Dr. Call is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at North Carolina State University. His group studies biological and electrochemical processes that treat wastewater and recover resources (e.g., energy, nutrients, high-value chemicals) from wastes. Examples of ongoing research include (1) bioelectrochemical production of ammonium for fertilizers from nitrogen gas, (2) generation of long-chain fatty acids during the anaerobic co-digestion of food wastes, (3) phosphorus removal from wastewater using biological processes, and (4) electrochemical removal of carbon dioxide from seawater. He has over 17 years experience in the field of bioelectrochemistry, where he has studied systems that range in application from electricity production, methane/hydrogen gas production, to organic acid generation. While at NC State University, he has led or assisted in securing over $30 million in research funds from public, private, and foundation sources including the National Science Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and the Department of Defense. He is also a member of the National Science Foundation Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability, a large science and technology center led by NC State. Dr. Call received both his MS (2008) and PhD (2011) in Environmental Engineering from Penn State University. He continued as a postdoctoral scientist at Penn State until becoming an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University in 2012.

Professor Łukasz Chrzanowski is a lecturer at the Poznań University of Technology, Poland. Łukasz does research in Environmental Science, Waste Management and Soil Science. Their current project is 'Investigation of potential toxic effects of selected ionic liquids.

My research interests are focused on the widespread interactions between plant roots and symbiotic fungi, together known as mycorrhizas. I use isotope tracers, environmental physiology and metabolomics to explore the exchanges of plant-carbon and fungal-acquired nutrients between mycorrhizal symbionts. My particular interests lie in how diverse mycorrhizas, including Mucoromycotina ‘fine root endophytes’, respond and interact with biotic and abiotic factors, in both evolutionary and applied contexts. Our research is helping us to understand the role mycorrhizal fungi may have played in the colonisation of Earth’s terrestrial environment by plants >500 million years ago, and how we might be able to use mycorrhizal fungi to reduce future agricultural usage of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Our research also seeks to understand the influence of emerging contaminants on mycorrhizal symbiosis and is helping to inform crop breeding programmes to produce the next generation of mycorrhiza-friendly crops.
I completed my PhD in environmental physiology in 2009 at the University of Sheffield before getting into mycorrhizas during my postdoctoral studies (2009-2015), also at Sheffield. I got my first academic post at the University of Leeds in 2015, moving there as a University Academic Fellow and becoming Professor in 2019. I moved back to the University of Sheffield this summer (2020) as Professor of Plant-Soil Processes.

Ivo Frébort, a Czech citizen born in 1965; MSc. in Analytical Chemistry 1989, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic; Ph.D. in Biochemistry 1992, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic; Ph.D. in Bioresources Science 1997, Tottori University, Japan; postdoc 2001, University of Tübingen, Germany; Professor in Biochemistry at the Palacký University since 2005; visiting professor, Osaka University 2007. Ivo Frébort is the founder and Executive Director of the Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research (2010-2022), a member of the Executive Board of European Federation of Biotechnology (since 2012) and former Dean of the Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc (2014-2018). His research covers broad areas in enzymology, molecular biology and biochemistry, with a special focus on the enzymes of hormone metabolism in plants and possible biotechnological applications, including cloning and preparation of transgenic barley (WoS 120 papers, 2500+ citation, h-29, 4 patents). His lecturing includes Molecular Biology and Structure and Function of Biomacromolecules. He was the principal investigator of a large infrastructure project (>30 mil. €) from EU structural funds and many other R&DI projects.

Professor Benjamin’s research is about engineering microbiomes towards applications that benefit the biobased circular economy. Examples are microbiomes for waste water treatment, valorization of biomass waste or residues, and the recovery of nutrients. He is inspired by natural ecosystem functioning which he then mimics and translates into biotechnology.
Wood-eating beetles, for instance, have co-evolved with a gut microbiome to be able to feed on lignocellulosic biomass. These beetles’ microbiomes are therefore an interesting starting point to develop bioreactors for the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass into value-added biochemicals.
Benjamin is also involved in developing strategies to improve micropollutant removal from drinking water. Dedicated micropollutant degrading bacteria can be aided by co-inoculation with beneficial strains in sand filters for drinking water production or by other alterations to the sand filter microbiome.

The Soft Matter Nanotechnology Lab is lead by Dr. Sergio Moya, who obtained his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the National University of the South in Argentina, and finished his PhD work at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Germany (2001). After completing his PhD, he held postdoctoral research positions at the College de France in Paris, and the Nanoscience Centre at the University of Cambridge in England. Before joining CIC biomaGUNE, he worked as a research scientist for the National Council of Research in Mexico. His doctoral and postdoctoral research has been focused on nanotechnology employing elements of soft matter and biomolecules, and on supramolecular chemistry.

Assoc. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Martin Pšenička, Ph.D. is the head of Laboratory of Germ Cells. His background is in fish genetics and his research is focus on germ cells including their identification, characterization and manipulation, and nuclear transfer.

Dr Ana Rotter is based at the Marine Biology Station Piran, of the National Institute of Biology in Slovenia. Shortly before obtaining her PhD in 2011, Ana was awarded the L’Oreal for women in science scholarship as recognition for her scientific work on statistical design and analysis of biological data. She has a Bachelor degree in microbiology. She has participated in several marine biotechnology related international projects and is leading the research programme entitled “Marine and microbial biotechnology” in Slovenia as well as Chairing the COST Action Ocean4Biotech (European transdisciplinary networking platform for marine biotechnology). As a member of the B-Blue project (Building the blue biotechnology community in the Mediterranean) she is participating in the creation of new value chains and the launch of the MedIA-SBBE (Mediterranean Innovation Alliance for Sustainable Blue Bioeconomy). She collaborated in over 20 national and international networks and projects, has co-authored over 50 scientific articles and book chapters and has had over 70 media appearances. She is a science communication expert appointed by the European Commission.source

Head of the Environmental Management Team, DECC, in 2013.
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries biologist.

Marcella does research in Biotechnology and is currently involved in projects about lignocellulosic biomass valorization and microalgae cultivation and processing.

Peter Wehrheim is Head of Unit for Bioeconomy & Food Systems in DG Research and Innovation, at the European Commission. Peter joined the Cabinet of Commissioner Hogan in February 2018. Between 2010 and early 2018 he worked as Head of Unit in the European Commission's Directorate General "Climate Action"​. His portfolio included climate finance , deforestation (REDD+ and LULUCF) and agriculture.
Peter started to work for the European Commission in 2004 and was first affiliated with the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (until 2010). Prior to joining the Commission he was a Heisenberg-Fellow of the German Research Foundation. He worked during that period at the Centre for Development Research/University of Bonn and at the IRIS Centre at the University of Maryland.
In 2001/2002 he was temporary Professor at the Institute for Economic and Agricultural Policy/University of Bonn. Between 1994 and 2001 he worked as an independent consultant on development policy issues for the World Bank, the FAO, the European Commission but was also affiliated to various think tanks and research institutes (International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI/Washington; University of Kiel/Germany).
In 2001 (1994) he received a professorial title/Habilitation (Doctor degree) in agricultural economics from the University of Bonn (Giessen). In 1988/89 he studied at Michigan State University.
The views expressed in the content published by this profile are solely that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institution.