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First Round of Abstract Submission Ends: May 30, 2027
Extended Early Bird Ends: Jan 28, 2027

Plenary Speakers

Prof. Jörg Rinklebe
University of Wuppertal, Germany
Title: Environmental Pollution as Global Challenge for the Human Mankind
Dr. Jörg Rinklebe is Professor for Soil- and Groundwater-Management at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. He has been selected as ISI Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022. Prof. Rinklebe was Vize-President, President and is now Past-President of the International Society of Trace Element Biogeochemistry (ISTEB). His academic background covers environmental science, bioavailability of emerging contaminants, and remediation of contaminated sites. His main research is on soils, sediments, waters, plants, and their pollutions and linked biogeochemical issues with a special focus in redox chemistry. He also has a certain expertise in soil microbiology.

Prof. Rinklebe published plenty of scientific papers in leading international and national journals. According to SCOPUS data base (13.07.2025), he published 627 articles, which have been cited 60,950.0 times with h-index = 131. The Google Scholar total citation= 73,642.0; Google h-index = 143, and i10-index = 537.

Also, he published six books entitled "Trace Elements in Waterlogged Soils and Sediments” (2016), “Nickel in Soils and Plants” (2018), “Soil and Groundwater Remediation Technologies” (2020), “Vanadium in soils and plants” (2022), “Methylmercury Accumulation in Rice” (2024), Green Technologies for Pollutants Remediation and Recovery from Water and Soil (2026) as well as numerous book chapters.

Prof. Rinklebe was serving as Editor in Chief for Environmental Pollution, and he was Editor of the Journal of Hazardous Materials; Co-Editor in Chief of the international journal Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) and guest editor of the international journals Environment International, Chemical Engineering Journal, Science of the Total Environment, Chemosphere, Journal of Environmental Management, Applied Geochemistry, and Environmental Geochemistry and Health. Also, he is member on several editorial boards (Ecotoxicology, Geoderma, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, Archive of Agronomy and Soil Science).

Prof. Rinklebe was the chair of the first joint international conferences of Biogeochemistry of Trace Elements” (ICOBTE) and “International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment” (ICHMET) in September 2023,. He was an invited speaker (plenary and keynote) at many international conferences. In 2016, Prof. Rinklebe got an appointment as Honorable Ambassador for Gangwon Province, South-Korea which was renewed in June-2018. Also, he got an appointment as Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, Visiting Professor at the Sejong University, Seoul, South Korea and Guest Professor at the China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
Prof. Kaimin Shih
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Title: Quantitative Mineral Phase Analysis for Reliable Waste Beneficial Uses and Resource Recovery Strategies
Kaimin Shih is currently a Professor and Deputy Head in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. and postdoctoral training in the Environmental Engineering and Science program at Stanford University. After joining the University of Hong Kong, Professor Shih established and led the “Environmental Materials Research Group” in 2008. Their work primarily involves engineering and employing material properties for innovative environmental applications. Professor Shih is particularly interested in exploring waste-to-resources strategies, new environmentally friendly products, electronic waste and its recycling, pollutant behavior at solution-solid interfaces, and the fate and transport of environmental pollutants. He has published 300+ SCI journal articles with 20,000+ citations (h-index 82), authored 8 book chapters, and edited 2 books. Professor Shih is ranked as the Top 1% Researcher worldwide by Clarivate Analytics in his research field. He is currently the Executive Editor of the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, and an Associate Editor of Waste Management, Sustainable Environment Research, and Cleaner Materials. Professor Shih was the President of the Overseas Chinese Environmental Engineers and Scientists Association (OCEESA), Chairman of the Hong Kong Waste Management Association (HKWMA), President of the American Society of Civil Engineers - Greater China Section (ASCE-GCS), and Chairman of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers - Environmental Division (HKIE-EVD). Professor Shih has also received the University of Hong Kong 2014 Outstanding Teaching Award for contributing to environmental engineering and sustainability education.
Prof. Benjamin Sovacool
Boston University, USA
Title: Valuing social science: Energy studies and the necessity of interdisciplinary and inclusive research
Benjamin K. Sovacool, PhD, is Professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University in the United States, where he is the Founding Director of the Institute for Global Sustainability. He is also Professor of Energy Policy at the Bennett Institute for Innovation & Policy Acceleration at the University of Sussex Business School. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Fellow in the Academy of Europe (Academia Europaea). He was formerly Director of the Sussex Energy Group at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School in the United Kingdom, and Director of the Center for Energy Technologies and University Distinguished Professor of Business & Social Sciences at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Prof. Hai GUO
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Title: Synergistic Ozone–Climate Control to Address Emerging Ozone Pollution Challenges
Ir Professor Hai Guo received his PhD in Australia and is currently Chair Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Modelling at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research focuses on atmospheric chemistry, organic aerosols and their precursors, ozone pollution, bioaerosol transmission, and indoor chemistry.

