Prof. Siyue Li, Wuhan Institute of Technology, China（Vice Dean, H-index:42）
Biography: Prof. Siyue Li is a Principal Scientist in freshwater carbon biogeochemical cycling and aquatic carbon emission in relation to watershed pollution. He is the vice dean of School of Environmental Ecology and Biological Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, China. He leads an innovative institute of Yangtze Water Environment and Ecological Security focusing on inland water carbon emission and ecosystem carbon pool, as well as changing water environment and pollution control. He is a member of several national societies and professional entities in China. He is the World’s Top 2% cited research scientists 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in the field of Environmental Sciences. He has more than 130 publications at SCI-indexed journals, with 1 hot paper and 7 highly-cited papers. He also served as guest editors of special issues in the Environmental Research, Water and Frontiers in Environmental Science.
Speech Title: To be updated
Prof. Bruno Brunone, The University of Perugia, Italy
Biography: Director of the Water Engineering Laboratory (WEL), President of the Steering Committee of the Department of Excellence Project (2018-2022), Deputy Rector for Security and Safety of Individuals and Structures, Director of the Climate and Climate Change Research Centre (CRC), Member of the Committee of the International Doctoral Program in “Civil and Environmental Engineering” (University of Perugia, Department of Excellence 2018-2022), Member of Associazione ARTES 4.0 - Advanced Robotics and Enabling Digital Technologies Systems 4.0, Member of the External Advisory Committee of the H2DOC Doctoral Program 2014-2022 (Istituto Superior Tecnico, Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, école Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).
Speech Title: Controlled transient tests for fault detection in pipe systems
 | Prof. Bin Xu, Huaqiao University, China |
Biography: Dr. Bin Xu is currently the Minjiang Scholar Professor of Civil Engineering, a professorship appointed by Fujian Provincial Government, at Huaqiao University, Xiamen, China. He currently is the Director and Founder of the Key Laboratory for Intelligent Infrastructure and Monitoring (IIM) of Fujian Province, and the Director and Founder of the International Centre for Safety and Sustainability of Civil Engineering at Huaqiao University.
Before joining Huaqiao University, he was a Lotus Scholar Professor of Civil Engineering (a professorship appointed by Fujian Provincial Government) at Hunan University from 2005 to 2016 and was also the associate dean of the College of Civil Engineering at Hunan University from 2010 to 2016. He was also the Director of the Hunan Provincial Key Lab on Damage Prognosis for Engineering Structures from 2015 to 2016 at Hunan University. He taught and carried out research at the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University as a Curtis Visiting Professor appointed by Purdue University in 2014-2015 academic year. He had been invited and financially support by European Commission to work at Sapienza University of Roma in 2010 and hired by University of Western Australia as a Gledden Visiting Senior Fellow from 2007 to 2008. Before starting working in China in 2005, he worked at University of Missouri-Rolla in US as a Post-Doc from 2003 to 2005 and at Ibaraki University in Japan as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellow from 2001 to 2003. Dr. Xu has also proven exemplary record of teaching, research, service, leadership skills and administrative ability.
Speech Title: To be updated
 | Prof. Jeffrey Walker, Monash University, Australia |
Biography: Jeffrey Walker is an Australian Research Council Laureate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University. He is undertaking research on soil moisture remote sensing and data assimilation, including development of the only Australian airborne capability for simulating new satellite missions for soil moisture. He is contributing to soil moisture satellite missions at both NASA and ESA, as a Science Definition Team member for the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and Cal/val Team member for the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission respectively.
Professor Jeffrey Walker received his BEng(Civil) and BSurv degrees in 1996 with Hons 1 and University Medal from the University of Newcastle, Australia, and received his PhD in Water Resources Engineering from the same University in 2000. His PhD thesis was among the early pioneering research on estimation of root-zone soil moisture from remotely sensed surface soil moisture observations. He then joined NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre to implement his soil moisture work globally. In 2001 he moved to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Melbourne as Lecturer, where he continued his soil moisture work, including development of the only Australian airborne capability for simulating new satellite missions for soil moisture. In 2010 he was appointed as Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University where he is continuing this research.
