Dr. Tosca Zech graduated from Technical University of Dresden in 2002 with a diploma degree in Industrial Engineering and Management especially Water Management. In 2008 she received a doctor’s degree at University of Stuttgart having researched at Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB. Her main fields of research were membrane technology, separation of wastewater flows, high load digestion of sewage sludge and energy recovery.

In 2013 Tosca started her career outside the academic world at the engineering consulting Resch + Partner in Weissenburg, Bavaria, as project manager and senior consultant process engineering. In this position she is also responsible for research and development and state subsidies.

In addition, Tosca works as lecturer at OTH Regensburg to teach wastewater treatment including laboratory.

Marcel received a B.Eng. and M.Sc. in pharmaceutical and chemical engineering. During his studies he stayed with the Environmental Sciences Group at the Royal Military College of Canada for six months to investigate the effects of emerging pollutants on microbial communities from soil and wetland ecosystems. After graduation he started to work as an analytical chemist in the pharmaceutical industry before pursuing his Ph.D. studies in environmental health sciences at the RECETOX institute at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. During his Ph.D., Marcel focused on advanced oxidation processes for the removal of natural toxins from surface water. Amongst others, he investigated plasma-based approaches in collaboration with the INP. After receiving his Ph.D., Marcel started to work at the INP, where he is now responsible for the topic Clean Water focusing on the application of plasma methods for the removal of recalcitrant pollutants from water in various applications.

Dr. Ulf Stein is a Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute in Berlin, where he coordinates the Institute’s work in the field of water. He joined Ecologic Institute in 2011, drawing on more than 10 years of professional experience in academic research and knowledge dissemination. His work focuses on the assessment and improvement of European Union (EU) and German water policies and the sustainable management of water resources, particularly with regard to environmental planning, climate change adaptation, aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services, as well as governance.

Ulf Stein has managed and participated in more than 20 projects including large-scale research projects for various European and national institutions. In addition, he was a member of the European Topic Centre on Inland Coastal and Marine waters (ETC-ICM) as well as the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC-BD) for several years.

Philip Decker studied BSc Environmental Engineering at the TU
Bergakademie Freiberg and specialized in decentralized energy
systems and renewables. He continued his studies at the
University of Edinburgh with a MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems
followed by a PhD in Electrical engineering and Electronics.
Since then, he joined Siemens in London as a Consultant engineer
using gPROMS as process modelling tool for project delivery and
model development. In October 2022 he moved back to Germany
and joined the Operations optimisation and apps team within
Siemens as Lead engineer and is now responsible for leading and
delivering digital twin projects for the water and wastewater as
well as chemical industry using gPROMS and other Siemens tools.

Dr. Arnt Baer is Head of Public Affairs at GELSENWASSER AG.

He received his doctor’s degree at the Chair for Public, International and European Law at the University of Cologne. He worked for an energy supplier, a law firm specialized in energy law und the German Association of Local Utilities (VKU). He also worked as a consultant in Switzerland and as an independent attorney at law. Since 2012 he has been with Gelsenwasser, first as Head of General Affairs and currently as Head of Public Affairs.

Boris Greifeneder studied European Studies, has extensive association experience and a distinctive network in politics and business. After four years as a research assistant to the spokesman for energy policy of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Klaus Breil, he was responsible for strategy and policy in the capital office of VDMA e.V. from 2013, with a focus on foreign trade and tax policy. Before joining German Water Partnership e.V. (GWP) in the spring of 2023, Greifeneder was deputy managing director of the VDMA capital office.

Ms. Regina Gnirss received her Masters of Engineering (Environmental Science) at the Technical University of Berlin specialized in water and wastewater treatment in 1991. Since 2008 she is Head of the Research & Development Department of the Berliner Wasserbetriebe and manages national and international research activities of the company. Berliner Wasserbetriebe as an innovative company is conducting research projects to enable a sustainable water management for 3.6 Mio. Inhabitants of Berlin. Ms. Gnirss has more than 150 publications in national and international journals and presentations on many conferences. As an Water expert she is a member in the working group of DWA responsible for Wastewater treatment, in EurEau innovation group and in the Strategic Council of the International Water Association (IWA).

1990 Ph. D. with Prof. Vogelpohl, TU Clausthal (with honors)
1991-2004 Head of the Water Treatment Group, TU Clausthal
Since 2000 Consultant, TECHNOCON GmbH, Clausthal,
Germany
1991-2004 Assistant Professor, TU Clausthal
1999-2002 Lecturer (Akademischer Rat) at TU Clausthal
2002-2004 Lecturer (Akademischer Oberrat) at TU Clausthal
since 15.12.2004 Professor and head of the Environmental
Process Engineering Chair, Technische Universität Berlin
since 2022 Professor Nanjing University of Technology China

Christian started his professional career in the chemical industry in 2003. He joined the German EPA (UBA) in 2008 where he promoted the development of a national strategy for sustainable P management. In 2011 he moved to the Berlin Centre of Competence for Water as program manager for resource recovery from waste(water). At ISLE Utilities (2017-2019) he continued the know-how transfer into practice. Since early 2019 Christian is managing director of the German branch of EasyMining, a daughter company of the Swedish Ragn-Sells Group, having developed technologies for nutrient recovery from secondary sources. Since 2021 he is also MD of Phosphorgewinnung Schkopau GmbH, a J/V between EasyMining and Gelsenwasser currently implementing the first Ash2Phos full scale plant in Schkopau, South-West of Berlin. Christian is co-founder and board member of the German and European Phosphorus platforms and supporter of the Clean Phosphorus initiative. He is engaged in DWA, International Fertiliser Society (ifs) and engaged in various European and German committees.