PEDRO ANTONIO
GARCIA ENCINA

My research activity has been developed in the field of waste and wastewater treatment, with special emphasis on the application of biological processes. This activity began in 1982 when I started my PhD in application of anaerobic fluidized bed reactors for wastewater treatment. Besides the application of anaerobic processes for municipal and industrial wastewater, research moved to biological nutrients removal including nitrification, denitrification and biological phosphorous removal. Related with this research line, special attention has been paid to the use of microalgae processes for nutrients removal from wastewater and the treatments of gaseous streams with a high CO2 content and subsequent exploitation of the produced biomass as a whole or fractioning it. More recently, I have begun to study the behaviour of micropollutants and other emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment systems to determine their biodegradability and their interference with the biological system, and I have expanded my research areas with the incorporation to some projects in the field of indoor air pollution treatment. As an auxiliary tool for the characterisation and monitoring of microorganisms involved in biological treatment of waste, in 2005 a laboratory of molecular techniques with different techniques as FISH; PCR; DGGE; qPCR, …was set up in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology. The application of these techniques allows us to analyse the influence of environmental parameters and operating variables on population dynamics, to improve the control of wastewater treatment and to study and improve the behaviour of specific microorganisms to produce some valuable products. I am in charge of this laboratory since its start-up The research carried out has not only focused on the acquisition of basic knowledge, but also has a strong applied component. This research has generated more than 145 JCR manuscripts, mainly in first quartile journals (more than 85% Q1 in the period 2015-2025) and more than 125 communications in international Conferences. I have supervised 22 Doctoral Thesis. The research activity has been developed in the framework of different regional (17) national (27) and international (7) projects, being principal investigator in 13 regional, 9 national and 2 international projects. In the area of collaboration with companies, it is worth mentioning the participation in more than 70 agreements with companies of which I was responsible for the project in 37 of them. These projects range from basic research to technical advice in the decision and operation or the design of waste treatment plants. It should be noted that almost all of these industrial collaboration is directly related to the research carried out by our research group. In the field of dissemination, it is worth mentioning the organization of several national courses related to anaerobic wastewater treatment and the participation in the organization of 4 International Congresses and workshops as the Water & Industry 2011 IWA Specialist Conference Chemical Industries, the Anaerobic Digestion Quo vadis? Workshop (2021) and the workshop Anaerobic Treatment Technology for Municipal and Industrial Wastewater in 1990. Since 2018 I am Director of the University Institute of Sustainable Processes (ISP) of the University of Valladolid This Institute with more than 130 members (90 pre and postdoctoral researchers and 10 technicians) is included in the list of regional centres of excellence and obtained in 2018 a competitive recognition for its Strategic Program and in 2022 an Internationalization Program of the Junta de Castilla y León. Within this program I have been responsible for the recruitment of more than 20 researchers in the last 6 years. Other activities to highlight is the participation as associ