PSIPW was the platinum sponsor of the 18th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology (CEST2023), which was held in Athens, Greece from 1-4 September 2023. PSIPW laureates were also instrumental in the 2nd UrbanWaterSECURITY Academy, which was held concurrently with the conference.

PSIPW has enjoyed a long relationship with CEST and has been the conference’s platinum sponsor since it’s 13th session in 2013.

CEST2023 was organized by the Global Network of Environmental Science and Technology jointly with the University of the Aegean (Greece) and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece). It was scientifically supported by the Open University of Cyprus (Cyprus), the University of Salerno (Italy) and the University of Cincinnati. The conference is under the auspices of the Region of Attica and the Municipality of Athens with the support of World Water Assessment Programme of UNESCO and the International Water Association (IWA).

The plenary lecture of CEST2023 was delivered by our most recent (10th Award 2022) PSIPW Creativity Prize laureate Dionysios (Dion) Dionysiou (pictured to the right). The topic of his lecture was “Sustainable Water Management: Global and Regional Challenges and Opportunities”.

CEST, united with the Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division (SEED) of the University of Salerno (Italy) and the Advanced Institute of Water Industry at Kyungpook National University (Korea) in organizing the second edition of UrbanWaterSECURITY Academy.

The UrbanWaterSECURITY Academy is an instructed, examination assessed, and diploma-awarding programme held in conjunction with the conference, where certain keynote lectures are integrated into the course structure.

In addition to PSIPW sponsoring an Academy Chairperson, PSIPW laureates Damià Barceló and Dionysios Dionysiou were instrumental in the Academy as members of the Academy and as instructors, with PSIPW laureate Polycarpos Falaras also serving as an instructor.

In addition, the Prince Sultan Water Specialist Event Participation Grant was awarded to three distingished researchers to present keynote addresses at CEST2023. They were:

Kwang-Ho Choo, Professor Professor of Environmental Engineering and and Director of the Advanced Institute of Water Industry at Kyungpook National University (KNU), South Korea, who presented “Bacterial Battle: Unleashing Nature's Mediators to Combat Biofouling” and who also served as a Chair of the 2nd UrbanWaterSECURITY Academy.

Othman Almashaqbeh, Royal Scientific Society, Knowledge, Amman-al Jubaiha, Jordan, whose presentation was entitled: “Testing a pilot-scale of constructed wetlands for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using Jordanian zeolitic tuff”


Md Ataul Gani, Assistant Professor, Department of Botany, Jagannath University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, who presented “Changes in geomorphic units alter nitrogen fixation in a large lowland tropical river”


PSIPW also provided Young Researcher Grants to support innovative work from students and upcoming water scientists. 

There were two young researchers who received the grant awards this year. The first was Fatema Khamis of Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates, who presented “Development of pH-responsive adsorptive ultrafiltration membrane for the treatment of heavy metals from aqueous solution”. 

The second was Ana Rita Pereira of the University of Porto, Portugal (pictured to the right) who presented “Effects of parabens exposure on drinking water bacteria”.