Keynote Speakers

Prof. Dr. Raffaello Cossu

University of Padoa, Italy

Prof. Dr. Raffaello Cossu is a full professor of Environmental Engineering at the University of Padova. Italy, since 1997. His research activities have focused mainly on subjects related to waste management (treatment and landfilling) and remediation of contaminated sites. Projects undertaken to date include the following: Aqua Nova Project on separation of sewage flows and integrated management with putrescible MSW; phytotreatment; anaerobic digestion with production of hydrogen and methane; composting of sludges and other industrial organic wastes; on-site aeration for the remediation of old landfills; processes and technologies aimed at achieving landfill sustainability.

Raffaello Cossu has a long experience in consultancy in the following fields: sanitary landfills for municipal and special waste, remediation of old landfills, resource recovery plants. He has spent several research stages in various scientific Institutions and has been invited as Visiting Professor to numerous Universities worldwide. He is member of the International Mentors Group for the Environmental Engineering Programme of the University of Kalma in Sweden, Chairman of the Italian Technical Committee for Guidelines on Sanitary Landfill, Italian Coordinator of the Governmental Agreement on Waste Management between Italy and Japan, founding member of the European Waste Club and of the International Waste Working Group. From 2004 to 2008 Prof. Cossu was President of the IWWG - International Waste Working Group, an international scientific association for waste management (www.iwwg.eu).

Since 1987 he has held the position of Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the International Symposia on Sanitary Landfill held on a biennial basis in Sardinia, promoted by the EU and by the US Environmental Protection Agency, constituting the most important conference worldwide in the field (the 2007 edition of the Symposium saw the participation of 1100 participants from 80 different countries). Moreover, he has promoted and coordinated the Biennial International Symposia on Energy from biomass and waste. He is author of more than 200 scientific publications and co-editor of five international books on waste management.

Prof. Dr. Sandhya Babel

Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, Thailand

Dr. Sandhya Babel is a full time Professor at the Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT), Thammasat University, Thailand. Currently, she is also Distinguished Adjunct Professor, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand; Affiliated Faculty, Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, KMUTT, Thailand; Visiting Faculty, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Dr Babel is an expert in environmental technology and management with extensive professional experience in teaching and research, holds masters and doctoral degrees in Environmental Technology and Management from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. She was invited as a visiting professor at Kyoto University for 4 months. Dr. Babel carried out many research and sponsored projects in collaboration with international organizations and governments including European Commission (EC); DAAD; CIDA; SIDA; APN; Maezawa Industries, Japan, OHEC, Thailand, as well as with respected universities, such as University of Tokyo, University of Hokkaido, Kobe University, Japan, Technical University Braunchweig, Germany and Thammasat University, Thailand.

Her current research interest includes conversion of waste to energy, recovery of valuable materials from waste, low cost technologies for wastewater treatment, microplastics, photocatalysis, phytoremediation and adsorption. Dr. Babel has published extensively with more than 175 publications consisting of two book, 4 book chapters, refereed international journal articles, refereed national journal articles, papers in international conferences. Her h-index is 21 with total 5588 citations based on Scopus database as of January 15, 2020. She received award from the Thammasat University Research Center for high number of citations and high number of Journal publication with impact factor.

Prof. Dr. Dezhen Chen

Tongji University, China

Since 1992 Dezhen Chen has been working on municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration and the related pollution control when she began her master thesis, and with the similar topic she finished her Ph.D dissertation in 1997.

From 2001 to 2002 she had been working in E & R, DTU, Technical University of Denmark especially on the field of incineration fly ashes disposal. In 2005 she had been promoted to be professor. In 2006 she worked in E & R, DTU again on the area of life cycle assessment (LCA) of waste management and technologies. Presently her main research fields include MSW recycle via thermochemical methodology such as waste to energy, pyrolysis and pyrolysis char utilization, gasification, flue gas cleaning and fly ash treatment and disposal.

She has published more than 130 papers in Chinese & international journals and own more than 20 patents, including 2 American patents

Prof. Dr. Sadhan Kumar Ghosh

Jadavpur University, India

Dr. Sadhan Kumar Ghosh, PhD (Engg.), Dean of Faculty of Engineering and Technology and Professor in mechanical engineering at Jadavpur University, India. He is a renowned personality in the field on Waste Management, Circular Economy, Green Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management, Sustainable Development, Co-processing of Hazardous & Municipal Solid Waste in cement kiln, Plastics Waste management & recycling, E-waste management & recycling, management system standards (ISO) and TQM. He served as the Director, CBWE, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Govt. of India. Prof Ghosh is the founder Chairman of the IconSWM; President of the International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water (ISWMAW) and the chairman of the Indian Congress on Quality, Environment, Energy and Safety Management Systems (ICQESMS). He received several awards in India and foreign countries including the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship 2012 by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK to work on ‘Energy Recovery from MSW’. He wrote nine books, more than 40 edited volumes, more than 200 national and international articles and book chapters and Associate Editor of special issues of WM & R and IJMCWM.

He has been acting and worked as Principal Investigators in more than 25 international and national research projects. He is acting as the expert in preparing the SWM roadmap for South Asian Countries supported by SACEP, Sri Lanka and IGES, Japan involving experts from Japan and government of eight south Asian countries. He is the Chair Elect of 8th 10th IconSWM 2010 to be held at SVU, Tirupati, India in Dec 2020. He was the State Level Advisory Committee Member of Plastics Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 2011. He was the expert committee member for the Preparation of standards for RDF for utilisation in cement plant and other industries in the committee set up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), government of India. He is available at: sadhankghosh9@gmail.com.

Prof. Dr. Michael Nelles

University of Roctock, Germany

Prof. Dr. Michael Nelles is an environmental engineer and studied Technical Environmental Protection (Technical University of Berlin) with 25 years of experience. Since 2006 he is full professor of Waste Management and Material Flow of the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences of the University of Rostock, Germany. Since 2012 Prof. Nelles is also the Scientific Director of the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ) in Leipzig.

His research activity is based on: fundamental and applied aspects of waste management with focus on technological, environmental and economic aspects to mechanical, biological and thermal treatment systems of waste and biomass in different recycling and recovery routes.

He is a member of national and international Advisory Boards of organisations, conferences and journals in the field of waste management and biomass utilisation. He is author of over 400 articles and chapters in books and journals since 1993.

Prof. Dr. Ian D. Willams

University of Southampton, United Kingdom

Ian Williams is a Professor of Applied Environmental Science and Associate Dean (Enterprise) in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Southampton, UK.

He has an established track-record in the fields of environmental science and waste management. His work at Southampton has focused on pollution, sustainability, waste- and carbon-related issues. Ian has published extensively in books and peer-reviewed journals as well as producing over 100 commercial project reports.

He has a long track record of holding positions as an External Examiner for taught and research degrees, service on external bodies, sitting on the scientific and organizing committees of several international conferences, working on national and international task groups, and as a trustee and director of charities and companies. He was the founder and Head of the Centre for Waste Management at the UCLan. He has appeared numerous times on broadcast media, including on BBC Radio 4’s Costing the Earth.

Ian has received a number of awards for his activities, including: the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Campus Sustainability Research Award 2018, the International Solid Waste Association Publication Award in 2016 and 2017, the Institution of Civil Engineers Baker Medal in 2010 and awards from the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management (Waste Regulation Award 2010, 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15; James Jackson Award 2006, 2015/16, 2016/17; J.C. Dawes Award 2016). He is a fanatical fan of "the Scarlets" rugby team.