Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Muhareb Al-Shaibani,

Dr. Abdul Aziz bin Muhareb Al-Shaibani is the deputy minister for water affairs at the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture. He has also been a member of the board of directors of the Saudi Geological Survey since his appointment by the Saudi Cabinet in January this year. Al-Shaibani began his career in 1987 as a geophysicist at Saudi Aramco. He then moved to the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) where he worked as a teaching assistant in the earth sciences department between 1988 and 1991. After that, he lived in the US until 1998, pursuing postgraduate studies in Texas, and then returned to KFUPM as an assistant professor in the earth sciences department, a position he held until 2014. For the past five years he has been an associate professor in the department and its chairman since 2005. Dr. Al-Shaibani holds a bachelor’s degree in geophysics from KFUPM and gained a master’s degree in the same subject and a Ph.D. in geology from Texas A&M University.

Title of presentation:
Current Status of water security in KSA

Dr. Ahmad Al-Amoudi

General Manager of Development and Research Institute, SWCC

Title of presentation:
Emerging Trends Towards Sustainable Desalination

Dr. Enrico Drioli,

Enrico Drioli Emeritus Professor at the School of Engineering of the University of Calabria, and Honorary President of European Membrane Society (1999); Founding Director of the Institute on Membrane Technology, CNR, Italy. Since 2018 Distinguished Visiting Professor at Nanjing Tech University, College of Chemical Engineering. Since 2018 Guest Professor of School of Marine Science and Technology of Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, P.R.China. Since 2012 Distinguished Adjunct Professor, CEDT King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah Saudi Arabia; 2010-2020 WCU Distinguish Visiting Professor, at the Hanyang University, Seoul Korea. Currently Chairman of the Section on "Membrane Engineering" of the EFCE and coordinator of EU-EUDIME Doctorate School on Membrane Engineering.

He is the recipient of various Awards and Honours, ex. “Richard Maling Barrer Prize” of the EMS. Author of more than 940 scientific papers, covering in the years various topics in Membrane Science and Engineering from desalination to membrane reactors to biomedical application of membrane systems.

Title of presentation:
Progresses of Desalination for water stress and much more

Dr. Abdul Wahab Mohammad,

Dr. Abdul Wahab Mohammad is currently Senior Professor in Membrane and Separation Technologies at the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). He is currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at UKM, His research interest is in the application of membrane and separation technology in particular for water and wastewater treatment. He was the co-recipient of the 2008 Prince Sultan International Water Prize. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical ENgineers (IChemE) and a chartered engineer in UK.

Title of presentation:
Water Reclamation using Membranes: Issues and Challenges

Prof. Mohamed Khayet

Prof. Mohamed Khayet is director of the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) Research Group “Membranes and Renewable Energies” affiliated to Campus Moncloa of International Excellence (Madrid, Spain), Full Professor (Applied Physics Area) at the Faculty of Physical Sciences (UCM) (Department of Structure of Matter, Thermal Physics and Electronics), and Associated Researcher in IMDEA Water Institute (Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies on Water, Spain). He got his Ph.D. (1997) in Physical Sciences from the UCM and awarded the maximum grade. Since then he realized various research stays in various international institutions (Industrial Membrane Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada; Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology in Warsaw, Poland; Centre for Clean Water Technologies at the University of Nottingham in UK, Singapore Membrane Technology Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Yale University, University of California Berkeley, etc.). Among the received grants, he got the Fulbright scholarship (2019). He is an expert in the field of membrane science and nanotechnology. He has coordinated various national and international projects (over 20) funded by different institutions (European Union, Middle East Desalination Research Centre, Spanish Ministries; Companies such as Abengoa Water, etc.) and participated in other 16 projects. He published over 150 papers in international journals with 15296 total citations and an H-index of 69 (Google Scholar). He filed 6 International Patents and published 4 books on membrane science and technology. He also published 24 chapters in books.

Title of presentation:
Membrane Distillation

Professor Ahmad Fauzi

Professor Ahmad Fauzi Ismail is the Founder and First Director of Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (AMTEC). His research interest are in the development of polymeric, inorganic and novel mixed matrix membranes for water desalination, waste water treatment, gas separation processes, membrane for palm oil refining, photocatalytic membrane for removal of emerging contaminants, development of haemodialysis membrane and polymer electrolyte membrane for fuel cell applications. Professor Fauzi obtained a PhD. in Chemical Engineering in 1997 from University of Strathclyde and MSc. and BSc. from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 1992 and 1989 respectively.

