Biographical note

Meththika Vithanage is a Professor and founder of the Ecosphere Resilience Research Centre, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka. Before joining University of Sri Jayewardenepura, she has worked at the National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy, and Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Her academic background covers environmental remediation of toxic metals, antibiotics, agrochemicals, serpentine soil chemistry, and waste biomass conversion. She received the prestigious Fayzah M. Al-Kharafi award from The World Academy of Science (TWAS) in 2020 and she became the Chairperson of the Young Scientists Forum in 2017. She received prestigious General Research Committee Award by the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science in 2019. She was awarded as the Best Young Scientist, 2018 by the Young Scientist Forum of the National Science and Technology Commission, Sri Lanka and in 2016 she became the Young Scientist in Chemistry by the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka. She was selected as one of the Early Career Women Scientists by the Organization for Women Scientists in the Developing Countries, Italy. She served as the Chairperson of the Section for Engineering, Architecture and Surveying of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science, Sri Lanka in 2018. She has received Presidential Awards for Scientific Publications for 10 years. Further, she was listed as Top 2% of the most cited scientists across various disciplines globally in 2017, 2019 and 2020. She has contributed over 150 Science Citation Indexed journal articles, over 30 book chapters and 4 co-edited books published by Elsevier Inc. She additionally contributed to 2 Korean patents and 1 Sri Lankan patent for environmental remediation of antibiotics using biochar and synthesis of nanozero valent iron. She has served in many national and international scientific committees to promote science. Dr. Anushka Upamali Rajapaksha is a Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She holds B.Sc. in Chemistry Special (Second upper) from the University of Peradeniya (2008), M.Phil (Chemical Sciences) from the University of Peradeniya (2012), and a Ph.D. in Biological Environment from Kangwon National University, South Korea (2015). Her research work includes the development of novel engineered/designer biochar as innovative solutions to environmental issues, mainly for remediating toxic heavy metals and pharmaceuticals contaminated soil and water, Heavy metal dissolution, Environmental remediation, etc. Dr. Rajapaksha has an excellent publication track record with over 45 SCI journal articles (SCOPUS h index 26, Google h index 29 with 6000+ citations). She has received several awards and distinctions including Presidential Awards for Scientific Publications and The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Directors, Sri Lanka (CVCD) EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2020. She is currently the Coordinating Editor of Environmental Geochemistry and Health (Springer) and Editorial Board Member for Journal of Hazardous Materials (Elsevier). Further, Dr. Rajapaksha is ranked among the top 2% of the world’s best scientists in the 2020 list of outstanding researchers prepared by Elsevier BV, Stanford University, USA. Giuseppe Lazzara is full professor at the Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Italy. After his Ph.D. at the University of Palermo during which he was one year at Bayreuth University (Germany). He was post-doc at the Lund University (Sweden) carrying out research on supramolecular systems. He was the principal investigator of a project for young scientist (below 40 years old) entitled “Clay nanotubes for designing eco-compatible smart materials” founded by the Italian Minister of Research and University (FIRB 2012). ). His research is devoted to physical chemistry of nanostructured systems fuctional for the environment and cultural heritage. In particular the following main topics can be identified: 1)  bionanocomposites based on nanoclays as alternatives to conventional plastics, 2) selective functionalization of nanoclay for smart applications, 3) nanomaterials for conservation of cultural heritage. He contributed over 150 Science Citation Indexed journal articles, 1 co-edited book published by Elsevier Inc. and he is associate editor for Applied Clay Science journal. He has two patents on nanoclay based materials.