H2O Pollution: holistic approach and nature based solutions

Partner universities:

• Sapienza Università di Roma (Italia)
• University of Glasgow, (UK)
• University of Bucharest (Romania)
• Stockhom University (Sweden)
• University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Professors:

Sapienza Università di Roma

• Maria Letizia Costantini is Associate Professor of Ecology and Applied ecology at Sapienza Università di Roma (SUR). The main focus of her research is the relationship between biodiversity and functioning in aquatic ecosystems. Currently the research interests are food webs in Mediterranean and Polar habitats, impact of alien species, use of stable isotopes for environmental monitoring. She was President of the MSc in Ecobiology and now is in the Steering committee of the PhD programme in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology.
• Edoardo Calizza is Associate Professor of Ecology at Sapienza Università di Roma (SUR). He is interested in the study of species interactions in ecological communities through stable isotope analyses. Research includes the Mediterranean and polar areas, focusing on the effects of climate change. The general aim of his research work is to better understand mechanisms of biodiversity organization along natural and anthropic gradients of disturbance.
• Giulio Careddu is Researcher at Sapienza Università di Roma (SUR). He studies trophic interactions to understand the impact of anthropogenic activities and climate change on aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. He is also interested in understanding the ecological mechanisms underlying the invasion success of alien species and in monitoring nitrogen inputs into aquatic systems through stable isotope analysis. Member of the Italian Society of Ecology (SItE) and the British Ecological Society.
• Giulia Massini is senior researcher at the Department of Energy Technologies, Laboratory of Biotechnological Processes for Energy and Industry (PBE-ENEA). She teaches Bioremediation of contaminated aquatic and terrestrial environments at Sapienza Università di Roma (SUR). She has experience in ecology, microbial ecology and ecology applied to the study of fermentation, anaerobic digestion and biogeochemical cycles. She currently carries out research in the field of energy valorisation of waste biomass with the production of biogas, biomethane and biohydrogen.
• Anna Barra Caracciolo, PhD in Ecology. She is Head of Research at the Water Research Institute of the National Research Council (IRSA-CNR). She studies the fate of organic contaminants, the role of natural microbial communities in degrading and removing chemicals and bioremediation strategies. She taught Bioremediation at SUR. She is member of the SETAC Europe, of the EcotoxicoMic Network and of the NORMAN Network.
• Antonella Marone is Researcher at PBE - ENEA. Her research activities encompass all mixed-culture bioprocesses applied to treatment of solid and liquid waste and products recovery (renewable energy and chemicals): bioelectrochemical systems, fermentation, anaerobic digestion and designing biorefineries. She was awarded with an EU Marie Curie Grant and Beatriu de Pinos fellowship.

University of Bucharest

• Carmen Chifiriuc is Full Professor at the University of Bucharest (UB), Department of Microbiology, corresponding member of the Romania Academy, pro-Rector, coordinator of the Research Institute, member of the taskforce for research within CIVIS (WP4) and member in RIS4CIVIS. Fields of expertise: investigation by phenotypic and genotypic approaches of resistance and virulence in bacterial strains isolated from clinical sources and from the aquatic environment, complex pathogen-host interrelation, evaluation of novel antimicrobial and anti-virulence strategies.
• Delia-Laura Popescu is Senior Lecturer in Chemistry in the Department of Inorganic and Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry and Catalysis, and Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry (UB). She has earned MSc in chemistry and PhD in green chemistry and homogeneous catalysis from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA. Her current research focuses on porous materials with environmental applications, supramolecular hybrid metal-organic materials, and coordination systems with biological properties.
• Irina Gheorghe-Barbu is Associated Professor at the Department of Botany and Microbiology (UB). She has a background on the antimicrobial resistence in strains belonging to GNNF, mediated by mobile genetic elements (plasmids, integrons and transposons). She optimized a series of protocols working techniques (PFGE, MLST, Mapping PCR, Southern Blot hybridisation) during mobility fellowships in China and Portugal Universities and national projects.
• Ilda Czobor Barbu is Associate Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology (UB) and holds a PhD in Biology. Her research focuses on antimicrobial resistance, particularly in Gram-negative ESKAPE pathogens, examining resistance gene transfer in clinical and environmental contexts. She has expertise in molecular microbiology, bacterial genomics, and molecular epidemiology. Recently, she has expanded her work to explore the potential of bacteriophages as alternative therapies to antibiotics

University of Glasgow

• Michelle Bloor is a Professor of Environmental Science and Risk at the School of Social and Environmental Sustainability, University of Glasgow, U.K. Her research expertise is within the arena of chemicals, waste and pollution prevention. She is the Research Director for Scotland’s National Centre for Resilience, Co-Lead of the University of Glasgow’s Global Health and Environment Interdisciplinary Research, Editor in Chief of Sustainable Environment  journal and Editor for the book series Issue on Environmental Science and Technology. She is also a Senior Fellow of the University of Glasgow’s Center for Public and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Stockhom University

• Ann-Kristin E Wiklund is Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Head of Education at Stockholm University (SU). She earned a PhD in Ecotoxicology and has an extensive experience in experimental ecotoxicology in laboratory and field environments. She has been working with both legacy contaminants (metals, PAH:s, and PCB:s) as well as emerging contaminants (pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and artificial sweeteners).
• Rehab El-Shehawy is Associate Professor of Environmental Microbiology at SU. She holds a PhD in Microbiology. Her research is focused on cyanobacteria-zooplankton,host-microbiome and microbe-microbe interactions, cyanoHABs; bloom formation and toxin production under climate change, biodegradation of cyanotoxins.

University of the Witwatersrand (SA)

• Ella Linganiso is a Senior Instrument Scientist at the Microscopy and Microanalysis Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and an Associate Researcher of the School of Chemistry. She holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry with a special focus on green chemistry approaches for semiconductor nanomaterial synthesis. Her research focuses on creating high value products from waste biomass as well as addressing environmental pollution and renewable energy.

Other trainers

• Maura Manganelli, PhD in Ecology, is Senior Researcher at the National Istitute of Health, Dept. of Environment and Health. She works in the field of water quality and human health risk assessment. She also carries out institutional activities (formulation of opinions) as experts in aquatic microbial pathogens, toxic cyanobacteria and harmful algae.
• David Rossi, PhD in Earth Sciences, is a Researcher at IRSA-CNR. His research activity includes hydrology and hydro-geology; groundwater reconstruction and drainage processes; mapping in 2D and 3D of water body using echosounder single beams and multi beams; relationships between geological complexity and ecosystem fragility.