Environmental Arsenic in a Changing World

Arsenic has been an issue of major concern in last decades because of the serious impact on human health coming from drinking water and certain food with low-medium levels of arsenic for prolonged periods of time. During last decade, the presence of arsenic in rice, possibly also other food of plant origins, has attained increasing attention.

Yong Guan Zhu, Dr. Yongguan (Y-G) Zhu, Professor of Soil Environmental Sciences and Environmental Biology, currently works in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), he is the director general of the Institute of Urban Environment, CAS. He has been working on soil-plant interactions, with special emphasis on rhizosphere microbiology, biogeochemistry of nutrients, metals and emerging pollutants (such as antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes). He obtained his BSc in soil science from Zhejiang Agricultural University in 1989, and MSc in soil science from the Institute of Soil Science, CAS in 1992, and then a PhD in environmental biology from Imperial College, London in 1998.

Huaming Guo is working as full professor of Hydrogeochemistry in the School of Water Resources and Environment at China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (CUGB) since 2008. He received his PhD in Hydrogeology in 2002 (China University of Geosciences (Wuhan)), and experienced a postdoctoral position at Tsinghua University (2002-2004). He is the leader of the working group "Biogeochemistry of groundwater contaminants" and mainly works on sources, fate and transport of inorganic pollutants (e.g., arsenic, fluoride, uranium, chromium, iron, and manganese) in aquifer systems, with special emphasis on biogeochemical behaviour of contaminants during interaction with colloids, microbes and minerals in porous media.

Prosun Bhattacharya holds a PhD in Sedimentary Geochemistry from University of Delhi, India (1990). He is a Professor of Groundwater Chemistry and Coordinator of the KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Since 2016, he is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Civil Engineering & Surveying & International Centre for Applied Climate Science at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He is engaged with research on groundwater contamination in sedimentary aquifers in different parts of the world, especially focusing on geogenic contaminants – arsenic and fluoride.

Jochen Bundschuh completed his PhD on numerical modeling of heat transport in aquifers from the University of Tubingen in 1990. He is working in geothermics, subsurface and surface hydrology and integrated water resources management, and related disciplines. From 1993 to1999, he served as an expert for the German Agency of Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and as a long-term professor for the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in Argentine. From 2001 to 2008 he worked within the framework of the German governmental cooperation (Integrated Expert Program of CIM; GTZ/BA) as adviser in mission to Costa Rica at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) and engaged in evaluation and development of its huge low-enthalpy geothermal resources for power generation. Since 2005, he is an Affiliate Professor of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. In 2006, he was elected Vice-President of the International Society of Groundwater for Sustainable Development ISGSD.

Dr. Bundschuh is author of the books "Low-Enthalpy Geothermal Resources for Power Generation" (2008) (Taylor & Francis/CRC Press) and "Introduction to the Numerical Modeling of Groundwater and Geothermal Systems: Fundamentals of Mass, Energy and Solute Transport in Poroelastic Rocks". He is editor of 16 books and editor of the book series "Multiphysics Modeling", "Arsenic in the Environment", "Sustainable Energy Developments" and the recently established series "Sustainable Water Developments" (all CRC Press/Taylor & Francis). Since 2015, he is an editor in chief of the Elsevier journal "Groundwater for Sustainable Development".