PRESENTERS

Paul Lant

Paul Lant is Professor and Head of the School of Chemical Engineering at The University of Queensland. He has an international reputation for his research in the field of wastewater treatment. His formal qualifications include a MEng and PhD from Newcastle University (UK) and an MBA from The University of Queensland.

He was a co-founder of the Advanced Water Management Centre, the leading water and wastewater R&D group in Australia. Paul is also establishing a reputation as a leading chemical engineering educator, receiving awards for undergraduate teaching and postgraduate supervision innovations. He was a member of teams winning national teaching awards for both undergraduate and postgraduate education in 2005 and 2006.

Paul has successfully started up a number of commercial ventures. He is the Founder and a Director of Wastewater Futures Pty Ltd, a wastewater technology company which specialises in wastewater treatment solutions for industrial applications.

Paul is the Director of IWES.

Tom Baldock

Tom is an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at The University of Queensland. He is an expert in ocean and coastal engineering, and his work encompasses extreme ocean waves, tsunami impacts, wave and storm surge run-up on beaches, surf and swash zone hydrodynamics and the morphology of beaches and morphology of coastal lagoons. Tom has consulted widely, including acting as an expert witness on Maritime safety, and performing physical model testing of structures such as breakwaters, piers, jetties and floating structures. He has worked closely with Geoscience Australia on the application of the ANU and Geoscience Australia tsunami model, and applied this to investigate tsunami hazards for the NSW State Government. He is currently working with DHI Australia and the NSW State Government in an industry-funded project studying cyclone wind fields and wave impact on the NSW and QLD coasts.

Ian Burrows

Ian is a Civil Engineer specialising in asset planning and management in the water and wastewater sectors for the past 10 years. He has had a broad range of experience and roles, working as a hydraulic modeler, design engineer, planner and project manager for water, wastewater and stormwater projects. He has expertise in hydraulic modelling, system planning and analysis, water quality management, leak detection and management, surge analysis, telemetry data processing and GIS data capture and review. He has experience in water utility operations including distribution system optimisation and incident response, proactive maintenance planning and strategic asset management. Ian has worked for a range of public and private sector organisations. He was recently NSW Manager for Urban Water Solutions, and is now working as an independent consultant. He is an experienced trainer, and has provided training and technical support for hydraulic modellers within Australia and New Zealand.

Reid Butler

Reid is the Manager of the BMT WBM Water and Environment Office in Sydney and has over fifteen years experience in sustainable water management. For the past seven years he has been conducting water audits and has achieved significant water savings through improved efficiency and innovative water reuse ideas for government, commercial and industrial clients.

Reid has been one of the key developers of water auditing and monitoring methodology and regular service provider to Sydney Water's Every Drop Counts Business Program.

He is active in promoting water auditing as an effective means to save water and money in high water use industries. This includes several international conference presentations and publications, as well as providing training for on-site staff in identifying issues and effectively managing water systems.

Josef Cesca

Josef is a recognized national expert in air and odour emissions control and permitting for municipal and industrial applications and wastewater collection and treatment systems. He is currently the Technology Leader for Odour and Air Quality in the Asia Pacific Region for CH2M HILL, and has over 20 years experience in odour control and measurement in wastewater collection systems and treatment facilities. He has been responsible for the review of systems to identify odour generation causes and assessment of odour impacts, and has implemented various emission control technologies at over 100 sites, including some of the largest facilities in Australia and New Zealand. This work has involved the design and commissioning of some of the largest biotechnology odour control systems in Australia. He also has over 25 years of extensive experience in biosolids, water, and wastewater treatment. He is currently leading the Australian research into understanding the impacts of ventilation in sewers as part of a national program on corrosion and odour management which involves seven major Australian water utilities, four Australian universities, as well as several other Australian and international partners.

Heather Chapman

Dr Heather Chapman is an Associate Professor and Program Leader for the Health and Environment Program in the Smart Water Research Facility located at Griffith University in Brisbane. She has research experience in water quality and management, water recycling, application of water quality guidelines and the development of techniques for assessment of risk from chemicals in water. Heathers current research interests include sustainable use of urban water focussing on alternate water sources such as rainwater harvesting and water reuse.

