Plenary and Keynote Speakers

Prof. Pedro Alvarez

Director, Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Center
Director, Rice WaTER Institute
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Rice University, Houston, TX, US

Presentation Title:
Merits and Limitations of Various Advanced Oxidation Processes for PFAS Degradation

Not available yet

Prof. Werner Brack

Co-Head, Department Exposure Science
Acting Head, Department Environmental Analytical Chemistry

Presentation Title:
Not available yet

Not available yet

Prof. Nicolas Kalogerakis

Professor Emeritus
School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Technical University of Crete, Chania, Crete, Greece

Presentation Title:
Challenges in combatting microplastic pollution in the marine environment

Plastic debris represents a significant problem among the various pollution problems facing the marine environment.

Several studies have been conducted on the fate and weathering of plastics in the marine environment including the generation and fate of microplastics.

Sorption by microplastics of toxic substances present in seawater represents an additional environmental concern.

Laboratory results on the biodegradation of plastics show great variability. An important question, which remains unanswered, is what is the level of weathering that makes the common plastics, in particular those with a C-C backbone, biodegradable at a reasonably fast rate.

Is Natural Attenuation a potential biodegradation route that allows us to hope for clean oceans? In this presentation, we focus on the determination of biodegradation and fragmentation rates of polystyrene and polyethylene films naturally weathered on beach sand as well as polypropylene films weathered in seawater mesocosms.

Results from 300-day long field experiments in Souda Bay (Crete, Greece) are also presented. Our findings are very encouraging pointing to new challenges that need to be addressed for a successful biodegradation of plastics in the marine environment as well as significant advances in the context of circular economy.

Prof. Frank Kelly

Battcock Chair in Community Health and Policy
School of Public Health – Faculty of Medicine
Imperial College, London, UK

Presentation Title:
Existing and emerging air pollution challenges to human health

Not available yet

Dr. Serenella Sala

Head of Unit
European Commission
Joint Research Centre
Directorate D – Sustainable Resources, Sustainable Supply Chains and Bioeconomy Unit (D3)
Ispra (VA), Italy

Presentation Title:
Designing the Future: Implementing the safe and sustainable by design chemicals framework for a Toxic-Free Economy

The European Green Deal (EGD) outlined a transformative vision for a climate-neutral and toxic-free environment. Central to this ambition is the Chemical Strategy for Sustainability (CSS), which mandates a shift toward chemicals and materials that are Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) across their entire life cycles. To operationalize this, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) has developed a comprehensive framework for defining SSbD criteria and evaluation procedures, integrating environmental and human risk assessment with sustainability assessment based on life cycle assessment and its application to chemicals and materials.

This pioneering framework integrates safety, environmental sustainability, and socio-economic dimensions into a single rational procedure for the first time. By embedding life cycle thinking into the earliest stages of Research and Development (R&D), the framework ensures that sustainability is not an afterthought but a foundational requirement. Testing of the framework included numerous case studies to define alternative to POPs and to accompany innovation addressing safety and sustainability at a very early stage, while considering competitiveness aspects .

This work directly supports the recent European Commission (EC) Recommendation for a harmonized SSbD assessment framework (1). As the EC enters a dedicated testing phase, academic and stakeholder feedback remains the backbone for refining these scientific methods. This presentation discusses the lessons learnt fromcase studies and the critical actions needed to ensure SSbD becomes the standard for global chemical safety.