Committee Chair

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  Prof. Yong Sik Ok Korea University, Korea

  Prof. Yong Sik Ok

  Dr. Ok is a full professor and global research director of Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He has published over 900 research papers and books, 109 of which have been ranked as Web of Science ESI top papers (105 have been selected as “Highly Cited Papers” (HCPs), and four as “Hot Papers”). He has been a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) since 2018 in Cross Field, Environment and Ecology, and Engineering. In 2019, he became the first Korean to be selected as an HCR in the field of Environment and Ecology. Again in 2021, he became the first Korean HCR in two fields: Environment and Ecology, and Engineering. He is working at the vanguard of global efforts to develop sustainable waste management strategies and technologies to address the rising crisis in electronic and plastic waste, and pollution of soil and air with particulate matter. Dr. Ok has also served in a number of positions worldwide including, as an honorary professor at the University of Queensland (Australia), a visiting professor at Tsinghua University (China), an adjunct professor at the University of Wuppertal (Germany), and a guest professor at Ghent University (Belgium). He maintains a worldwide professional network by serving as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, an Editor of Environmental Pollution, a member of the editorial advisory board of Environmental Science & Technology, and an editorial board member of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, and several other top journals. He currently serves as the Director of the Sustainable Waste Management Program for the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and the Co-President of the International ESG Association. Moreover, he has served on the Scientific Organizing Committee of P4G Nature Forum: Climate Change and Biodiversity, and Nature Forum: Plastics and Sustainability. Dr. Ok has also served as the chairman of numerous major conferences such as Engineering Sustainable Development series (ESD series), organized by the APRU and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). In 2021, Dr. Ok hosted the first Nature conference among South Korean universities in Seoul on waste management and valorization for a sustainable future together with Chief Editors of Nature Sustainability (Dr. Monica Contestabile), Nature Electronics (Dr. Owain Vaughan), and Nature Nanotechnology (Dr. Fabio Pulizzi). Prof. Ok hosted the first Nature Forum on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) for Global Sustainability: the “E” Pillar for Sustainable Business.

Nominating Committee

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  Prof. Scott Fendorf Stanford University, USA

  Prof. Scott Fendorf

  Scott Fendorf is soil scientist and biogeochemist whose particular area of interest is on the chemical and biological processes involving contaminants and nutrients. His work on the fundamental biogeochemistry of arsenic coupled with field work from Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam to the Central Valley of California has led to an understanding of how arsenic and other contaminants enters groundwater, a process that is impacting aquifers across the globe. He has helped lead a bridging of groups focused on solving what is termed ‘the largest mass poisoning in history’. Scott is the Huffington Family Professor of Earth Science at Stanford University. He is the founding chair of the Earth System Science Department and presently a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a Senior Associate Dean in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He received his B.S. from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, his M.S. from UC Davis, and his Ph.D. from the University of Delaware.

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  Prof. Yong-Guan Zhu Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China

  Prof. Yong-Guan Zhu

  Professor Yongguan (Yong-Guan) Zhu, professor of environmental soil science and environmental biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He has been working on environmental health and wellbeing related to pollution, biodiversity and microbial ecology, particularly in biogeochemistry of arsenic, nitrogen and phosphorus in soil-plant systems, soil microbiome and soil health, and environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistance. He obtained his PhD in environmental biology from Imperial College, London in 1998. He is the recipient of many merit awards, among them including TWAS Award for Agricultural Science 2013, National Natural Science Award 2009, International Union of Soil Science von Liebig Award 2022. Professor Zhu has published over 500 papers in international journals with an H-index of 107 (Web of Science).

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  Prof. Erik Smolders Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

  Prof. Erik Smolders

  Erik Smolders is environmental chemist with expertise in soil science and environmental toxicology. He is full professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His research focuses on bioavailability of contaminants and plant nutrients in soils and water.

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  Prof. Xinde Cao Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), China

  Prof. Xinde Cao

  Dr. Xinde Cao is a Distinguished Professor and Executive Vice Dean of School of Environmental Science and Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. His research areas include: remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater, carbon sequestration in soil and ecological effect, and green-friendly environmental remediation materials. Dr. Cao is being in charge of more than 10 projects which are funded by state and local governments. He has published more than 190 SCI-indexed research papers in refereed journals, and he is a Highly Cited Researcher (Clarivate) since 2018. Dr. Cao received several state awards including the first place Award of Natural Sciences by China Ministry of Education. He serves several SCI journals including Associate Editor for Chemosphere and Editorial Board for Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res.

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  Prof. Jörg Feldmann University of Graz, Austria

  Prof. Jörg Feldmann

  Jörg Feldmann has the chair of analytical chemistry at the University of Graz (Austria) since 2020. He has been educated at the University of Essen (Germany) as Chemist and did his Master thesis in geochemistry at Chamber of Mines in South Africa, before he graduated with a PhD in environmental analytical chemistry in 1995. Then he was a Feodor Lynen Fellow at UBC and U Alberta (Canada) in environmental and clinical chemistry. Subsequently he spent 23 years as a professor for environmental chemistry and director of TESLA at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is an elected fellow of the Scottish Academy of Science and Society (FRSE) and a fellow of the RSC. He has written more than 300 peer reviewed papers and received numerous prizes such as the European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry and the RSC Interdisciplinary Prize and Medal. Under his supervision more than 40 PhD students have graduated. His main interest is in the development of new methodology and its application for the elements, arsenic, mercury, selenium and lately zinc and fluorine.