Pr. Hamza Elfil is the Head of Laboratory Desalination and Natural Water Valorization (LaDVEN) in CERTE - Techno park of BorjCedria - Tunisia. In 1999, he obtained his PhD int Process Engineering - Water Treatment - from INSA Toulouse, France. His main research interests are related to water desalination, water quality and scaling / aggressiveness phenomena in natural waters. He is an author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications (h-index Google Scholar: 13, i10-index: 20), about 20 popular science articles and 4 patents. He offers many activities and lectures about water desalination and qualities and related topics for the public to make science more attractive and understandable.

Sergey is a Head of the Stress Physiology Laboratory at the University of Tasmania; he also holds a title of a Distinguished Professor and a Director of the International Research Centre for Environmental Membrane Biology at Foshan University in China. His area of expertise is plant stress physiology and mechanisms of their adaptation to harsh environmental conditions such as drought, salinity, waterlogging, with specific focus on halophytes. Over his research career, Sergey has published over 360 peer-reviewed papers and successfully supervised to completion 42 PhD students. He is an ISI Highly Cited researcher for the last five consecutive years and was ranked as most cited researcher in the field of Botany in the world in 2019. His H-index is 93, and his work has been cited over 28,000 times. He is a current Editor in Chief for Functional Plant Biology and a member of editorial boards of 10 international journals. He is a former president of the Australian Society of Plant Scientists and holds a title of the Visiting or Distinguished Professor in four overseas universities.

Dr. Ahmed Mohamed Ali Youssef is a Prof. of geophysics and groundwater, Desert Reserch Center (DRC), Egypt. He was born on 13 August, 1958. He has 43 year's experience in the field of geophysics & groundwater exploration, assessment and evaluation. He got the B.Sc. degree in Geology, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams universty (1980) and got the M.Sc. (1993) & Ph.D (1996) degrees in geophysics, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University. He is the Former President of DRC, head of Remote sensing and GIS unit at Desert Research Center (DRC). Moreover, He is a Member of the Egyptian Center of Excellence for Biosaline Agriculture at DRC.

Prof. Hamza Elfil is the Head of Laboratory Desalination and Natural Water Valorization (LaDVEN) in CERTE - Techno park of BorjCedria - Tunisia. In 1999, he obtained his PhD int Process Engineering - Water Treatment - from INSA Toulouse, France. His main research interests are related to water desalination, water quality and scaling / aggressiveness phenomena in natural waters.

He is an author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications (h-index Google Scholar: 13, i10-index: 20), about 20 popular science articles and 4 patents. He offers many activities and lectures about water desalination and qualities and related topics for the public to make science more attractive and understandable.

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Prof. Dr. Bilquees Gul, Director of Dr. Muhammad Ajmal Khan Institute of Sustainable Halophyte Utilization (ISHU), University of Karachi, has about 24 years of research and teaching experience. She was awarded the degree of Ph. D. (1998) by the Brigham Young University, USA. Dr. Gul was awarded Pakistan Academy of Science (2005) in the field of Botany. She is a life member of Pakistan Botanical Society. She is also a recipient of 6 different cash award of research productivity allowance. Dr. Gul also served at Brigham Young University, USA, as a teaching assistant during 1995-1998 and as post-doctoral fellow during 2007 and 2011. She is the author of six books and 133 research articles in well-reputed national and international journals. Quality of her research can easily be judged by 5162 citations of her articles. Her research impact factor is about 227.13, RG-index is 32.6, h-index is 40, i10 index is 105. In addition, she has completed more than10 research projects and supervised a number of young Ph.D. students. Prof. Gul’s major research accomplishment is the identification of a non-conventional fodder crop for arid-saline lands to combat food security issues in the country.

Jutta Papenbrock holds a professorship at the Institute of Botany, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany, since 2010. Before she was a Heisenberg fellow which is a prestigious award. She is interested in applied and basic aspects of science and has expertise in plant molecular physiology and biochemistry, in the (hydroponic) cultivation of glycophytes and halophytes, in quantitative methods to determine stress tolerance of plants, in the investigation of the genetic diversity of plants and in analytical methods to determine metabolites, secondary compounds and xenobiotics. Dr. Papenbrock has many national and international research cooperations and is currently PI of CWetlandsData: Constructed Wetlands Knowledge Platform for sustainable development and WP leader in AquaCombine: Integrated on farm Aquaponics systems for co-production of fish, halophyte vegetables, bioactive compounds, and bioenergy among several other projects. She is an author of more than 140 peer-reviewed publications (h-index Google Scholar: 31, i10-index: 76). She offers many activities and lectures about plants and related topics for the public to make science more attractive and understandable. Homepage: http://www.botanik.uni-hannover.de.

