Dr Liu is a Chair Professor of Environmental Engineering in College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, China. Prior to that, he had been a tenured full professor in School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore for 25 years. His research primarily focuses on novel and innovative technologies for municipal wastewater reclamation and biosolids management with specific interests in energy/resource recovery, energy and carbon neutrality towards the urban and water sustainability. Dr Liu has published more than 380 journal papers in in the mainstream environmental biotechnology and engineering journals, with the total citation of more than 36000 and h-index of 96 by Google Scholar. He has 8 books published by Wiley, CRC Press, IWA Publishing etc. In recognition of his contributions to research and administration, Dr Liu was awarded The Singapore Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2014, The Singapore Minister for National Development R&D Merit Award in 2013 and Singapore National Technology Award in 2003.

Dr. Volodymyr Ivanov has more than 40 years of teaching and research experience on Environmental, Industrial, and Construction Microbiology and Biotechnology in the universities of Europe, Asia, and USA. He has authored 200 papers, patents, book chapters and 8 monographs. His textbook "Environmental Microbiology for Engineers”, Francis & Taylor, 1st (2010) and 2nd (2015) editions, has been adopted for graduate and post-graduate courses in many universities. His research experience includes the supervision and participation in numerous projects on biotechnologies with biofilms and biogranules, microbial transformations of iron, biocementation, bioclogging, bioremediation of soil, and microbiological monitoring of water quality.