Daniel Deere

Dan Deere is a water quality scientist with Water Futures Pty Ltd, specialising in quantitative and water cycle risk assessment and risk management planning. He has worked in scientific roles in the UK, Sydney and Melbourne as an academic research fellow and consultant, specialising in microbial water quality monitoring and process validation. More recently, he has worked in technical management roles in water utilities in Melbourne (South East Water) and Sydney (Sydney Catchment Authority) and was the part-time CRC for Water Quality and Treatment Catchments Research Program Leader for 7 years.

Dan has provided training in the ADWG Framework, Water Safety Plans (WHO), the Australian Guidelines for Water Recycling Framework and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) across Australia, Asia and in Europe. He holds Lead Auditor status and is an Auditor Skill Examiner under the RABQSA Drinking Water Quality Management System (DWQMS) certification scheme. He is a Principal Auditor for Water Supply Systems under the RABQSA Food Safety Management Systems (HACCP) scheme and holds current RABQSA competencies in implementing Food Safety Management (HACCP) systems, Quality System Auditing, Leading Audit Teams and DWQMS.

Ana Deletic

Professor Ana Deletic is Director of the Monash University Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. She leads a strong research team which is internationally recognised in the field of stormwater management. Current projects include development of biofilters for stormwater treatment, modelling performance of stormwater wetlands, large scale monitoring and modelling of urban stormwater quality, assessing uncertainties in stormwater modelling, development of stormwater harvesting technologies and characterisation and modelling of pathogens in stormwater. Ana has been involved in the design, construction and monitoring of a range of innovative stormwater management systems throughout Australia, and she has worked on stormwater projects in Yugoslavia, Sweden, Scotland and Australia.

Justin Doyle

Justin Doyle is Managing Director of Wastewater Futures, a niche company which specialises in industrial wastewater treatment. Justin’s main area of expertise is the development and application of advanced treatment processes for industrial wastewaters, including biological nutrient removal and water reuse technologies. For the last 13 years, Justin has worked as an engineer, researcher and consultant in the areas of municipal wastewater treatment and industrial wastewater process development. He is also experienced in managing large industrial and environmental projects.

Justin is an experienced trainer, and he is Deputy Director of IWES.

Mary Drikas

Mary Drikas has been the Principal Research Chemist of the Water Treatment Unit in the Australian Water Quality Centre (AWQC) since 1987. She was appointed Program Coordinator of the Water Technology Program within the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment (CRCWQT) which was formally established in July 1995, with responsibility for managing water treatment projects nationally across a number of research organisations.

In her role at the AWQC Mary leads one of the most influential and respected water treatment research groups in Australia. She has over 25 years experience in water treatment and has personally led projects researching a variety of processes including coagulation, disinfection, activated carbon and more recently membrane systems. She has also been involved in the investigation and development of innovative processes such as biological activated carbon using ozonation and UV irradiation, methods for determining assimilable organic carbon and is a co-patentor of the magnetic anion exchange resin (MIEX^®) for the removal of natural organic matter. She was also the project leader for a number of collaborative projects with Germany funded by the Commonwealth Government on “Improving Drinking Water Quality from Surface Water Sources” during 1995-1998. She has co-authored over 100 scientific papers.

Craig Fenton

Craig is a Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory practice, specialising in advising water utilities, regulators and other agencies in the water sector. Craig provides advice on the commercial and economic aspects of water sector policy, regulation, tariff setting, project evaluation, and funding. Over the past 8 years Craig has worked with water authorities, governments and regulators in virtually every Australian State and Territory on issues as diverse as water reform policy, water market design, sector institutional reform, developer and recurrent tariff setting, infrastructure project evaluation, and managing water supply reliability. Internationally, Craig has worked for utilities in Vietnam, Indonesia, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Locally, Craig has had an extensive involvement with the current institutional reforms in south east Queensland, as well as national reforms such as water trading and entitlement specification, and using market-based mechanisms for environmental objectives.

