PLENARY SPEAKERS
Jerry Y.S. Lin is a Regents Professor in School of Engineering for Matter, Transport and Energy at Arizona State University in Tempe. He is co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Membrane Science. Prior to joining ASU in 2005, Lin was a Professor of Chemical Engineering and co-director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology at University of Cincinnati. He served as department chair of chemical engineering at ASU in 2006-2009. Lin heads the Membrane and Energy Laboratory and his areas of expertise include inorganic membrane science, adsorption, separation technologies, catalysis, fuel cell and energy storage, and carbon dioxide capture. Lin received a bachelor's degree (1982) from Zhejiang University in China, master's degree (1985) and doctorate (1988) from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, MA, all in chemical engineering. He was a postdoctoral staff member at the University of Twente in the Netherlands (1988-1991). Lin joined the faculty of chemical engineering at University of Cincinnati as an assistant professor in 1991 and was promoted to full professor in 1998. As of Aug. 2020, Lin has published 320 refereed journal publications, holds nine patents, and given more than 200 invited lectures in academia, industry and research institutes around world. Lin has trained over 100 post-doctors and graduate students, including over 40 PhDs. Professor Lin has received several awards, including the NSF Career Award (1995), Cheung Kong Scholar Award (2001), AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gases Technology (2009). He is a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (since 2009), American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE)(since 2013), and North American Membrane Society (NAMS) (since 2020). Lin's services to the scientific community include serving as a referee for about 50 journals and 20 funding agencies, and co-chairing the 1998 NAMS Annual Meeting, the 1994 MRS Symposium on Materials for Separation Technology, 2001 ACS Symposium on Advanced Membrane Materials. He was the conference chairman of the 2004 International Conference on Inorganic Membranes, and was chair of 2010 Gordon Research Conference on Membrane Materials and Processes, and 2013 North American Membrane Society annual meeting.
Amy Childress is Gabilan Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director of the Environmental Engineering program at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Childress’ research and scholarly interests are in the area of desalination, wastewater reclamation, and the water-energy nexus. Most recently, she has investigated pressure-driven membrane processes as industry standards for desalination and water reuse; membrane contactor processes for innovative solutions to contaminant and energy challenges; membrane bioreactor technology; power plant water supply and demand; colloidal and interfacial aspects of membrane processes; and brine reduction and energy recovery. Dr. Childress has directed research funded by federal, state, and private agencies with research projects in the past two years being funded by the Department of Energy National Alliance for Water Innovation, Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program, California Department of Water Resources, National Science Foundation, Fulbright US Scholar Program, and Electric Power Research Institute. She has received awards for publications, research innovation, technology education, and mentoring. Dr. Childress is a past president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and a Board-Certified Environmental Engineering member. She is regularly invited as a plenary or keynote speaker to technical conferences worldwide. Dr. Childress chairs National Water Research Institute independent advisory panels on potable reuse and seawater desalination projects and serves on the external audit panel for Singapore Public Utilities Board. She is also co-editor of Desalination and on the advisory boards of several technical journals.
Credited with the invention of submerged membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment and reuse, professor Kazuo Yamamoto is the President of Water Reuse Promotion Center, Japan and an emeritus professor of the University of Tokyo, Japan. Concurrently, he is a professor (Research and Development Initiative) of Chuo University and a visiting professor of Kindai University, Japan. He previously served as the Vice President for Resource Development at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. Prof. Yamanoto graduated from Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo (1977), and received his Master's in 1979 and his PhD in 1983 from the same institution. In 1985, he was appointed as Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, and was seconded to AIT (1987-1989). He then served as a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and then the Environmental Center at the University of Tokyo. He was the Director of the Environmental Science Centre (2003-2007) of the University of Tokyo. His main research interests are in Membrane Bioreactor development for which he has been awarded major awards, including the Sidney Loeb Award (European Desalination Society, 2008), the Membrane Technology Award (Membrane Technology Specialist Group, International Water Association, 2009) and the Academic Award (Japan Society on Water Environment, 2013).
Dr Lidietta Giorno has served as the Director of the Institute on membrane Technology of the National Research Council of Italy, ITM-CNR since 2009 until February 2019. Her research expertise include membrane bioengineering, biocatalytic membrane reactors, integrated membrane systems for bioseparations and bioconversions, downstream processing based on molecular separation, membrane chirotechnology, membrane emulsifier, integrated membrane operations for water treatment. She has been involved in membrane science, engineering research and development some 25 years, being involved in research co-operations at European and international level. She awarded The International Awards "Guido Dorso" for Research in 2011, sponsored by the Italian Senate and the University of Naples Federico II. She awarded the Sapio Red Carpet Award in 2016 among the female scientists of highest scientific profile who are engaged for the development of the Country. She worked abroad in the USA at Sepracor Inc. 1992; in The Netherlands at ATO-DLO, 1994; in France, at The University of Compiegne 1997 and 2000. She is Visiting Porfessor at Tianjin University of Science and Technology, China, since 2008. Lidietta Giorno is co-author of several books, over 100 peer reviewed scientific papers in international journals, and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Membranes, Springer, 2016. She is member of editorial board of scientific journals, member of the referee pool of scientific journals and research agencies, member of international committees and several scientific societies. She has served as member of the Board of Directors of the European Membrane House – EMH, (Belgium), born to continue the activity of the NanoMemPro Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission within the FP6. She has served on the European Membrane Society Council as the President of the EMS Council and the Editor of the EMS Membrane Newsletter. She was nominated Honorary Member of the European Membrane Society in 2014.
Dr. Tongwen Xu is a full-time Professor of Chemistry Engineering at University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). He obtained B.E (1989) and M.E. degree (1992) from Hefei University and Technology and Ph.D from Tianjin University (1995). Dr. Xu joined the USTC as an associate professor in 1997 was promoted to professor in 2001. Dr Xu was a short-term visiting scientist of the University of Tokyo (2000), Tokyo Institute of Technology (2001) and also a Brain-Pool Professor of Korea in Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (2006-2007). The research interests of Dr. Xu are focused on the development and practical applications of ion exchange membranes. In his lab, he explores novel types of materials for cation/anion exchange membranes and bipolar membranes. He also investigates green and safe functionalization methods that can convert normal polymers into ion exchange membranes. Dr. Xu is dedicated to the industrial applications of ion exchange membranes, including diffusion dialysis (DD), electrodialysis (ED), bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED). In doing so, he expects to solve the most urgent challenge related to energy conversion and storage, environment and resources. Prof. Xu has authored >500 publications, 6 Books, 20+ Chapters, and holds >90 issued China Patents for ion exchange membranes and related processes. He is named as a highly cited researcher by Thomson Reuters (ISI Web of Knowledge) with over 20000+ citations and H-index of 74. Prof. Xu is the Editor of Journal of Membrane Science, and editorial boards of Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., Desalination, J. Polym Sci., and etc. Prof. Xu’s contribution to ion exchange membranes and related processes has brought him numerous awards. He received the first class Technical Advance Awards of Chinese Membrane Society (2006, 2009), the first class Technical Advance Awards of Chinese Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Society (2008, 2009, 2021), Outstanding Youth Foundation of China (2010), Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry(2013), Cheung Kong Scholars (2014), Award for the National Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talent Project (2015), K.C.Wong Talent Award (2016), Hou Debang Chemical Engineering Science and Technology Award of Innovation (2016), National Award for Technological Invention (2018), Fellow of Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China (CIESC) (2020) et al.
