJ Group, California, USA Doctoral Research, Global Centre for Environmental Remediation, University of Newcastle

Scott D. Warner has 40 years’ experience as an environmental hydrogeologist and designer of innovative groundwater remediation applications. He was a designer for the first full-scale permeable reactive barrier for in situ groundwater remediation – a model for sustainable remediation that continues to perform after more than 32 years since implementation.  At the University of Newcastle, his focus is on developing a framework for groundwater remediation as climate changes. He also is a working group leader for soil remediation with the UN FAO International Network on Soil Pollution. In addition to his affiliation with the University of Newcastle, Scott has a MS in Geology from Indiana University, Bloomington (USA) and a BS in Engineering Geology from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA). He is a registered Professional Geologist, Certified Hydrogeologist, and Certified Engineering Geologist.

Scott Warner will be presenting "Aqueous Redox Variability: The “Canary in the Coal Mine” for monitoring hydrologic change under climate forcing".