Speakers

In 2006 Amanda commenced at Flinders University as a teaching/research academic in Chemical and Physical Sciences. During this time she became a full professor and acting Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Science and Engineering. In May 2017 she joined the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Melbourne. She has secured over $20 M in funding from the ARC and non-ARC sources on projects as well as publishing over 145 peer-reviewed publication involving novel polymer coatings, membrane science, functionalised carbon nanotubes and graphene, microfluidics, genotyping and DNA nanotechnology. Currently, she is an ARC Future Fellow, Board member of the Royal Australia Chemical Institute (RACI) and a College of Experts MCPE panel member.

The Global Water Institute represents over 300 water related research and teaching staff in the faculties of Science, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Arts and Social Science. GWI’s three thematic programs are “Water Governance and Security”, “Healthy Oceans and Resilient Coastlines” and “Safe Water: Access and Equity for All”. Greg is a Chemical Engineer and was the Director of the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology UNSW Sydney. Prior to joining UNSW Sydney, he worked in the public and private sector on water treatment, reuse and desalination projects in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States.

He has served as an expert advisor on some of the world’s largest and most technically advanced desalination projects and has been appointed to serve on committees by the National Academy of Sciences, World Health Organization, Middle East Desal Research Center and Australia’s National Center of Excellence in Desalination. A former vice president of CH2M Hill, and the director of corporate projects for USFilter/Veolia Water, and he currently sits on several industry technical advisory boards.

He received his Ph.D. degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China, and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California Riverside. He received an Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in 2004 and a Future Fellowship in 2010 from the Australian Research Council. Prof Wang is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His current research focuses on metal organic framework and nanoporous materials and polymer composite membranes for water desalination and purification, gas separation, ion selective transport, and electrochemical energy applications.

His career spans multiple phases from R&D to product development and management; engineering and operations management; and 10 years in a general management. He has worked for Memcor in the UK and Australia; and been engaged in its business activities in Asia, Europe and the USA. Bruce is an inventor or co-inventor of multiple Memcor products. He holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, 1st Class Honours and Master of Business Administration.

He completed his PhD in 2004 at the National Taiwan University and he was postdoctoral fellow in National Taiwan University and University of Washington from 2004 to 2006. His major scientific research interests include advanced biomaterials, biomolecular engineering, biomedical interface science, biopolymer physical chemistry, biomimetic material science, and biomedical healthcare membranes. His specialization is in the development of universal anti-(bio)fouling principles for the design of sustainable interfaces and membranes. His membrane research activities involve the application of advanced membrane materials, process technologies, and engineering systems for industries in water treatment (membrane bioreactor) and health care (blood transfusion). Prof. Chang has published 191 SCI articles and 292 conference papers with over 5,800 citations and h-index 41. He applied over 50 invention patents and received 36 licensed patents. He was awarded Wu Da-Yu Award of Young Outstanding Research Professor from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in 2012. Principle Founder of the Innovation new startup investment in 2016. (PuriBlood Biotechnology, supported by MOST) Director of the R&D center for Membrane Technology at CYCU in 2017. Prof. Chang was awarded ‘The SCEJ Award for Outstanding Asian Researcher and Engineer’ from Chemical Engineering Society of Japan in 2018.

She was the director of the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology and Head of School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW before joining the University of Queensland as the Executive Dean of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology. While focussing primarily in bioseparations and water treatment in her earlier career, her recent research interests has expanded into surface functionalization, nanocomposite materials as well as hybrid biocatalytic systems.  In addition to numerous grants funded by the Australian Research Council, she has led major collaborations with industry partners such as BASF, Australian Low Emission Coal R&D, Dairy Innovation, Coal Innovation NSW, Bluescope Steel, Beijing OriginWater, Printed Energy, and Sydney Water as well as three Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) and the National Centre of Excellence for Desalination. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Membrane Science and was formally on the editorial board of Desalination Journal, board member of the National Centre of Excellence of Desalination, and project lead for an international linkage project with the European Union 6th Framework project MEDINA on Advanced Desalination. She was also a founding board member of the Membrane Society of Australasia and a council member of the Aseanian Membrane Society. She has published over 150 papers with a H-index of 55.

Most recently, she has investigated membrane contactor processes for innovative solutions to contaminant and energy challenges; pressure-driven membrane processes as industry standards for desalination and water reuse; membrane bioreactor technology; and colloidal and interfacial aspects of membrane processes. Dr. Childress has directed research funded by federal, state, and private agencies with research projects in the past two years being funded by the Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, California Department of Water Resources, and the Electric Power Research Institute. She has received awards for publications, research innovation, and technology education. Dr. Childress is a past president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. She has been invited as a plenary or keynote speaker to technical conferences worldwide. Dr. Childress chairs NWRI panels on direct potable reuse and seawater desalination projects in California and serves on the external advisory panel for Singapore Public Utilities Board. She is also co-editor of Desalination and on the advisory board of Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology.

Website: www.amyechildress.com

He tries to make various designs for communities, education program, etcetera. He proposed the feces Standard Money (fSM) concept in edge.org (edge.org/response-detail/26660). He is one of founding members of North Korea Water Society under the ministry of Unification, Korea, since 2015, to discuss what should be done for Korean re-unification and on potential ways to collaborate to solve water issues in both Koreas, between two Koreas. He has been providing small water purification units being operated without electricity (named ‘OngDalSaem’), to villages in various different countries.

