Water Use Efficiency, Sustainability and The Circular Economy

Dr. Suhaib A. Bandh is Associate Professor in the Postgraduate Department of Environmental Science at Sri Pratap College Campus, Cluster University Srinagar (J&K Government). He specializes in freshwater mycology and environmental science, having earned his PhD for pioneering research on fungal diversity in Dal Lake, Kashmir. He teaches postgraduate courses in environmental science and disaster management, actively mentoring future environmental scientists. His contributions include monographs, over 20 edited volumes with leading publishers (Elsevier, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis) including the Elsevier volume, Freshwater Mycology (2022), as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles on aquatic ecosystems, microbial ecology, and sustainability. An active member of the Academy of Plant Sciences India and the National Environmental Science Academy, he regularly participates in national and international conferences. Dr. Bandh’s work advances understanding of freshwater fungi and environmental sustainability, marking him as a leading expert in microbial (fungal) ecological research and education.

Professor Anthony Halog is a Continuing Academic Staff at the University of Queensland (Australia) and joined from the University of Maine, USA where he was a professor in Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Bioeconomy. He has been researching the circular economy and bioeconomy since 2008 long before it became known in Australia in 2017. He was educated in Asia, Australia, and Europe, and worked in Japan and North America prior to settling in Australia. His research focuses on the sustainability of human-nature complexity through understanding the nexus of material and energy systems. Over the years, he has been working on the foundation and industrial applications of Circular Bioeconomy, Greening Supply Chains, Green Economy, Sustainable Operations, Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), and Resource Management. His Research Group in Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy at UQ (http://industrialece.wixsite.com/main) endeavours to provide service/expertise for industry clients (e.g. agri-food-energy systems) in transforming existing linear system-based value chains and operations towards circularity, which enhances their resource efficiency & productivity, creates added value products from wastes, and reduces emissions into the environment for more sustainable consumption and production in the future. He is keen in pursuing collaborative and cross-disciplinary research across industries via system analysis and modelling. He participated in sustainability assessment-related courses at the United Nations University, Japan, and Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria. His qualification in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) has been certified by the American Centre for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) since January 2009. He has been serving as Australia-Germany Research Ambassador (DAAD-Australia) since September 2019.

He has been a Visiting Research Scholar/Fellow/Professor in several leading research institutions in Europe, North America, and Asia. He has given keynote talks worldwide to share his expertise in greening supply chains, circular economy, and industrial sustainability. He has served on different grant review panels in the USA, Europe, and Asia as well as in several technical and organising committees in conferences over the past years, and involved in editorial boards in peer-refereed journals. Before UQ, he received funding from highly competitive grants and was involved in US-funded projects of ~$7.7 million as a CI, out of which $841,281 was awarded to his specific research on the life cycle sustainability assessment of biomass-based technological systems. He had been awarded highly competitive early-career fellowships in Japan, Canada, and the USA, equivalent to ARC DECRA/UQ. Together with his collaborators, he has received grants and fellowships for a total of $69192 non-ARC funds in Australia.