Mike Johns

Mike is the Principal Consultant of Johns Environmental, a boutique environmental consulting company based in Brisbane and specialising in industrial wastewater treatment and eco-efficiency. He has had 20 years experience consulting on water & wastewater issues of concern to Australian industrial facilities with clients both large and small. His services are highly sought after across Australia. His specialty is providing innovative process design and troubleshooting for wastewater plants discharging to surface rivers, land and sewer. His formal qualifications include a BTech and PhD in biochemical engineering from Massey University, New Zealand.

Mike worked for 15 years at the Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, conducting research into biochemical processes. Mike continues to provide technical advice for the environmental R&D program for Australian red meat processors under contract to Meat & Livestock Australia. This role exposes him to leading edge environmental technologies and practices and the issues surrounding their successful adoption.

Mike has been a regular lecturer at IWES courses and he is regarded as an engaging and inspirational lecturer.

David Fligelman

David is a chemical engineer specialising in the planning, design and optimisation of wastewater and recycled water treatment plants. He has delivered process designs and technical leadership for biological nutrient removal (BNR) systems with a combined treatment capacity of approximately 1,000,000 EP. Recent projects include the BNR plants at Murrumba Downs, Merrimac, Wacol, and Pimpama. He has an extensive experience in both design and operation of BNR plants. David now runs his own engineering consultancy, Tyr Group, based in Brisbane. From 2000-2006, David was the Senior Process Engineer with MWH in Qld, where he was the Lead Process Engineer or Project Manager on over 20 wastewater treatment projects. Prior to this, David was the Process Engineer for Yarra Valley Waters 10 wastewater treatment plants and two odour control facilities. Outside of BNR, David’s papers on advanced biosolids treatment, pathogen removal for water recycling, and carbon accounting reflect his passion for wastewater’s value as a resource.

Jeff Foley

Jeff Foley is the Manager of the GHD Western Australian Water & Wastewater Process service group and a senior process engineer, with nine years experience in the areas of wastewater treatment, odour control, life cycle assessment (LCA) and greenhouse gas emissions. His involvement in projects has ranged from concept design and process modelling, through to detailed design, construction, commissioning and process optimisation. Jeff has just completed his PhD at the Advanced Water Management Centre, The University of Queensland. His thesis topic was Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Treatment Systems, with a special focus on fugitive methane and nitrous oxide greenhouse gas emissions. For the past three years, Jeff has acted as the principal technical advisor to the Water Services Association of Australia, in their negotiations with the Department of Climate Change on industry concerns regarding measurement and liability issues under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System (NGERS) and the proposed emissions trading scheme.

Nick Hudson

Nick is the Manager of GHD’s Industrial Water Group. He has spent the last 20 years in industrial water treatment for oil refineries, fermentation and the pulp and paper industries throughout Australasia. Recent highlights of his work include the BP Bulwer Island refinery upgrade in Brisbane, and two green-field fermentation facilities in China and New Zealand.

More recently, Nick and his team have worked with the major Queensland CSG players including Santos, Origin and Arrow Energy, from appraisal development through to implementation of associated water management schemes. Nick is currently water lead for the Fluor GLNG Upstream FEED which is developing associated water management infrastructure for the Santos/ PETRONAS GLNG Surat fields.

Nick has qualifications in chemical engineering and microbiology, and is currently completing an MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management. Nick is a member of the International Water Association and the International Desalination Association.

Adam Jones

Adam is an Environmental Engineer in the BMT WBM Water and Environment Group Office in Sydney. He has been involved in more than 100 individual site water audits in Sydney and throughout New South Wales – many of these with the ‘Water Savings Section’ of the NSW Department of Commerce and Sydney Water’s ‘Every Drop Counts’ Business Program. His skills range from hydraulic system analysis to flow monitoring and detailed flow data analysis. He has extensive experience in auditing industrial plants, hospitals, shopping centres, office buildings, universities, TAFE’s, entertainment facilities, stadiums, hotels, swimming pools, parks and a range of other unique sites – and he has managed to achieve average savings of more than 40% of potable water use. He has also been involved in training Council, TAFE and university staff in water efficient management of sites under their control.

