Prof. Johannes Lehmann is a professor at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornel University, USA. Prof. Lehmann is the co-founder of the International Biochar Initiative and member of the board of directors of the International Biochar Initiatives. His research focuses are on nano-scale investigations of soil organic matter, the biogeochemistry of black carbon and nutrients, development of biochar and bioenergy systems. He has more than 650 publications and his H index is 95. Google scholar indicates that his publications accounts for more than 53,156 citations out of which there are eleven publications with more than 1,000 citations.
Dr. Ondřej Mašek
Dr. Ondřej Mašek is a lecturer at the School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. He has obtained his M.Sc from VŠB - Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic followed by PhD from Hokkaido University, Japan in 2007. He had been a postdoctoral fellow in the Cranfield University, UK before joining the University of Edinburgh. His research interests are on technologies for biochar production and utilization for bio-fuel and bio-energy generation, thermochemical conversions of carbonaceous materials, CO2 capture and transport technologies. He also works at the UK Biochar Research Center and he has over 56 peer reviewed papers with 2011 citations.
Mr. Thomas Miles
Mr. Thomas Miles is the president of the TR Miles Technical Consultants Inc. and he has more than 40 years of experience in the industry. He is a board member of the US Biochar Initiative from 2010 and at present he serves as the Executive Director of the US Biochar Initiative. Moreover, he is a member of the board of directors the International Biochar Initiative from 2015 and a coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Biochar Working Group. He has obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the Rockford University, USA. Since 1957, he designs systems for biomass processing and handling including densification, carbonization, gasification, power generation, and residue and nutrient management including biochar and composting.
Dr. Suzanne Allaire
Dr. Suzanne Allaire is the owner of GECA Environnement and has more than 25 years of experience in research and product development in the fields of environmental protection and biomass management. Prior to leading GECA, Suzanne was a full professor at Laval University in Canada for 16 years and NCAR in Boulder, CO, and at the US Salinity Laboratory (USDA-ARS) in Riverside, CA for several years. Her consulting company, GECA Environment, actively collaborates with private industry and governments on residue management, soil, and water quality projects. She focuses on improving the value of residues for sustainable development, mostly through pyrolysis/biochar projects. She is a member of the board of directors of the International Biochar Initiative.
Dr. David Wayne
Dr. David Wayne has studied his bachelors’ degree at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa followed by M.Sc in Queen’s University in Canada and PhD in Cambridge University in UK. After short spells of postdoctoral research in the University of Southampton in UK, he joined Shell Research in UK and started to work on various topics including flame radiation, transport properties in liquids, lubrication and finally, biochar. He is a member of the board of directors of International Biochar Initiative.
Prof. Genxing Pan
Prof. Genxing Pan is a professor at the College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. His primary specialty is applied biogeochemistry of carbon cycling and carbon sequestration and dynamics in agro-ecosystems focusing on rice paddies of China, of which the most recent focus includes long-term monitoring of soil organic matter accumulation in agro-ecosystems. He leads an interdisciplinary group working on greenhouse gases emissions from croplands and mitigation countermeasures as well as on mitigation of climate change impacts on agriculture. Additionally, his group leads the research and technology development for biochar and specific agricultural applications. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Biochar Initiative.
Prof. Jun Meng
Prof. Jun Meng is a professor at the Biochar Engineering & Technology Research Center in Shenyang Agricultural University, China. He is the Executive Editor of the Biochar journal. His research focusses are on biochar technology and sustainable agriculture. He has over 40 publications in refereed journals such as Science of the Total Environment, Waste Management.
Prof. Jörg Rinklebe
Prof. Jörg Rinklebe is a Full Professor of Soil- and Groundwater-Management at the University of Wuppertal, Germany. His main research is on wetland soils, sediments, waters, plants, and their pollutions (trace elements and nutrients) and linked biogeochemical issues with a special focus in redox chemistry. He also has a certain expertise in remediation of toxic elements contaminated soils and soil microbiology. Professor Rinklebe is internationally recognized particularly for his research in the areas of biogeochemistry of trace elements in wetland soils. He published plenty of scientific papers in leading international and national journals. He is serving as Co-Editor in Chief of the international journal Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (CREST) and Associate Editor Environmental Pollution and as guest editor of the international journals Environment International, Chemical Engineering Journal, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 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) and reviewer for many international journals.
Prof. Patryk Oleszczuk
Prof. Oleszczuk is a professor at the Department of Environmental Chemistry in the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland. He obtained MS degree from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Poland in 1999 and Ph.D degree from University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland in 2004. His research interests lies on application of different chemical and ecotoxicological methods to test environmental matrices, especially soils and sewage sludges, toxicity of nanoparticles and their effect on bioavailability of organic and inorganic contaminants, fate of nanoparticles in environment and characteristic of biochars in terms of redmediaiton of soils and sewage sludges as well as their influence on pesticides fate in soils. Prof. Oleszczuk has more than eighteen years of research experience on contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nanomaterials and heavy metals in natural and engineered environment. He has over 125 publications in peer-reviewed high impact journals and his H index is 34 in Google Scholar.
Prof. Shicheng Zhang
Prof. Zhang is a Full Professor and a Vice Chair at the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He received his Ph.D. from Northeastern University, China in 2001. After that, he worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in Peking University and Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. In 2005 he joined the Faculty of Environmental Engineering at Fudan University. From 2007 to 2008, he worked at Iowa State University as a postdoctoral research fellow. After 2011, he served as vice chair for the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Fudan University. He has visited and collaborated with many Universities in USA, Canada, UK, Denmark, Japan, Austrilia, and so on. His current research focuses on biomass wastes utilization and environmental catalysis. Till now, he has been involved in more than 30 research projects as PI or Co-PI. He has published more than 110 journal papers, 30 patents, and has more than 3900 ISI citations with H index 31. He has received several awards for his outstanding scholarly achievements. In 2011, he got the 2nd Prize of Shanghai Natural Science Award. Prof. Zhang has been an active member of numerous national and international commissions and committees, and regularly serves as external judge for national and international funding institutions.
Ms. Kathleen Draper
Ms. Drapere is the US Director of the Ithaka Institute for Carbon Intelligence which is an open source network focusing on beneficial carbon sequestration strategies that simultaneously provide economic development opportunities both in the developed and developing world. She is also a member of the IBI Board and Chair of IBI’s Information Hub. She is an editor and writer for The Biochar Journal, sponsored by the Ithaka Institute. Ms. Drapere also works with various different universities and individuals on projects that are investigating the use of biochar in cement and other building and packaging products to develop products with lower embodied carbon which can be made from locally available organic waste. She has written extensively about various topics related to biochar and is a co-author of the book “Terra Preta: How the World’s Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger”.
HyeongSeo (William) Son
HyeongSeo (William) Son is a third-generation entrepreneur at Wonjin Group based in South Korea. Wonjin Group, founded by his late grandfather in 1967, is a leader in creating value of resources worldwide. The main areas of business include refractories, coal briquettes and material recycling. Upon his graduation at Waseda University (Japan) for his master’s degree, he joined Wonjin Group and is now the CEO of 3 group companies -Kyungdong Development, Kyungdong Worldwide, Wonjin Ceratec.
Kyungdong Worldwide is a company that focuses on resource development including manufacturing of wood pellet, wood chip, wood flour and bio-char. With his strong expertise and background in wood industry, William’s main focus in recent years has been researching and developing bio-char, which is now in commercial production. Kyundong’s bio-char is certified and patented. His ultimate goal is to produce innovative bio-char that would improve current agricultural conditions as well as simplifying agricultural process to benefit industrial efficiency.