Keynote Speakers
Mr Chris Allison
Chris Allison is Australia’s leading vertical garden expert.
His career started studying plant tissue culture and learning how plants can survive in any environment.
Chris then worked for various hydroponic companies, building vertical farms and implementing advanced water systems.
Chris then set up Hygrow Technologies, a company that designs and manufactures greenwall, greenhouse and hydroponics hardware.
It was then that Chris combined all this knowledge to create The BioActive Wall. The BioActive Wall is a superior, innovative vertical garden system that leverages Chris' expertise in how plants survive, how to get them water most efficiently, and how to design and manufacture the equipment to do it.
In 2010 Chris launched CityForest.
Prof Stuart Khan
Stuart Khan is Professor and Head of School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. He has received funding for over 40 major competitive research projects from Australian, US and European funding agencies. He has published over 200 peer reviewed journal articles on issues relating to water quality and treatment, including drinking water, wastewater, recreational water, environmental water systems, water recycling and desalination.
Stuart is a Fellow of scientific and engineering institutions, including Engineers Australia (FIEAust), The Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE), The Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), The Royal Society of NSW (FRSN), and is also an International Water Association IWA Fellow.
Prof Veena Sahajwalla
Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials’ at the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre, where she is Founding Director. Professor Veena is the inventor of polymer injection technology, known as green steel, an eco-friendly process for using recycled tyres in steel production. In 2018, Veena launched the world's first e-waste MICROfactorieTM and in 2019 she launched her plastics and Green Ceramics MICROfactoriesTM, a recycling technology breakthrough. Professor Veena is the director of the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for ‘microrecycling’, a leading national research centre that works in collaboration with industry to ensure new recycling science is translated into real world environmental and economic benefits. Professor Veena has also been appointed hub leader of the national NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub. In 2021, Professor Veena featured in the ABC’s Australian Story and she was named the 2022 NSW Australian of the Year in recognition of her work. Professor Veena was named the 2022 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes winner for the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science and was also awarded the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE) Clunies Ross Innovation Award. She was also named a finalist for the NSW Woman of Excellence Award at the 2022 Women of the Year Awards. In 2023, Professor Veena was awarded the Engineering Australia Chemical College Chemical Engineer Achievement Award and the Good Design 2023 Women in Design Award. In 2025, Professor Veena was awarded the ‘Officer of the Order of Australia’ (AO) for distinguished service to science, sustainable materials research and technology and waste management on Australia Day. Professor Veena won the prestigious Excellence in Sustainable Innovation (Industrial) Award at an event honouring trailblazing and visionary women as part of the Vogue Codes Summit 2025.
Dr Keisuke Nansai
Keisuke Nansai received his PhD from the Graduate School of Energy Sciences, Kyoto University in 2001 and joined NIES as a postdoctoral researcher, where he has been a fixed-term researcher since 2003, a senior researcher since 2008, a head of research section since 2014, and the current position, since 2026. His expertise is in environmental systems studies and has worked on sustainability assessments of supply chains. He is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Nagoya University in Japan. He is a panel member of the International Resource Panel (IRP) of the United Nations Environmental Program. He also serves as an editor of Resources, Conservation & Recycling (Elsevier). He is a board member of the Institute of Life Cycle Assessment Japan.
Ms. Kate Dryden
Kate Dryden is a Partner at Sphere Infrastructure Partners and a senior leader in water and waste infrastructure with more than 20 years’ experience advising on and delivering complex, high-value programs. She is known for bringing clarity to projects that sit at the intersection of regulation, community expectations, commercial reality and delivery risk, helping clients move from ambition to executable, bankable outcomes.
With senior executive experience at Veolia, Kate brings a strong operator’s lens to strategy, procurement and transaction management. She works with governments, utilities, corporates and investors to select fit-for-purpose delivery models, design robust procurement processes, and negotiate contracts that align incentives, allocate risk sensibly and stand up to scrutiny. Her experience spans major projects and long-term service arrangements, including O&M, DBO, BOOT, and PPP structures, as well as broader M&A and investment support across the waste and circular-economy value chain.
Kate’s recent work includes leading commercial and procurement workstreams for the City of Gold Coast’s residual waste-to-energy initiative, serving as the lead commercial and transaction advisor for ACT NoWaste’s new recycling facility procurement, and supporting local governments with strategic reviews of municipal waste and recycling collection contracts. She has also advised clients on O&M services contract procurements for water recycling facilities and delivered market and due diligence insights for investors assessing opportunities in organics, recycling and broader waste infrastructure.