Stuart Khan

Stuart Khan is a Senior Research Fellow at the UNSW Water Research Centre where he leads the research stream on trace organic contaminants in water. Much of his recent research has been focused the presence and fate of trace chemical contaminants in wastewater and recycled water systems. Stuart currently holds a Fellowship from the National Water Commission to investigate techniques for the quantitative assessment of chemical risks in water recycling schemes. He is also a member of the Water Quality Advisory Committee appointed by the National Health and Medical Research Council to advise on issues including indirect potable water recycling.

Andrew King

Andrew has twenty five years of engineering experience, primarily in the oil and gas and wastewater sectors. He has worked in industry, government and as a consultant – where he is currently a director of the consulting company EECO. During the last ten years he has worked with Origin and has been intimately involved with the development of their Coal Seam Gas fields and the management of associated water.

His formal qualifications include a BE (Chem), MEngSc (Env) and a PhD (Chem). He is a member of Engineer’s Australia and the immediate past chair of the Queensland Chapter of the Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering.

Rod Lehmann

Rod is a water engineer and has over thirty years experience in water and sewerage system planning. He has been involved in major water planning studies for water supply and water recycling in South East Queensland and other parts of Australia. He project managed a number of studies looking at the use of recycled water for agricultural purposes in the Lockyer Valley and the Darling Downs. He also project managed the technical studies for the Toowoomba Water Futures Project and the ACTEW Water2WATER Project. Both these projects involved investigation of the potential for using recycled water for indirect potable reuse. He carried out investigations into water quality and water treatment efficacy for a number of water treatment plants in South East Queensland including the East Bank and West Bank Treatment Plants at Mt Crosby and the North Pine Treatment Plant. Rod has also carried out studies for the use of rainwater tanks, dual systems for municipal water supply and the reuse of stormwater for irrigation of crops. Up until recently Rod worked for CH2M HILL and established the Brisbane Office in 2001. He has recently established his own company called Water Strategies Pty Ltd and provides specialist advice on water supply and water recycling.

Shaun Leinster

Shaun is an Environmental Engineer and Designer who has extensive expertise in the fields of urban stormwater management, water sensitive urban design, integrated water cycle management, river and stream hydrology and water resource management. Shaun was a Founding Director of DesignFlow. He has particular expertise in the design of innovative water sensitive urban design elements, sustainable water management solutions and stormwater management systems, through co-ordination of collaborative relationships with urban designers, landscape architects and engineers. He has authored numerous design guidelines, and he is an experienced presenter.

Greg Leslie

Greg is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and the deputy director of the UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology at the University of New South Wales. He has worked in the public and private sector on water treatment, reuse and desalination projects in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United States.

Greg was previously the Membrane Technology and Water Reuse Leader for CH2M Hill in the Asia Pacific Region. Recent CH2M Hill experience includes process design lead for two dual membrane reclamation plants for the Singapore Public Utilities Board, project manager for stormwater reuse project at Singapore Changi Airport and project manager for an international survey of membrane bioreactors for the South Australian Water Corporation.

Prior to joining CH2M HILL he was employed with the Orange County Water District in Fountain Valley, California as a Sr. Engineer working on the Groundwater Water Replenishment System, a US$350M indirect potable water reuse project. His involvement in this water reuse project spanned six years and included project planning, pilot and demonstration plant studies, environmental review process, health risk assessment and preliminary design studies.

Chris Lund

Dr Chris Lund is Technical Leader and Managing Director of Climate Change Response (CCR), a specialist climate change and sustainability professional services company. CCR provides professional services and training in the areas of climate change and sustainability, including corporate climate change and sustainability strategy, greenhouse gas inventory and lifecycle assessment, greenhouse gas reduction and sequestration, as well as climate change impact, risk and adaptation. Until recently, he was Principal Sustainability Consultant with GHD where he coordinated the company wide climate change and greenhouse gas management services.

