Meet Andrew Zealand FEMS Meeting Attendance Grant Grantee
30-10-20
Meeting Attendance Grants enable early career researchers to attend microbiology meetings worldwide to network, collaborate and keep abreast of new developments in their field.
Dr Andrew Zealand, School of Engineering, Newcastle University, UK
Attended: 8th IWA Microbial Ecology and Water Engineering specialist conference, Hiroshima, Japan
Dates: 17-20 November 2019
Member Society: Microbiology Society
I’m a self-motivated environmental engineer and I’m passionate about research, especially when it comes to biological treatment systems and how they can be used to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
I’ve always had an interest in the interactions between what we do as humans and the environment, particularly how we can negatively affect it and our health. I’ve gradually moved from an ecological point of view at the landscape scale to the microbial ecology level. The science and technologies we continue to use and champion for wastewater and water treatment are resource hungry (i.e., energy, carbon, nitrogen) and emit huge amounts of greenhouse gases through the process. I think the use of biological systems, in conjunction with their chemical parameters, will provide solutions to many world problems; namely, wastewater energy use and safe water.
The 8th IWA Microbial Ecology and Water Engineering Specialist Conference (MEWE2019) was held in Hiroshima, Japan on 17-20 November 2019. It covered a wide range of recent research on microbial diversity and their function in water engineering and natural water systems and was a strong mix of keynotes, presentations, and networking opportunities.
Excellent, thank you for the grant award – the conference was very useful. Without the FEMS grant I would not have been able to attend the meeting.”