Kate is a former Non-Executive Director of Sydney Water, where she contributed to governance and decision-making for one of Australia’s most critical utilities. She also supports clients and teams in translating circular economy ambition into practical, investable, and deliverable commercial structures for the Australian market.
Mr Django Seccombe
Django is an environmental engineer and change broker, committed to unlocking new enterprise and creating a more circular and sustainable economy.
Django’s experience spans operations, planning, project development, strategy and policy development in the water and bioenergy sector. He splits his time between establishing and embedding circular economy practice in Sydney Water and developing cross industry circular economy projects in the private sector. His projects cut across water, energy, food and waste systems.
Dr Yuting Zhuo
Dr Yuting Zhuo is a Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. His research focuses on sustainable process engineering, including photovoltaic recycling, critical material recovery, metallurgical decarbonisation, and reactor design. By integrating experimental research with computational modelling and process optimisation, he develops scalable technologies that support the circular economy and the transition to low-carbon manufacturing. Dr Zhuo collaborates extensively with industry through projects funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), ARENA, and NSW EPA, etc.
Dr Pema Wangda
Dr. Pema Wangda is a conservation and sustainable development leader with over two decades of experience in biodiversity conservation, protected area management, watershed management, and innovative conservation financing. He has held senior leadership positions within the Royal Government of Bhutan, where he has contributed to national policies and programs that promote environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience.
Dr. Wangda has played a pivotal role in the implementation of Bhutan for Life (BFL), one of the world's pioneering conservation financing initiatives and the first of its kind in Asia. Designed to secure the long-term financial sustainability of Bhutan's protected area system, the initiative has strengthened conservation management, institutional capacity, and partnerships among government agencies, local communities, development partners, and international organizations. His expertise encompasses conservation finance, protected area governance, ecosystem restoration, landscape-level planning, and results-based management.
A strong advocate for nature-based solutions and sustainable development, Dr. Wangda has represented Bhutan at the regional and global forums, sharing the country's experiences in conservation finance, ecosystem resilience, and biodiversity conservation. He has authored and co-authored scientific publications in international, regional, and national journals on biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, and environmental sustainability.
Dr. Wangda is committed to advancing innovative policies and partnerships that integrate conservation with sustainable economic development and community well-being. He believes that pioneering initiatives such as Bhutan for Life offer valuable lessons for countries worldwide and can inspire scalable, long-term solutions that strengthen biodiversity conservation, enhance climate resilience, and contribute to a more sustainable future for generations to come.
Prof Nicholas Ze-Xian Low
Nicholas Ze-Xian Low presently holds the position of National Foreign Expert and Jiangsu Distinguished Professor at the National Engineering Research Center for Special Separation Membrane at Nanjing Tech University. Additionally, he serves as an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Monash University. Prior to joining Nanjing Tech, Low co-founded and served as the CEO of 2D Water, a Melbourne-based spin-out from Monash University focusing on the research commercialization of graphene-based desalination technology. Low is committed to advancing energy-efficient composite separation membranes based on advanced materials, addressing industrial challenges across decarbonization, desalination, and resource recovery. Notably, his work has received funding from prestigious grants such as National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Foreign Scholar Research Fund, General Program, Jiangsu Provincial Key R&D Program, an open project of Suzhou Laboratory, and a Yangtze River Delta Innovation Alliance proof‑of‑concept project, among other domestic and international projects. He has published over 120 papers in reputable peer-reviewed journals, including Nat. Rev. Mater., Nat. Synth., Nat. Commun., Chem. Rev., Adv. Funct. Mater., ACS Nano, Angew. Chem., CEJ, AIChE, IECR, and JMS. His contributions to research have been acknowledged through various awards, such as the FYA Young Social Pioneer Award, I&ECR Class of Influential Researchers, Rising Stars in Desalination, ARC Hub Excellence Award, RINENG Young Investigator Award, JWPE Trailblazer Award, and Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists.
Prof Keith Crews
Keith Crews is currently Professor & Director of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Research Hub to Advance Timber in Australia’s Built Environment, hosted at the University of Queensland. This is a 5 year national research program, with a cash and in-kind budget of $17m, involving some 140 investigators from some 25 Industry & Government Partners and 15 Universities. He is responsible for delivery on the Hub aims and objectives.