He has 20 years multidisciplinary experience in the areas of sustainable energy and greenhouse gas management including teaching, research and consulting. More recently he has experience in eco-efficiency and triple bottom line corporate sustainability. He has worked on projects involving a range of industries including utilities, energy, petrochemical, mining and minerals processing companies to improve their sustainability.

Chris is also an adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Engineering and Energy at Murdoch University.

Ben McMahon

Ben is a senior environmental engineer with Pacific Air & Environment. He has a wealth of experience in environmental assessment, modelling and monitoring with a special focus on greenhouse gas emissions. Having first worked with PAE between 1999-2001, Ben then worked in the energy sector, including working in the UK for RSK Environment International.

In the UK, Ben developed environmental management strategies for large multinational energy conglomerates (e.g. AGIP and BP) seeking to minimise their carbon footprint and maximise opportunities in the carbon trading market. During this time Ben also carried out greenhouse gas assessments for major infrastructure projects in the energy sector, and negotiated permits for key power generation, oil and gas and LNG facilities.

Ben rejoined PAE in 2007, and is part of a progressive environmental management team dedicated to helping organisations develop strategies for a carbon constrained economy, particularly in the area of reporting for compliance and carbon trading.

Ann Murphy

Dr. Ann Murphy works effectively and amiably with a wide range of stakeholders helping them resolve contentious issues. Her innate ability to help parties reach mutually agreeable solutions in an efficient and practical manner is complimented by her years of professional and academic experiences in public consultation and facilitation. She has a MA in Planning from the University of British Columbia, Canada and a PhD in Law from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She has co-authored a book Strategic Management for Tourism Communities and has her work published in top journals. Working as a professional planner and facilitator in Canada, the US and Australia over the last ten years has provided her with invaluable first hand experience in effectively managing multi-stakeholder processes. She has successfully developed and managed consultation processes for major infrastructure projects, public facilities, tourism management, growth management, affordable housing and environmental stewardship.

Gayle Newcombe

Gayle Newcombe is the Research Leader of the Applied Chemistry Unit of the Australian Water Quality Centre and holds an Adjunct Associate Professor position at the University of South Australia. Dr. Newcombe completed two research degrees (M. App. Sci., PhD) in the area of surface chemistry. Her PhD thesis described fundamental surface chemistry involved in the adsorption of natural organic material onto activated carbon.

Gayle has worked in the drinking water industry for 18 years, participating in, and leading, research projects investigating activated carbon treatment (adsorption and biofiltration) and ozonation of taste and odour compounds, NOM and algal toxins. She is the author or co-author of over one hundred publications - research reports, book chapters, conference papers, and peer-reviewed journal papers - on different aspects of drinking water treatment.

Peter Nielsen

Peter Nielsen is an Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at The University of Queensland. He is a world leader in the field of coastal sediment transport and the author of a highly cited reference book on coastal sediment transport: Nielsen, P (1992): Coastal bottom boundary layers and sediment transport. His other research areas include wave theory, particularly long waves, including tsunami, and storm surges. He has recently published another textbook, which will be used during this course: Nielsen P (2009): Coastal and Estuarine Processes. He has worked at the Universities of Sydney, Florida and Queensland, and also for the New South Wales Public Works Department. Peter regularly advises local and State Government departments on the impacts of coastal infrastructure projects and storm surges, including Brisbane Airport extensions and the Tweed River sand bypass project.

Robin Ormerod

Robin Ormerod has 27 years experience as an environmental consultant specialising in atmospheric pollution and environmental management. He was previously engaged in climate research. In 1995 he co-founded Pacific Air & Environment, a leading specialist consultancy in air quality and emissions management. In 2006 Robin co-founded Pacific Environment Limited (PEL). PEL provides services and technologies in energy, air, noise, and water, with a central focus on climate change and its implications for business. Robin is an experienced teacher and expert witness.

