Ana Soares is a full Professor of Biotechnology Engineering at Cranfield Water Science Institute, Cranfield University, UK. She is an IWA Fellow and leads the Resource Recovery Community of Practice at Cranfield University. Her research focuses on the behaviour and manipulation of bacterial communities under dynamic conditions, leading to new technologies, process optimisation and valuable product recovery. Her research is applied in municipal as well as industrial wastewater, proposing innovative and economically feasible solutions to produce high quality effluents and resource recovery. Her scientific findings have resulted in leading-edge processes and technological innovations that contribute, worldwide, to sustainable solutions for effluent treatment. She is particularly successful in bridging the gap between science and application, working in close collaboration with industry partners leading the water sector. In February 2024, she received the prestigious OFWAT Discovery Challenge Award for her breakthrough and innovation on phosphorus removal and recovery from wastewater using bio-mineral forming microorganisms. She has published over 80 peer review publications that have received over 5500 citations.

Professor Soares is an active member of various national and international committees, chair of the IWA Resource Recovery Cluster and the prominent IWA Leading Edge Conference series. She is the Editor in Chief for the Water and Environment Journal and she was an Associate Editor for Water Research. 

Mark van Loosdrecht has been working at Delft University of Technology since 1988 and is a leading scientist in the environmental biotechnology field. His interests are related to biofilm processes, nutrient conversion processes and the role of storage polymers in microbial ecology. He has been instrumental in the development of several commercialised processes related to wastewater treatment and resource recovery. He is a past editor-in-chief of water research. He was awarded several prizes for his work, including the Lee Kuan Yew Singapore Water Prize, the Stockholm Water Prize and the IWA Grand Award. He is a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Dutch, USA and Chinese Academies of Engineering. He received an honorary doctorate from ETH Zurich and University Gent. He was awarded a knighthood in the order of the Dutch Lion. He has published over 900 scientific papers, has over 20 patents and has supervised over 75 PhD students.

Guihe Tao is a Chief Specialist (Used Water Treatment) of PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency. He is overseeing the process control and R&D of wastewater treatment and water reuse. He has over 25 years of experience in developing, designing and implementing efficient water reclamation processes including the most energy efficient integrated biosorption step-feed membrane bioreactor (MBR), MBR-RO, membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR), and aerobic granular sludge (AGS)-MBR for nutrient removal, energy and resource recovery. Dr.Tao is a member of IWA Nutrient Removal and Recovery Specialist Group Management committee and a Chartered Engineer (Environmental and Water Engineering) of Singapore.