Ir Professor Guo is a pioneer in atmospheric chemistry research in Asia. He was among the first in the region to develop photochemical trajectory and box models coupled with the Master Chemical Mechanism to investigate ozone formation, and the first in Hong Kong to establish a world-class laboratory system for measuring trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs). He also developed offline and semi-online samplers for ambient acidic ultrafine particles.

He has led or participated in more than 75 research projects with total funding of over HK$77 million and has published over 230 journal papers. His work has been widely recognized, with an h-index of 71 and more than 18,000 citations on Google Scholar. Since 2020, he has been listed among the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists in meteorology and atmospheric sciences.

Ir Professor Guo currently serves as Co-Director of the Australia-China Centre for Air Quality Science and Management (ACC-AQSM), Standing Member of the Ozone Pollution Control Professional Committee, Deputy Director of the VOC Pollution Control Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Environmental Sciences, and Editor-in-Chief of Air Quality and Climate Nexus and Editor of Aerosol and Air Quality Research.

His honors include the Second Prize of Natural Science from the Ministry of Education of China, the First Prize of Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, the Australia Alumni Award for Research and Science, the Gold Medal and Special Merit Award at the 71st International Trade Fair “Ideas–Inventions–New Products” in Germany, the Australia – China Alumni Award for Research and Science, and the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Research and Publication at PolyU on nine occasions. He hosted the 1st and 2nd International VOC Expert Summit and the 16th International Conference on Atmospheric Sciences and Applications to Air Quality (ASAAQ). He has also delivered numerous plenary, keynote, and invited lectures at international conferences and served on several scientific advisory committees.
Prof. Jianlei Niu
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Title: Microclimate Engineering Approach to Create Local Thermal Comfort Hubs in Cities.
Professor Jianlei Niu is Chair Professor of Building, Environment and Energy, and Director of Research Institute for Sustainable Urban Development(RISUD) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. From February 2017 to February 2019, he held the position of Professor of Building, Environment and Energy at The University of Sydney, under a joint appointment between the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, and the School of Civil Engineering. He currently remains an Honorary Professor at the University.

Professor Niu received his BEng and MSc degrees from Tsinghua University and his PhD from Delft University of Technology. Since joining The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Professor Niu has secured and participated in over 20 competitive research grants, including RGC CERG/GRF, RGC/NSFC Joint Grants, RGC CRF, RGC STG, ITF, RFCID/HMRF, and ECF. He is currently leading a Theme-based Research Scheme (TRS) project, "Healthy and Resilient Cities with Pervasive LoCHs", which aims to develop simulation-based optimization (SBO) methods for the integration of localized outdoor thermal comfort hubs (LoCHs) into urban and estate planning.

Professor Niu's research bridges thermal and fluid sciences with built environment control, earning him numerous awards for his contributions. He is a two-time recipient of the prestigious ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer title, having delivered invited talks across five member countries. He was invited to co-author the WHO design guidelines (2009) titled "Natural Ventilation for Infection Control in Health-Care Settings." In 2024, he received the Uichi Inouye Asia International Award from SHASE Japan, and his work on human-centric outdoor thermal environment evaluation and optimization design won the Excellence Award at APEC INPUT² (Innovating for Public Urban Technology Transformation Competition). He has also been recognized as one of the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University. Professor Niu is a Fellow of three leading international societies: ASHRAE, ISIAQ, and IBPSA. He served as Associate Editor for Building and Environment (Elsevier) from 2012 to 2014, and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Energy and Buildings (Elsevier). His research has made significant impacts on both the profession and society. In 2008, he served as a specialist consultant for the cooling system design of Google’s Asia data center. His expertise in air distribution led to the development of design guidelines for a multinational consultancy firm, and he has delivered invited lectures for ASHRAE members worldwide. In 2021, he was among the 239 scientists who signed the seminal open letter that contributed to shifting WHO and global public health authorities’ views on COVID-19 transmission—highlighting the importance of ventilation and airborne precautions. Additionally, he continues to lead industry-sponsored research on thermal energy storage and outdoor thermal comfort in urban spaces, with the former enhancing energy demand flexibilities, and the latter advancing the integration of scientific principles into real-world sustainable city planning.