Tom Pankratz

Tom Pankratz is an independent desalination consultant and editor of Water Desalination Report, a weekly publication covering the desalination, membrane and water reuse industries. He has been involved in the water industry since the late 1970s and has participated in some of the world’s largest and most technically advanced desalination projects. He was a director of corporate projects with USFilter/Veolia and a Vice President with CH2M Hill. He is a member of the International Desalination Association board of directors, the Middle East Desalination Research Center’s advisory council, the WHO desalination technology committee, the AWWA Desalting Committee, and a past member of the National Academy of Sciences desalination roadmap review committee. He studied Environmental Engineering at the University of Houston and has written several books including The Screening Equipment Handbook, Desalination.com and the Dictionary of Environmental Engineering.

Steven Pratt

Steven is a chemical engineer with a PhD in wastewater engineering, and expertise in biological nutrient removal and environmental biotechnology. As a Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at Massey University, New Zealand, he consulted to local government and the dairy industry on sustainable wastewater treatment - his focuses were on passive wastewater treatment systems and energy recovery from domestic and agricultural wastes. Steven is now employed by the Advanced Wastewater Management Centre (the University of Queensland) to manage an Australia-EU collaboration on assessing the potential to utilise waste materials as a feedstock for bioplastic production.

Steven is a co-developer of the TOGA Sensor, an innovative high-tech instrument which enables greater insight into biological processes, such as advanced wastewater treatment systems. Technology New Zealand, Massey University and Scion (NZ) have together invested over $500k to commercialise the TOGA Sensor.

Carla Rogers

Carla Rogers is internationally recognised for her work in involving communities in natural resource management in ways that are innovative, practical and that yield results. She is principal of Evolve Facilitation and Coaching and has seeded new approaches to community engagement and making large meetings work for a diverse range of people in the business, public and community sectors. She has created Meeting Marketplace, a highly acclaimed approach to large meeting facilitation, and has been recognised for the quality and originality of her work through a Churchill Fellowship, as well as international, national, state and ministerial Awards for Excellence. She was on the board of the International Association of Facilitators for seven years where she developed guidelines and workbooks for facilitation and community engagement. Carla has qualifications in urban and regional planning, coaching, facilitation, community engagement and management. Prior to establishing Evolve in 2004, Carla had a range of senior management positions in State and Local Government. Carla is passionate about providing quality learning experiences - that are relevant, enjoyable, practical and where the results and learning are sustained.

Paul Smith

Paul is Director and Principal Consultant of Waste Solutions Australia Pty Ltd. Paul established WSA in 1988 to provide services in key environmental management disciplines including hydrogeological assessment, waste management and contaminated land remediation. He has worked throughout Australia and South-East Asia in a variety of service sectors.

Paul has over 30 years of experience in hydrogeology and the assessment of groundwater resources, and is regularly sought as an expert witness. Some current projects include monitoring and assessing the impact of a clients borefield on a sub-basin of the Great Artesian Basin, assessing final void monitoring for a coal mine, and monitoring and reporting annually on the groundwater resources under a hazardous waste treatment facility. In addition, Paul is currently advising a consultancy in Singapore on control of leachate entering surface water storage. This $30 million project includes design of cut off walls, interception bores, and a treatment facility for leachate.

Being a respected name in the environment management industry, Paul was appointed for three consecutive years as President of the Waste Management Association of Australia (Qld Branch). During this time, Paul developed a draft Code of Conduct for the WMAA. Paul is also certified as an enviromental practitioner (CEnvP) with EIANZ, an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Griffith University, and is regularly invited to contribute to international waste management/land assessment projects.

Daryl Stevens

Daryl is one of Australia’s leading experts in the use of recycled water in amenity and production horticulture. He is a Principal Scientist with Arris Pty Ltd, and he provides project coordination and scientific services for the Environmental Risk Component of the National Guidelines on Water Recycling, and is the National Coordinator for Recycled Water Development in Horticulture. He was also an advisor to the World Health Organisation.

His research has won several industry and university awards for excellence, and his expertise in the area of recycled water is recognized nationally and internationally. His research work with the University of Adelaide and CSIRO Land and Water has specialised in environmental toxicology and beneficial use of solid and liquid wastes, with a major focus on water recycling in horticulture.