Website: withBasics.org
Jaeweon (J1) means “with Basics”, in Korean

He obtained his Chemical Engineering MSc degree (1992) and his Chemical Engineering PhD degree (1997) at the University of Twente (the Netherlands). From 1997-2002 he worked as a Process Engineer at Seghers better technology for Water in Belgium and worked on membrane filtration in waste water treatment.

Since 2003 he is a Senior Scientific Researcher at KWR Watercycle Research Institute and his research topics include membrane fouling and cleaning, rejection of emerging contaminants by pressure driven membranes and developing innovative processes[1].

He published more than 86 papers in well-respected scientific journals (h-factor of 31), co-filed 4 patents and written three book chapters. He received several innovation awards in the field water treatment and membrane filtration.

After being introduced to membrane processes at Bath University, he soon secured a prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering award to work on the evaluation of potential membrane processes for environmental improvements.  His most highly cited research relates to the concept of a critical flux for fouling which has had widespread influence beyond academe.  Although originally introduced for pressure driven porous membrane processes he has led in the development of its wider applicability. His work on pervaporation has encompassed the manufacture of caesium polyacrylate hydrophilic membranes, bespoke hydrophobic membranes and fundamental analysis of the constraints imposed upon systems by boundary layer transport phenomena.  He is currently a Professor at the University of Oxford where his current work includes an interdisciplinary study “Exploring Water Re-use – the nexus of engineering technology and public policy” which is funded by an esteemed APEX award from the Royal Society/British Academy.

He has over 7 years industrial experience in the petroleum and chemical industries with Shell Research and Aspen Technology, and 19 years of academic experience in esteemed UK and US institutions. His area of expertise lies in colloidal and interfacial processes and the application of colloids, surfactants, interfaces and membranes in process technology, particularly in potable and wastewater treatment. He is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Water Engineering at The University of Oxford, and acted as the Oxford Director of the Singapore-Peking-Oxford Research enterprise. He is Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Water Process Engineering, and sits on the editorial board of four other journals.

Before joining New York University Abu Dhabi, he was a Professor at Masdar Institute for ten years. Prior to this he spent two years at FPInnovations-Paprican division in Canada as a scientist. He was also a visiting scholar at MIT between 2008 and 2009 and established the Advanced Nano-fibers laboratory at Masdar Institute where he investigates novel synthesis techniques and applications of nanofibers with a focus on electrospun membranes for desalination.

Dr. He was educated as a chemical engineer and obtained his Ph.D. in membrane technology from University of Twente in 2001. His current research interests cover membrane fabrication and applications, including phase separation behavior of semicrystalline polymers in immersion precipitation, forward osmosis and membrane distillation, extraction of precious metal ions from brine, isotope separation using membrane chemical exchanges and solvent resistance membrane materials and applications. He is a recipient of Newton Advanced Fellowship (Royal Society) and co-Editor of Desalination.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tao_He16

He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Kyoto University in 1990. After his early career research at the Kyoto Institute of Technology, he worked as an associate Professor at Okayama University. From 2004, he moved to Kobe University as full Professor and diversified his research areas in membrane preparation and application of MF, UF, NF, RO, FO and gas separation membranes. He tried to establish the first university-driven membrane center in Japan at Kobe University in 2007. He has so far published 7 books and 370 journal articles and owns 46 patents.

After working with BP, Kalsep and Hydranautics in various aspects of membrane R&D and system design, Graeme formed Membrane Consultancy Associates (MCA) in 2005. MCA works with a broad spectrum of users and providers of membrane technology on performance improvement and dispute resolution, as well as with new entrants and prospective investors. He is well known in the field of water and membranes through workshops, teaching, lectures and publications including his own book (see www.membraneconsultancy.com for further details).

She also holds the position of Director, Singapore Membrane Technology Centre (SMTC).  She is the founding President of Membrane Society in Singapore (MEMSIS).

Prof. Wang is an expert in Membrane Science and Technology, with focuses on research, innovation and technology translation. In particular, she specializes in developing novel membranes such as osmosis membrane, aquaporin-based biomimetic membrane and low-pressure nanofiltration membrane, etc. for water, energy and environments.

Prof. Wang has over 250 peer-reviewed SCI journal publications (citation: >10,000; H-index: 55@ Web of Science). She is the inventor of 25 patents/technical disclosures for novel membrane fabrication. Two NTU’s spin-off companies and two industry licensing resulted from her inventions. She delivered 8 plenary lectures and 12 keynote addresses at international conferences in the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific countries in the last 3 years. She is an Editor of the Journal of Membrane Science,and sits in the Editorial Board of Desalination.

Prof. Wang received a prestigious “Alternative Water Prize” from Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water (PSIPW) of Saudi Arabia in 2016, and was featured among the top 25 leading water researchers globally by Lux Research in 2013.  She also received Singapore Minister for National Development R&D Award in 2013, and Nanyang Research Award in 2018.

Over the past 25 years, Luke has worked on an impressive range of water related issues. His passion for aquatic microbiology and engineering is evidenced and fuelled by direct involvement in founding multidisciplinary research and industry teams. His individual contributions have underpinned scientific approaches to understand and improve directly to the health and wealth of the nation’s productivity, skills and training, ground and surface water treatment.