Dr. Ariel Turcios is a postdoctoral researcher in the field of water resources, biomass & bioenergy at Leibniz University Hanover, Germany. He did his PhD in Biology at the same university. He has published relevant scientific papers related to potential use of salt tolerant plants for biofiltering to decrease organic and inorganic contaminants in water and their further use for biogas production through the anaerobic digestion process. His educational background includes a M.Sc. in water resources management and a Bachelor in Agricultural Engineering. Dr. Turcios has been awarded several times during his academic career including the award of the Christian-Kuhlemann Foundation for his outstanding scientific achievements and social and cultural commitment at Leibniz University Hanover, Germany.

Dr Debez is currently working as Associate Professor at the Centre of Biotechnology of Borj-Cedria (Tunisia). He is the head of the Laboratory of Extremophile Plants (LPE). He obtained his PhD and habilitation in Plant Biology at the Sciences Faculty of Tunis respectively in 2005 and 2017. Dr Debez focuses on the characterisation and valorisation plants native of extreme (mainly saline and arid) environments. He was a fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Dr Debez has published 75 articles in International journals and 15 book chapters related to his research topics. He is member of the Tunisian Association of Biotechnology and the International Plant Proteomics Organisation. Besides, he was selected in 2013 as member of the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA).

BSc in Chemistry in 1998 (University of Murcia, SE Spain). In January 2000 I joined the research group “Phytoremediation of contaminated soils” from CEBAS-CSIC (Murcia), where I carried out my research for 6 years in the group headed by Prof. Mª Pilar Bernal, and obtained my PhD in 2004. My research focused on the remediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals (Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cd) and As, with particular emphasis on these elements soil chemistry.

Associate Professor in Plant Physiology and Biotechnology at the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis (FST), Department of Biology, University of Tunis El Manar Tunisia. Researcher at the Laboratory of Extremophile Plants (LPE) at the Centre of Biotechnology of Borj Cédria(CBBC) Tunisia. His research topic is mainly focused on the characterization and the valorization of Extremophiles plants, as well as, on biological improvement of the yield and the tolerance of several species cultivated under environmental constraints (salinity, drought, mineral deficiencies...) especially by the native Halo-Tolerant Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR). He is Vice-Secretary General of the Tunisian Association of Genetic Resources (TAGR). In addition, he is elected member of the Scientific Council and General coordinator of practical and tutorial courses of Plant Physiology at the Faculty of Sciences of Tunis, Department of Biology. Currently, he is member of the European PRIMA project "HaloFarMs" (2020-2023).

After finished my PhD in 2017 in Almeria (Spain) about the effects of salt stress in ornamental plants, I continued improving my knowledge in species more adapted to extreme saline conditions (halophytes). Moreover, I had carried out several postdocs stages in Center of Biotechnology and Genomic of Plants (CBGP) Madrid (Spain) and in the University of Bielefeld (Germany) developing news skills in several omics: metabolomic, transcriptomic and genomics. Currently, I am involved in the international PRIMA Project “Halofarms” as well as in other collaborations with other groups focused on the study of halophytic species from different points of view.

Since 1991, Dr. Henry Risse has an experience in the sector: communal and industrial waste water treatment, sludge treatment, biogas utilisation, anaerobic technology in wwtp and sludge, energy concepts, modern technologies, all renewable energies. With an experience in project management for more than 15 years. Skills in analysing operational efficiency of wwtp and a for cost and energy reduction. Type of experiences: studies, execution of projects, research, feasibility studies, practical realisation, (design, construction, installation, commissioning). Lecturer since 2003.

After graduating in Environmental Science and Technology (B.Sc. & M.Sc.) at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany in 2017 she joined TERRA URBANA for design, application and implementation of research and development projects. Juliane Roth serves as scientific and technical associate in the department “Environmental Technology” at TERRA URBANA. Her areas of expertise include design, construction and supervision of hydroponics and aquaponics, water quality analysis and wastewater reuse.