During his research career, Daryl has contributed significantly to more than 100 scientific papers, conference proceedings, technical reports and books. Recently he has been the Senior Editor/author for a book published by CSIRO publishing on ‘Growing crops with reclaimed water’ in Australia.

Helen Stratton

Helen Stratton is a wastewater microbiologist and has 15 years experience in wastewater research, acquiring an understanding of technical, microbiological, social and economic issues that the industry faces. Dr Stratton has published over 30 refereed articles in wastewater and water microbiology journals and several more reports and conference proceedings. She has spent the past 11 years at Griffith University as a Research Fellow and Lecturer in microbiology. She is an invited Lecturer at the University of Bonn in Germany, where she delivers a course on water microbiology each year. Helen has spent 11 years on the AWA QLD Branch committee and is the immediate past President of AWAQ.

Bob Seviour

Bob Seviour is Professor of Microbiology at Latrobe University (Bendigo). His main research interests are in activated sludge microbiology, and he has published more than 160 papers in refereed international journals and co-edited the book Microbiology of Activated Sludge. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Microbiology and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Journal of Molecular and General Microbiology. Bob consults widely for the wastewater industry and is a guest lecturer at other courses on Activated Sludge Microbiology in Australia and overseas.

Peter Griffiths

Peter is a chemical engineer and principal technologist with CH2M HILL. He has thirty years experience in wastewater treatment with the past twenty five years focussing on the development and optimisation of biological nutrient removal systems in Australia. Plants designed by Peter include the early Bendigo BNR plant, and plants in New South Wales and Queensland. In total, Peter has designed BNR plants which serve a population of over half a million EP and are successfully achieving their effluent quality requirements. Peter has presented internationally and published research papers in internationally refereed journals on topics including denitrification, proliferation of Glycogen Accumulating Organisms, optimisation of process configuration, solids production in BNR and solids stabilisation. Peter is an experienced presenter and has taught courses at Griffith University for the past 10 years.

Troy Walker

Troy Walker is the Process Manager for the Scheme Operator for Western Corridor Recycled Water Project. Troy has worked for the Veolia group of companies for over 12 years with experience in the design and commissioning of membrane recycling plants in Australia, the United States and Singapore. Prior to this position, Troy had a lead role in the design and commissioning of the Kwinana Water Reclamation Plant in Perth and the Wollongong Recycled Water Plant in NSW. Troy is an experienced presenter and has taught at IWES for several years.

Jay Witherspoon

Jay is a globally recognized expert in air and odour emissions control and permitting for municipal and industry applications and wastewater collection and treatment systems. He is CH2M HILL Vice President and Fellow Odour Control and Air Quality Technologist. He has over 26 years of extensive experience in biosolids, water, and wastewater treatment and collection system odour and corrosion control options and strategies.

Jay is currently Water Environment Research Foundation’s Co-Principal Investigator for applied research studies and designs that focus on odour and corrosion emissions, assessment, measurement, ventilation system impacts, and prevention from wastewater collection systems. He has sized, installed, and optimized odour abatement equipment and collection process changes that reduce odour or corrosion potentials at over 100 global sites in the past five years. Jay has published many papers and authored several books and chapters of books on the subject of odour and air emissions characterization, measurement, and control.

Zhiguo Yuan

Zhiguo is a Professor in Environmental Engineering at The University of Queensland. He is an internationally leading expert on the modelling, optimisation and control of wastewater systems with over 200 publications in the field to date. Zhiguo is the current Chair of the IWA (International Water Association) Specialist Group on Instrumentation, Control and Automation. He is also one of the two Australian members of the Sewer Systems and Processes Working Group of the IAHR/IWA Joint Committee on Urban Drainage.

In the last three years, Zhiguo has successfully led the research project of Understanding the Biotransformation Processes in a Sewer System to Achieve Optimal Management, jointly funded by the Australian Research Council, Gold Coast Water and Sydney Water Corporation. He is currently leading the development of a new national program on corrosion and odour management in sewers, which involves seven major Australian water utilities, four Australian universities, as well as several other Australian and international partners.

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