Committee

Conference Chairman

Prof. Dr. Thanikaivelan Palanisamy

CSIR-Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai, India

BIO: Thanikaivelan Palanisamy is a Senior Principal Scientist at Central Leather Research Institute, Chennai since 2002. He has founded the Advanced Materials Laboratory and currently heading. He received PhD in leather technology from Anna University in 2003. He had two post-doctoral stints at Texas Tech University, USA and Rice University, USA under BOYSCAST and Fulbright-Nehru fellowships in 2005-06 and 2010-11, respectively. He specialized in cleaner leather processing and zero discharge technologies. He currently works on the development of new and advanced materials including nano, bio and composite materials, especially from bio-wastes generated from leather industry for high-value applications in Healthcare, Environment, Lifestyle and Energy sectors. He has over 128 publications in peer reviewed international journals, 50 articles in conference proceedings and holds a h-index of 33 and 24 patents to his credit. His recent innovation on “Waterless Chrome Tanning” has been commercialized over 85 tanneries in India. He is a recipient of several National awards and academic honors from CSIR, INAE, IASc, DST, DBT, NRDC, WIPO, USIEF, IEI, IIT-Roorkee, TNASc and FICCI for his engineering innovations in cleaner leather processing, management of solid wastes and developing advanced materials.

Publication Chairman

Prof. Dr. Abdul-Sattar Nizami

Sustainable Development Study Centre (SDSC), Government College University Lahore, Pakistan

BIO: Dr. Abdul-Sattar Nizami has Master of Science in Engineering from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He has a Ph.D. in Sustainable Gaseous Biofuel from University College Cork, Ireland. He worked at the University of Toronto, Canada as a Postdoctoral Fellow on alternative fuels and life cycle studies. Later, he served as an Assistant Professor and Head of Solid Waste Management Unit at the Center of Excellence in Environmental Studies of King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is currently working as a Professor (Associate) at Sustainable Development Study Centre, Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan.

He has published over 150 papers on renewable energy, alternative fuels, waste-to-energy, catalytic pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, and resource recovery. He has delivered 46 invited talks to various national and international forums. His work has been cited more than 10 thousand times in the peer-review press, with a total impact factor over 1100 and H-index of 55.

 He is a Senior Editor in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews (Elsevier Impact Factor 16.8), Energy & Environment (Sage Impact Factor 3.15), and Frontiers in Energy Research (IF 4.01). He serves as an Editorial Board Member in Bioresource Technology Reports (Elsevier) and Energy Sources Part B (Taylor & Francis IF 3.21). He is actively involved in community and consultation services to various international organizations, including theEuropean Commission based IF@ULB, National Research Agency (NRA) of France, National Science Centre Poland, World Bank, and UNEP.  He is ranked among Top 2% Scientists Worldwide by Stanford University, USA. His achievements have been selected as a Role Model by US Times Higher Education World University Rankings for King Abdulaziz University as No 1 in the Arab World in 2019. His recent UNEP report was published, 'Waste Management Outlook for WEST ASIA 2019, WASTE TOWEALTH'.

Prof. Dr. Zawawi Bin Daud
Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Malaysia

BIO: Dr. Zawawi Daud works as an Associate Professor at Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. Born and trained in Malaysia, he has a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering (University of Technology Malaysia), a master’s in Civil Engineering (Environment) (University of Technology Malaysia), and a doctorate in Environmental Engineering (University of Science Malaysia). Dr. Zawawi teaches various courses related to environmental engineering, management and science at undergraduate and masters levels. These include water and wastewater treatment, biological and physico-chemical treatment processes, sludge management, industrial and hazardous waste management and water quality management. Dr. Zawawi’s research focuses on alleviating problems associated with water pollution issues from industrial wastewater and landfill leachate. His latest interest is on natural adsorbent material in water and wastewater treatments.

Technical Program Committee Chairman

Prof. Dr. Ahmad Zuhairi Abdullah
School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

BIO: Professor Dr Ahmad Zuhairi Abdullah received his B. Tech (Hons), MSc, and PhD in 1995, 2000, and 2004, respectively. He was the Deputy Dean (Industry and Community Network) at School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia between 2010-2012 and Deputy Dean (Research and Postgraduate Studies) between 2013-2018. He will also serve his deanship of the school in 2022-2024. He is registered as a Professional Technologist at Malaysian Board of Technologists (MBOT) and a Fellow Member of Institut Kimia Malaysia. His research works mostly involve the use of ordered porous materials in oleochemical reactions, renewable energy, waste treatment, and waste valorization. He has nearly 300 refereed publications in journals and book/book chapters mainly as the main author, and also involves as a technical committee member to nearly 150 international scientific conferences. He is often invited to share his research experiences in international conferences held in Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, The Philippines and China. In addition, he is an evaluator for research proposals from different agencies locally as well as from several international scientific bodies in the USA, Oman, Qatar, Kazakhstan, and Chile. He is also an expert panel of the Department of Environment Malaysia for the evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessment reports for various proposed projects related to petrochemical complexes, paper mills, metal smelting, chemical, lead-acid battery recycle plants, etc. He is one of the recipients of the Top Research Scientists Malaysia (TRSM) award in 2014 and listed in the List of World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University in 2020 and 2021. His h-index (Scopus) currently stands at 54 with more than 10,000 citations.

Conference Committee Members