Keynote Speakers

Prof. Shane Snyder

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Biography: Dr. Shane Snyder is a Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and is the Executive Director of the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. He joined NTU after serving as a Professor of Chemical & Environmental Engineering and the co-Director of the Water & Energy Sustainable Technology (WEST) Center at the University of Arizona, USA. For over 20 years, Dr. Snyder's research has focused on the identification, fate, and health relevance of emerging water pollutants. Dr. Snyder and his teams have published over 200 manuscripts and book chapters on emerging contaminant analysis, treatment, and toxicology (h-index = 68 with over 18,000 citations as of February 2018). He currently serves as an editor-in-chief for the international journal Chemosphere. Dr. Snyder has been invited to brief the Congress of the United States on three occasions on emerging issues in water quality. He is a Fellow of the International Water Association and a member of the World Health Organization's Drinking Water Advisory Panel. He has served on several US EPA expert panels and is currently a member of the EPA's Science Advisory Board drinking water committee and the US EPA's Board of Scientific Counselors Sustainable Water committee. He was a member of the US National Academy of Science's National Research Council Committee on Water Reuse and currently serves on the WHO's guiding committee on development of potable reuse guidelines. Dr. Snyder has also worked as a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore (2011-2017).

 

Prof. Zongjin Li

University of Macau, China

Biography: Dr. Zongjin LI is Chair professor at Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering at University of Macau (UM). He joined UM after his service Hong Kong University of Science and Technology from 1994 to 2016. He received his B.E. from Zhejiang University, Hongzhou, China in 1982 and obtained both his M.S. and PhD from Northwestern University, Chicago, U.S.A, in 1990 in 1993, respectively. He is a fellow of American Concrete Institute and a registered professional engineer in Hong Kong, China. He is a member of committees of ISO/TC71, First vice Chair of China Group of RILEM and Founding President of ACI China Chapter. He has done extensive researches in the area of cement-based materials and non-destructive evaluations. As the chief scientist, he has led a China Key National Basic Research Project (973), ‘Basic study on environmentally friendly contemporary concrete’, which has made a great contributions to advance concrete technology in China. As the founding chair of Gordon Research Conference, “Advanced Materials for Sustainable Infrastructure Development” in 2014, he has brought the research conference of building materials into a higher scientific level. He has published 5 technical books, in which ‘Advanced Concrete Technology’ published by John Wiley has been collected by many national libraries and most major university libraries and used by many universities as text or reference books for civil engineering. He has also published more than 400 technical papers with a SCI H-index of 36 and Scopus H-index of 39. In 2016, he has been selected as the one of the 150 most cited authors in Civil engineering field. He has also been awarded five US and seven Chinese patents. Three of his patents have been developed into commercial products. He received the Arthur R. Anderson Medal from American Concrete Institute in 2017 and Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Award from British Royal Academy of Engineering in 2014.

 

Prof. Prashant Kumar

University of Surrey, UK

Biography: Professor Prashant Kumar is Associate Dean (International) for the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Chair in Air Quality and Health and the founding Director of the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE) at the University of Surrey, UK. He is the Head of the GCARE’s Air Quality Laboratory and the Deputy Director of Research for the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Since March 2018, he is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Engineering at the Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He received his PhD (Engineering) from the University of Cambridge, and an MTech (Environmental Engineering & Management) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. Prior to his PhD, he worked at a research instutute and in industrial sector for about 8 years. After his PhD, he joined University of Surrey as Lecturer (2009-2012), and subsequently worked as Senior Lecturer (2012-2015) and Reader (2015-2017). His fundamental and application oriented crossdisciplinary research is focused at the interfaces of clean air engineering/science, human health and smart/sustainable living in cities/megacities. His research builds an understanding of the formation and emission of particles, both from vehicle exhausts and non-vehicular sources. He investigates their contribution to pollution, especially in megacity contexts. He is developing approaches to low-cost sensing and contributing to the development of exposure control technology and guidelines for policymakers to curtail pollution exposure in cities, with associated health benefits. His current research projects are focused in broad multidisciplinary areas of air pollution monitoring/modelling, low-cost sensing, nature-based solutions, climate change mitigation and developing innovative technological and passive (e.g. green infrastructure) solutions for air pollution exposure control for both developing and developed world.