He is the author and co-author of over 550 journal articles. He has authored 6 books, 50 book chapters and 8 edited books. He is the owner/co-owner to 6 patents with 14 patents pending. His google scholar h-index is currently 98.

Title of presentation:
Membrane Gas separation

Dr. Maarten Biesheuvel

Dr. P.M. (Maarten) Biesheuvel is principal scientist at Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, The Netherlands. Since 2000, he published numerous theoretical and experimental papers on nanofiltration, electrodialysis, reverse osmosis, and capacitive deionization (CDI). He also published on colloidal stability, polymer physics, chemical reactor engineering, and ion activity coefficients. He is the author of two graduate level textbooks titled (Introduction to the) "Physics of Electrochemical Processes". He is founding chairman of the international CDI working group (http://www.cdi-electrosorption.org) and member of the working group on Physics of Membrane Processes (https://physicsofmembranes.org/). His research work can be accessed via http://www.wetsus.nl/maartenbiesheuvel.

Title of presentation:
Capacitive Deionization

Dr. Mohammad Antar

• More than 20 years of experience in Teaching, thermal science courses for both undergraduate and graduate levels.
• Published over 120 articles and Holds many patents in thermal sciences and Water Desalination.
• Developed the ME water desalination lab.
• Developed new courses in Water desalination (Senior and post-graduate levels).
• Developed e-learning contents in Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics courses.
• Performed various consultation activities in teaching, research and engineering projects.
• Coordinated the establishment of a professional Master program in Desalination and Water Treatment.

Title of presentation:
Humidification-Dehumidification desalination

Prof. Antonio Pulido Bosch

Antonio Pulido Bosch, graduated (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) in Geology at the University of Granada (Spain). At the present, Emeritus professor at the department of Geodynamics, University of Granada. Previously full professor of External Geodynamics at the University of Almería (since 1997); and later associated professor (1977-1997) at the University of Granada. Between 1973 and 1977, hydrogeologist in EPTISA, Valencia (Spain). Author or editor of 23 books (the last one Principles of Karst Hydrogeology, 2021, https://rd.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-55370-8), more than 600 papers published in scientific journals and proceedings of national or international congresses. Supervisor of 29 Ph.D. Researcher responsible of 30 competitive research projects and 100 research contracts. Conferences and courses in several European and American universities. Ombudsman of the University of Almeria (2007-2013).

- ORCID: 0000-0001-7409-1572.
- ResearchID: A-9071-2008.
- ScopusID: 7006823330.
- DialnetID: 171905.
- Google Scholar

Title of presentation:
Water issues in South-East Spain

Prof. Alper Baba

Alper Baba (Turkey, 1970), holds a degree in geology and a doctorate in the field of hydrogeology from the Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir. He has 28 years of experience in hydrogeological and environmental geology problems in different parts of the world. He teaches and conducted research at the University of Toronto (Canada), Wayne State University (USA), United Nations University (Iceland), Economy University, and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (Turkey). Since 2009 he has been a professor at Izmir Institute of Technology. He is teaching and conducting research in the field of environmental geology, groundwater contamination, geothermal energy, and hydrogeology. He has coordinated a variety of national and international R&D projects in co-operation with research institutes and companies, among them NATO-funded projects, EU-funded projects, World Bank-founded projects, EBRD funded projects. Dr. Baba was awarded the “Successful Young Scientists Award” of the Turkish Academy of Science and the Turkish Geological Engineering Association's “Gold Medal Award”. Dr. Baba is the author of several peer-reviewed scientific publications and contributions to international conferences and is editor of the book “Groundwater and Ecosystems”, “Climate Change and its Effects on Water Resources, Issues of National and Global Security” (NATO Science Series, Springer), and “ Geothermal Systems and Energy: Turkey and Greece” (CRC Press). Dr. Baba has published more than 100 papers in international journals and presented papers at international conferences. He is also an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Groundwater for Sustainable Development and the Journal of Turkish Earth Sciences.