His primary research ambition is to lead programs in socially relevant research that will have a positive impact on the way we take care of the environment so as to result in an improved quality of life both now and in the generations to come. He believes that the key to this is through improved earth system state and flux monitoring, prediction and reporting, in a way that is relevant to policy and decision making processes, flood and drought prediction and assessment, land and water management, national weather and climate forecasting, etc. His vision is that this goal will be realised through a combination of i) environmental sensing, ii) earth system modelling, and iii) optimal convergence of model predictions with observations through data assimilation. This is a new area of research that has gained wide spread interest over the past years.
Speech Title: Towards smart irrigation
Abstract: Soil moisture information is vital to achieving optimal water use in irrigated agriculture. Although a number of water balance models and/or point-based soil moisture measurement approaches coupled with remotely sensed crop indices are available, they all lack the ability to accurately represent spatial crop water requirements. Moreover, crop health indices such as the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index cannot differentiate between water and nutrient stress or other impacts on crop health, such as from pests and disease.
Remote sensing of soil moisture using an L-band radiometer has been proven to provide accurate soil moisture information, but currently with coarse resolution. Compared with aircraft and satellite, drone-based techniques offer a small, relatively inexpensive and autonomous platform for soil moisture remote sensing with an improved spatial resolution and sampling flexibility. Accordingly, drone-based L-band passive microwave soil moisture maps are expected to provide the spatial information needed, and when coupled with water balance models, allow not only accurate estimation of the spatial variation in soil water properties needed for water demand modelling, but also an ability to track the soil moisture content over the root zone. Armed with an accurate high-resolution map of soil water demand, variable rate irrigation can then be applied with unprecedented accuracy.
This study has integrated a drone with a single beam patch array passive microwave radiometer at L-band. Trials are being conducted in a grassland and corn field in Victoria, Australia, with the objectives to i) test the robustness of this new drone-radiometer system; ii) retrieve surface soil moisture at 10 m resolution and compare with ground sampled soil moisture; and iii) provide accurate surface soil moisture for future calibration and assimilation of a water balance model. Results from this experiment will be presented.
 | Prof. Mokhles K. AZER, Head of Geological Sciences Department National Research Centre, Egypt |
Biography: Mokhles K. AZER is a professor of geological sciences who specializes in igneous and metamorphic petrology and regional tectonics, with a particular research focus on the petrogenesis and geochemistry of juvenile crust of the Arabian-Nubian Shield exposed in Eastern Desert and Sinai. He was born in Assiut, Egypt in 1972. Graduated his M.Sc. and PhD from Cairo University in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Dr. Azer worked in many intentional projects in cooperation with different foreign countries as principle investigator, co-principal investigator and as a member. Also, he awarded many prizes due to his outstanding contributions to the geology of Egypt. Many local and international workshops are organized by Prof. Azer to correlate the geology of Egypt, especially the Red Sea region, with those of other countries. Now he holds the position of Head of Geological Sciences Department at the National Research Center, Egypt.
Speech Title: To be updated
 | Dr. Soufiane Haddout, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco |
Biography: Dr. S. Haddout is researcher in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco. To date, he is the author of 3 books, 2 submitted books, published more than 60 refereed journal articles with 40 refereed articles as the first; is involved in collaborative research with 22 universities/institutions worldwide; expert reviewer with AEIC-Academic Exchange Information Centre (China); and reviewer for many project proposals from international universities; received more than 100 certificates from international conference and renowned journals; Keynote/invited speaker for many international conferences. Award-2020, 2021 and 2022: Best Research Awards (i.e., Thermodynamic in estuaries; and Water shortages and pandemics in Africa, and Bi-variate and CM plotting of the Sediment Dynamic Process in the estuaries)-International Research Awards, Iceat conference…etc. Co-Chair of the scientific session of the International Conference of Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation USA; Lead-Chair of the 1st and 2nd International Conference on Climate Change and Ocean Renewable Energy (CCORE 2022-2023); Coordinator of the 1st International Round Table Webinar on A Multi-criteria decision making tool for the management of water bodies in developing countries towards climate change resilience. Chair of the scientific session of the 16th International Conference on Computer and Electrical Engineering (ICCEE 2023) and is a Guest Editor of Regional Studies in Marine Science, Journal of Environmental Management, Elsevier and active reviewer of reputed journals of Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Springer, Wiley, MDPI, Nature…etc.