Keith specialises in the research and design of large-scale timber structures and is internationally recognised as an expert in the area of Sustainable Infrastructure – particularly regarding bridge safety, structural assessment and timber engineering for non-residential buildings and physical infrastructure. He has extensive experience initiating and successfully managing large scale, multi-disciplinary research projects undertaken for Government and industry, having had a leadership role in over $35m of research & development projects over the past 30 years.
He is an Advisory Board member for the Construction and Building Materials Journal and has received numerous awards for his research, including being a recipient the RW Chapman Medal in 2004 and the IEAust Structural College Eminent Speaker award for 2009. He was Chairperson of the World Timber Engineering Conference held in Brisbane in June 2025.
A/Prof Alireza A.F. Fini
Associate Professor Fini is Director of the Construction Management Program at the UTS School of Built Environment. He has over 27 years of combined experience across research, teaching, and professional practice in the construction industry. His expertise focuses on industrialised building construction and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), with a particular emphasis on advancing prefabrication methods and integrating construction automation into both offsite manufacturing and onsite processes.
He has secured more than AUD $25 million in competitive research funding, supporting innovation in prefabricated construction systems, construction automation, and onsite digital technologies. He is the Academic Director of a CRC-Project focused on establishing an advanced manufacturing facility for timber building construction. He also leads the UTS Affordable Housing Network and serves as the UTS Node Leader in an ARC Hub for human–robot teaming for sustainable and resilient construction.
His work bridges academia and industry, with a strong focus on translating research into practical solutions that accelerate the transformation of the built environment.
A/Prof Amir Razmjou
Associate Professor Amir Razmjou is a leading researcher in membrane science, surface engineering, and critical mineral extraction at Edith Cowan University, where he leads the Mineral Recovery Research Centre (MRRC) and serves as a Board Director of the Membrane Society of Australasia. His work spans lithium, rubidium, high-purity alumina, iron, and gallium extraction, with strong expertise in membrane technology and desalination.
He has published more than 240 peer-reviewed articles (h-index 67, over 15744 citations) and secured more than $35.9 million in research funding, including over $24.6 million as lead Chief Investigator. He has supervised more than 40 HDR students and serves on the editorial boards of leading journals including Desalination, Journal of Water Process Engineering, and Desalination and Water Treatment.
Amir is consistently ranked among the Stanford/Elsevier World’s Top 2% of Scientists and, according to 2025 ScholarGPS lifetime analytics, is placed within the top 0.34% of scholars globally. His excellence has been recognised through major awards, including the Australian Water Association WA Water Professional of the Year (2025), the ECU Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence in Research Award (2024), the WA FHRI Fund Innovation Fellowship (2023), the Membrane Society of Australasia Industry Innovation Award (2023), and the UTS Chancellor’s Research Fellowship (2021).
Dr Prashant Srivastava
Dr Prashant Srivastava is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO, Australia, with extensive expertise in environmental chemistry, soil science, waste valorisation and circular economy solutions. His research spans coal seam gas (CSG) brine management, resource recovery and the environmental assessment and remediation of emerging contaminants, including PFAS, microplastics and tyre-derived chemicals. He leads multidisciplinary research that integrates advanced analytical science, environmental risk assessment and innovative resource management approaches to address complex environmental challenges. Working at the interface of science, industry and government, Dr Srivastava translates research into evidence-based strategies and practical solutions that advance sustainable resource management and circular economy outcomes.
Prof Tao He
Professor Tao He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of *Desalination* and Executive Editor of *Desalination and Water Treatment*. He has more than 30 years of experience in membrane science and technology, focusing on the development of advanced membranes for ion separation, organic contaminant removal, and acid purification. He began his career at X-Flow/Norit BV and later served as Technical Director at Aquasource/Degremont SA. He is currently a researcher at the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a part-time professor at ShanghaiTech University. Professor He has secured over 30 research projects with total funding exceeding RMB 46 million. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and has an H-index of 56 (Google Scholar). He is a recipient of the Royal Society’s Newton Advanced Fellowship. His research focuses on novel membrane materials and processes for resource recovery, micropollutant removal, and sustainable energy applications, with particular interests in nanofiltration, forward osmosis, and isotope separation.Web profile: https://people.ucas.edu.cn/~het
A/Prof Sherub Phuntsho
Dr Sherub Phuntsho is an Associate Professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT), University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He is a core member of the Centre for Technology in Water and Wastewater (CTWW) and a globally recognized expert in membrane technologies, water and wastewater treatment, desalination, nutrient circular economy, onsite sanitation and humanitarian engineering. Dr Phuntsho holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering and a Master of Engineering from UTS, and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from SVRCET (now SVNIT), Surat, Gujarat in India. Prior to his academic career, he served in various capacities with the Royal Government of Bhutan from 2001 to 2008, where he led national initiatives in urban waste management and infrastructure development under the DANIDA funded Environment and Urban Sector Programme Support project.
