Bio
After my Batchelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and my M.SC. degree in Safety and Prevention Engineering in the Process Industry (Politecnic University of Milan), I continued my activity through a Ph.D. in Computational Mathematics at the University of Insubria (2019). I’m currently an assistant professor at University of Insubria. I’m interested in dust explosion, process intensification and wastewater treatment. My personal view of scientific research is to see process safety as a tool for sustainability, and providing simplified tools to carry out risk assessment for chemical companies.

Talk
Anthropic Impacts Due to the Land Transformations Generated by the Different Economic Activities in the Protected Area of the Mar Menor in Spain and Similar Case Studies Affecting Coastal Lagoons

Bio
Architect and Civil Engineer. PhD in Urban Planning and Territorial Management from the Technical University of Valencia. MBA from the ESIC Business School of Valencia and MsC in Concessions and Public–Private Collaboration from the Technical University of Madrid. Associated Professor responsible for various territorial policy and environmental and infrastructure planning courses at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of UPCT since 2010. He has also been a visiting professor at the Universities of California Berkeley (USA), Alcalá de Henares (Spain), CEPES (Mexico), and Cyprus University of Technology. He is currently an Invited Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through a Fulbright grant from the United States government. In the scientific field, he is a researcher in charge of the R&D group of Territorial Policy, Environmental, and Infrastructure Planning (http://potepapi.upct.es) and is the Director of the Biyectiva GIS Business Professorship of UPCT. He is the author of more than 50 publications in international research journals and 15 books, being part of the 2% most cited authors in the world according to the list published by Stanford University. He has participated in several European research projects and directed more than 20 final degree projects and doctoral theses on GIS applied to Environmental Sciences, Urban Planning, Infrastructure Management, and Natural Hazards diagnosis. He is on the Editorial Board of several international scientific journals. He regularly works as a reviewer for the main scientific journals on urban planning and environmental studies areas and as an evaluator for scientific projects on public research organizations in several countries worldwide.

Talk
Wastewater Treatment Technologies: From Theory to Practice

Bio
Dr. Athanasia Tolkou is a Chemist who graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and holds a PhD in Chemistry in wastewater treatment. She is now working as a recently elected Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Democritus University of Thrace (DUTH), Kavala, Greece. She was also a Postdoctoral Researcher (2021-2024) at this University. Her research interests include wastewater treatment, municipal, industrial, and hazardous wastewater treatment technologies (coagulation/flocculation, adsorption, ozonation, and membrane bioreactors), recovery of nutrients (phosphates, nitrates) from wastewater, and removal of ions, heavy metals, and dyes from water and wastewater. Her scientific work has been published in more than 55 papers in international journals, and she has published three chapters in scientific books. Her work is widely recognized, with more than 850 Citations (H-index 19) in Scopus and 1150 Citations (H-index 20) in Google Scholar. She was/is the Guest Editor of three Special Issues and a reviewer for over 30 international scientific journals (Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, MDPI, etc). She has also participated in approximately 18 research projects related to her field. She has research experience at the Technical University of Hamburg (Germany), Laboratory of Water Resources and Water Supply, and the University of Insubria, Varese (Italy) Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences. She also has teaching experience in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska, Lublin, Poland.

Talk
Bioplastics Supported by Nanoparticles: Properties and Applications

Bio
Engineer and researcher in nanosciences, chemistry, and chemical engineering with a solid academic background and extensive experience in organic and inorganic chemistry. Ability to conduct cutting-edge research and teach experimental courses in various biological and chemical disciplines. He has demonstrated expertise in biological and environmental applications of nanoparticles. He also has excellent experience in laboratory techniques and quality control tests.