Speech Title: To be updated
 | Prof. Arun Kumar Shandilya, Dr.H.S.G.University Sagar, India |
Biography: Prof. Arun Kumar Shandilya, worked as Professor in Dr,H.S.G University SAGAR, having 44 years of Experience in Teaching and Research and Administration. I did Doctoral research on Himalayan Tectonics . I have published more then 85 Research papers in the Journal of National and International repute. Supervised 8 students for Ph.D and more then 500 students for M.Tech / M.Sc Dessertaions on Himalayan Geology, Central India and Rajasthan Geology and Geology of Bundelkhand Tectonics, Satpura Tectonics and on Coal Geology and impact of mining on the Environment of Manganeese and coal, Iron, Marble mines, Phosphorire Mines etc. I have published a Book On- GEOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES BY SPRINGER NATURE AND another book is on PENINSULA GEOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT.
Speech Title: To be updated
 | Prof. ASHRAF ALI SEDDIQUE, Dept. of Environmental Science and Engineering, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Bangladesh |
Biography: Dr. Ashraf Ali Seddique earned his B.Sc. (Hons.), M.Sc. (Geology), and M.Phil. (Environment and Hydrogeology) degrees from Dhaka University in 1994, 1995, and 2002, respectively. He is currently a professor of environmental geochemistry at the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University (JKKNIU), Trishal, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. In 2009, he received a Ph.D. in geochemistry from Osaka City University (Japan) for his investigations into the geochemical characterization and formation mechanism of arsenic in Bengal Delta Plain Groundwater Aquifers in northeast Bangladesh. As a geologist, Dr. Seddique spent his first five years of his professional life working for the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. Before joining at the JKKNIU, he furthermore spent six years as an assistant professor at Jessore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh. He has so far worked on numerous multidisciplinary basic science research projects with scientists from the United States (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University), Japan (Osaka City University, Tsukuba University), United Kingdom (British Geological Survey), Sweden (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, IFS), Australia (Curtin University, ANSTO), Brazil (Federal Universidade Federal), Sweden (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, IFS), and China (Chinese Academy of Sciences, First Institute of Oceanography, and Sun Yat-Sen University). Environmental geochemistry, environmental hydrogeology, geology, water pollution with radioactive heavy metals and trace elements, isotopic investigations, and GIS studies are some of the areas of his research. He has more than 100 research publications in journals and conferences both domestically and abroad (Google Scholar total citations: 2950; h-index: 25, i10 –index: 30; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VdcZMvAAAAAJ&hl=en; Scopus ID # 6506407122, ORCID # https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7430-1226), has attracted more than $500,000 in research funding, and is a member of the editorial boards for the Journal of Frontiers in Water and the Journal of Environmental Reviews. At conferences, workshops, and seminars held both domestically and abroad, he has delivered several papers.
Dr. Ashraf comes from the area and has extensive knowledge of the water pollution caused by arsenic, radioactive heavy metals, climate change, and salinity in groundwater in Bangladesh's coastal regions. He has received awards for his contributions, including the International Visiting Scholarship Award from Tsukuba University, Japan in 2017, the Best Speaker Award from the International Water Conference, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, the Best Paper Award for his research in the 36IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists) Congress Conference, and the Sher-e-Bangla National Award in 2015 for his remarkable research accomplishment in indentifying the main source of arsenic and radioactive heavy metals in groundwater aquifer system of Bangladesh. The Department of Biology and Geosciences, Faculty of Science, Osaka City University, Japan, recognized him in 2012, 2013 and 2016 as a Foreign Research Fellow, Invited Speaker, and Visiting Scientist. Additionally, he has received several other awards and distinctions throughout his career. Dr. Seddique belongs to numerous societies and groups on the worldwide level that are focused on research, environmental sciences, and water pollution in marine and coastal areas.
Speech Title: To be updated