He is an editorial board member and subject editor of the Process Safety and Environmental Protection and Membranes), and serves as a subject editor and guest editor for special issues in these journals. Dr Phuntsho actively engages in community and professional service. He served as the President of the Sydney Bhutanese Community Association (2017-2024) and Vice President of Kharchu Centre Australia (2017-22024). He has also served as a co-chair and organizing committee member for several international conferences, including CECE 2024, IFOS, and IMSTEC.
Dr Pablo Juliano
Dr Pablo Juliano Otero is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO Agriculture and Food and former Group Leader of Food Processing and Supply Chains. A food engineer with a PhD and MBA, he has more than 20 years’ experience translating research into industrial, policy and regional outcomes. His work spans food processing, circular bioeconomy, food-waste reduction, resource valorisation and place-based food-system transformation. Pablo contributed to Australia’s National Food Waste Strategy and Baseline and has led multidisciplinary research programmes with government, industry and academic partners.
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Ms. Katharine Hole
Katharine has served as CEO of the Association for the Battery Recycling & Reuse Industry (ABRI) for the past five years – a role she greatly enjoys. She draws on her considerable expertise in shaping strategy and influencing public policy to help elevate the industry’s profile and advance greater safety and sustainability. Driven by her enthusiasm for the battery circular economy, Katharine enjoys working collaboratively with industry partners to promote an innovative growth sector grounded in best practices. Prior to her role at ABRI, she held high-level government positions in fields such as energy, resources, planning, water, infrastructure, and the environment, where she successfully delivered outcomes in complex domains.
Ms. Joanne Chong
Jo works across Australia and internationally to create solutions for sustainable development, through bridging diverse perspectives, sectors, knowledges and cultures.
As Commissioner (Sustainable Development) at the Productivity Commissioner, Jo presides over independent inquiries requested by the Australian Government and required by legislation. Jo engages with industry, governments, researchers and communities to inform public policy analysis and recommendations that are tabled in the Australian Parliament. Over the last four years Jo has conducted inquiries into the Circular Economy, National Water Reform, the Future Drought Fund, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts and Crafts sector.
Jo is also a Steering Committee Member of the Australian Water Partnership, a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) funded initiative to enhance sustainable management of water in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
Jo previously held Research Director roles at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Institute for Sustainable Futures. Through transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research, partnership facilitation and knowledge brokering, Jo led programs and teams to address complex challenges across: water & sanitation, climate change adaptation, circular economy, Indigenous sciences, resilient infrastructure, responsible innovation, and regions and industries in transition.
Dr Geoffrey Johnston-Hall
Dr Geoffrey Johnston-Hall is an R&D Manager for DuPont, where he leads research and development in membrane materials, products, manufacturing processes and water-treatment systems. He has more than 20 years of industrial research and development experience and a track record of translating membrane technologies from scientific concepts into commercial products and practical treatment solutions.
His work has covered microfiltration, ultrafiltration, membrane bioreactors, membrane contactors and specialised separation technologies. In recent years, his focus has been on developing reliable, lower-energy and lower-chemical-demand membrane technologies for drinking-water treatment, wastewater treatment, water reuse and desalination pretreatment. He works with multidisciplinary teams, customers and research partners across Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas to address challenges including water quality, treatment efficiency, system durability, infrastructure renewal and resource recovery.
Geoffrey has contributed to the development and commercialisation of membrane filtration products, including technologies for improving treatment capacity, reducing land and resource requirements, and extending the productive life of water-treatment infrastructure. His current interests include circular water systems, low-energy wastewater treatment, membrane lifecycle management, and the recovery and reuse of materials from end-of-life membranes.
He holds a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Queensland (UQ), an MBA from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Materials Science from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He has also served the Membrane Society of Australasia in executive and non-executive director roles.