Title of presentation:
Effect of climate change on groundwater resources in a country at the Mediterranean Sea

Prof. Konstantinos X. Soulis

Dr. Konstantinos X. Soulis is an Agricultural Engineering with a Ph.D. in Hydrology, GIS and Agricultural Water Management. He works as Laboratory Teaching Personnel, at the Water Resources Division of the Department of Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering, of the Agricultural University of Athens (Greece). His main research and teaching subjects are: Hydrology, Hydrological Modeling, Agricultural Water Management, Geographical Information Systems, Earth Observation, Irrigations, WRM, and Applications Development. He is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals as well as many publications in conference proceedings, books, and professional articles. He has one Patent granted and he is a top peer reviewer in Publons. Dr. Soulis serves as an Associate Editor at the Hydrological Sciences Journal and received the Best Associate Editor Award in 2021. He also serces as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Mountain Science, and as a Guest Editor in Water Journal and in ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information.

Title of presentation:
A new modelling approach for the evaluation of the EU Rural Development Program’s contribution to the reduction of water abstractions in agriculture

Prof. Moumtaz Razack

Dr Moumtaz Razack started his professional career as hydrogeological engineer/lecturer in 1976 at the university of Montpellier (France) and was appointed later Associate Professor. In 1991 he moved to the university of Poitiers (France) as Full Professor. He received his PhD in Hydrogeology from the university of Montpellier in 1978. He also received the grade of Docteur d’Etat (State doctor) from the university of Montpellier in 1984. He teaches the following disciplines: Statistics, Geostatistics, Numerical analysis; Basic and quantitative Hydrology and Hydrogeology; Groundwater flow and contaminant transport modelling. From 1993 to 2011, he was Director of the Master of Sciences “Géotechnologie Environnementale’ (Environmental Geotechnology) and from 2012 to 2018, of the Master of Sciences “Hydrogeology and Associated Transfers’

Since 1993, he has also worked as international consultant with numerous national and international organizations (Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of Ethiopia, Ministry of Housing, Urban Planning and Environment of Djibouti, UNEP, World Bank, Addis Ababa Water & Sewerage Authority, Ethiopia; State Secretariat for Water and Environment, Morocco; General Directorate of Hydraulics, Morocco; Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, France).

His areas of interest for research activities are: water resources assessment, management & protection; groundwater; numerical modeling; climate change impacts on water resources; geostatistcal/stochastic/soft-computing methods; contaminant transport; hard-rocks / karstic/heterogeneous systems; coastal systems. He has led numerous Research & Development projects in France and abroad (Turkey, Algeria, Djibouti, Chad, Egypt, Senegal, Ethiopia, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire).

Dr Razack has published more than 110 papers in peer reviewed journals. He has also presented 95 papers in international congresses including a number of invited presentations. He regularly participates in scientific committees of international congresses. He has supervised 40 PhD theses. He participated in 138 PhD defense committees in French universities and abroad.

Title of presentation:
The concept of water security. A tentative application at basin’s scale in arid context

Mr. Nicolò Auteri

Co-author: Riccardo Scalenghe and Filippo Saiano

This research aims to find an innovative solution to the phosphorus shortage and related problems. Specifically, it is proposed to study the recovery of phosphorus (P) (lost from agricultural land drainage, surface water, sewage plants, etc.) through an agricultural waste material that could potentially be treated to recover some form of P and/or once enriched in P, directly, reused in agriculture as a fertiliser. Batch experiments were carried out on the adsorption of P from phosphate solutions using pruning waste from Opuntia ficus indica (prickly pear cladodes), widespread in Southern Italy, where a large amount of pruning waste can be recovered at very low or no cost. This material was previously dried, ground and sieved. Before the experiments, to improve the ability to adsorb P, this biomass was treated with potassium hydroxide (KOH) and calcium chloride (CaCl2). Batch P adsorption tests carried out on this material produced quite satisfactory results: within the first 15 minutes after contact with a phosphate solution (100 mg/L as P), an adsorption capacity of 48% was found, reaching a good 58% (2.3 mg/g sorbent) extending the experiment for 24 hours. From these encouraging results, a trial of column experiments is in working to apply subsequently in real field systems. The aim is to contribute to the preservation of a key resource for food security, by proposing the transformation of waste materials derived from agriculture into “news” substances that can be reused in agriculture, in the form of fertilisers, or in other fields: essentially a “biobased industry”.

Title of presentation:
Recovery of phosphorus lost to surface waters through the use of agricultural waste materials for reuse as fertilizer