PSIPW was the platinum sponsor of the 17th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology (CEST2021), which was held in Athens, Greece from 1-4 September 2021.

The conference takes place every two years, It is organized by the Global Network of Environmental Science and Technology (Global NEST) jointly with the University of the Aegean (Greece) and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece).

CEST2021 was academically supported by the University of Salerno (Italy), the University of Cincinnati (USA) and the Imperial College London (UK) as well as a group of distinguished scientists – the members of the Conference Scientific Committee. CEST2021 is under the patronage of UNESCO’s Water Assessment Programme, International Water Association (IWA), A.C. Laskaridis Charitable Foundation and under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, the Attica Region and the Municipality of Athens.

PSIPW has been the conference’s platinum sponsor since it’s 13th session in 2013.

The conference was held as a hybrid event due to COVID19. It hosted 58 sessions with a total of 578 presentations. There were 150 people who physically attended the conference in Athens. The rest of the participants attended and presented virtually, with 2100 unique visitors online. Participants hailed from 77 countries.

The plenary lecture was delivered by PSIPW laureate Damià Barceló on the highly relevant topic of “Macro-and micro-plastic litter and increased Covid-19 based plastic pollution in waters: environmental risks with focus on dose and threat to biodiversity”.

The Prince Sultan Water Specialist Event Participation Grant for Young Researchers was presented to two participants:

[1] Ms. Eleni Keliri, a PhD Student in the Water Treatment Laboratory in the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Cyprus University of Technology, was awarded to present her research: “Automated In-Situ Cyanotoxin Assessment Toolbox for Real-Time Surface Water Monitoring (CYANOBOX).”


[2] Dr. Inês Bezerra Gomes, Junior Researcher in the Laboratory for Process Engineering, Environment, Biotechnology and Energy at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, was awarded to present “Are emerging contaminants affecting drinking water microbial biofilms?”.