Mark Van Loosdrech

I have studied Environmental Engineering at Wageningen University. The broad multidisciplinary education forms a good basis for a career in fields as environmental engineering. After my Ph.D. in 1988 at the same university, I became a faculty member at the Department of Biotechnology in Delft. Since then an environmental biotechnology group has been developed based on the scientific interest in microbial ecology and wish to contribute to societal needs of more efficient wastewater treatment and recovery of resources from waste. Over time this not only gave many new scientific insights but also processes as Anammox, Nereda and recovery technology for PHA and Kaumera. Especially microbial ecology is one of the fields that has developed tremendous over these years, where 30 years ago the pure culture was still the holy grail for the microbial ecology the DNA technology has pointed to the large plate culturing anomaly. What remains is the limited integration of microbial ecology knowledge and process engineering, although this is where progress can be made. The Repares project is a good example of the linking between obtaining better insight in antibiotic gene spreading in microbial communities and how this can be minimized in wastewater treatment systems. I trust it will bring the fight against antimicrobial resistance a step further but also stimulates the microbiology/engineering interaction. Research is about discovery and exploring unknown territories, going in a direction, observing the landscape and interpreting what one finds. It is in that context maybe not strange that in my free time I like to travel the world to less explored areas with my backpack and tent. Hope to see you during one of the next travels.