Prof. Rao Y. Surampalli
Lakehead University, Canada

Prof. Rao Y. Surampalli is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. He was with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) for 29 years and retired as an Engineer Director. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in EnvironmentalEngineering from Oklahoma State and Iowa State Universities, respectively. He has conducted research on fifty (50) environmental engineering topics; including on bioconversion of wastes to valueaddedproducts (e.g., biodiesel, bioplastics); occurrence, fate/transport and removalof emerging contaminants (e.g., pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting chemicals) in the environment; water and wastewatertreatment; wastewater reuse and resource recovery; solid and hazardous waste management; environmental toxicity and risk ofnanomaterials; bioremediation of contaminated sites and groundwater; and climate change mitigation and adaptation. He is an Adjunct Professor in seven universities and distinguished/honorary visiting professor in five universities. He is a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus of both the Oklahoma State and Iowa State Universities, and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, an elected Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering, an elected Fellow of the Water Environment Federation and International Water Association, and a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He also is Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Hazardous and Toxic Waste, and Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineering (a Springer Journal), and past Vice-Chair of Editorial Board of Water Environment Research Journal. He has authored over 700 technical
publications, including 21 patents, 20 books, 129 book chapters, 317 refereed journal articles, 234 national and international conference presentations and presented over 127 plenary/keynote or invited presentations worldwide. He has received over 30 national awards/honors from various professional organizations.