SPEAKER

CEESD 2022 Speaker

Prof. Solomon W. Leung (Keynote Speaker) Idaho State University, USA Speech Title: Comparison of Elemental Distribution in Major Organs between Rat and Humans and Influence of M2+ in Drinking Water Abstract: Many environmental factors can affect our health, one major factor is our diet intake.  However, the knowledge of how elements and electrolytes are accumulated in our body through diet ingestion is not well understood, thus their health effects.  Recent cancer research has shown that intracellular heavy metals accumulated in patient’s lymph modes, bone marrow, and liver.  In this study, we tracked the accumulations of 30 essential metals and electrolytes that were consumed in a regular diet over a lifetime in heart, liver, lung, spleen, and kidney for healthy adult rats (120 days); and compared these data with similar information obtained from healthy human individuals from four different countries.  Furthermore, we obtained the elemental distributions in these vital organs with rats that were treated with excessive Mn2+ in their drinking water, in addition to their normal diet.  Thus, we could observe how consumption of the excessive Mn affected the accumulation of these metals and electrolytes in the vital organs of rats.  With such knowledge, we can project how consumption of heavy metal, such as Mn, may affect metal distributions/accumulations in our body. Brief Bio: Dr. Leung received his Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering in 1989 from the University of Iowa. His research interests include physicochemical treatment processes, environmental systems modeling, environmental risk assessment, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Prof. Solomon W. Leung's CV

Prof. Yang Liu (Keynote Speaker) University of Alberta, Canada Speech Title: Sustainable Municipal Wastewater Management: From Energy Efficiency to Resource Recovery Abstract: Wastewater is a resource, and the One-Water approach (municipal drinking, storm & waste waters) recognises this via recovery of energy, nutrients and water for safe recycling back into our communities. New treatment options based on resource-recovery offer an important element in enhancing community resilience to climate and demographic changes. To aid in option selections, it is important to utilize system analysis tools based on life-cycle assessments, so as to minimize unintended consequences from new infrastructure, some of which will be in place for at least fifty years. Our study focuses on the selection, evaluation and optimization of emerging municipal wastewater service options that can carry out energy and nutrient recovery, leading to a more sustainable wastewater treatment system within the urban water service system. Brief Bio: Dr. Yang Liu’s research interests are centered in energy and nutrient recovery from municipal and industrial wastewater. She studies the basics of biofilm and granular sludge formation processes, and microbial population dynamics in environmental systems, and their applications in bioreactors for industrial wastewater treatment, and centralized and decentralized municipal wastewater treatment.Yang Liu's personal page

Past CEESD Speakers