PEOPLE 2022 – A Hybrid International Conference on Persistent, Emerging, and Organic Pollution in the Environment – Challenges and Solutions under Climate Change was held on August 23–26, 2022 in Charlottetown, PEI.
This is an annual conference of the PEOPLE Network, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and jointly held with the Canadian Association on Water Quality (CAWQ) Atlantic Symposium. The conference provides an international platform for both in-person and virtual attendees around the world, and especially brings together researchers and professionals from diverse sectors and disciplines in natural science, engineering, social science, and medicine, to present their achievements and innovations, exchange ideas, share information, grow connections, and explore opportunities.
The Climate Smart Lab team played an important role in the conference’s success by serving as conference volunteers. Remarkably, Dr. Xander Wang, director of the Climate Smart Lab, was the conference co-chair, and Dr Aminur Shah and Dr. Quan Dau, together with Dr. Weiyun Lin from Memorial University, served as conference secretariats. (Xanax) Other team members also involved in various conference roles, such as: Dr. Pelin Kınay, Sana Basheer, Vanessa Engelke Da Silva, and Toyin Adekanmbi were responsible as receptionists, Muhammad Qasim Mahmood, Tianze Pang, Farhan Aziz , Rana Ali Nawaz, Dania Tamayo-Vera, and Ali Raisolsadat provided technical supports, Ryan Guild, and Genevieve Keefe are key volunteers in providing transportation service for keynote speakers and other attendees, and Manzura Khan served as a photographer.
The conference went off very successfully with about 140 abstract submissions, 21 technical sessions, over 100 oral presentations, and more than 20 poster presentations. It was facilitated by 4 plenary keynotes and 12 technical keynote presentations, with over 100 in-person attendees and around 70 online attendees.
Invited keynote speakers including, Dr. Judith (Jundy) Clark, Elder in Residence, UPEI; Dr. Greg Keefe, Interim President and Vice-Chancellor, UPEI; Dr. Neil Bose, Vice President Research, Memorial University; Dr. Nola Etkin, Dean of Faculty of Science, UPEI; Dr. Shirine Jeradi, Manager in Research Partnerships, NSERC; Dr. Bing Chen, Director of PEOPLE Network and also the Conference Chair; Dr. Xander Wang, President of Sigma Academy, Conference Co-Chair; Dr. Rune Storesund, Executive Director in Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at University of California Berkeley, Conference Co-Chair; Dr. Elsayed Elbeshbishy, President of Canadian Association on Water Quality; and Dr. Farokh Kakar, President of IWA-YWP.
Plenary keynote speakers including Dr. Lisa Alvarez-Cohen, Vice Provost for Academic Planning Fred and Claire Sauer, Professor of Environment Engineering at University of California Berkeley; Dr. L. Ruby Leung, Battelle Fellow in Earth Science at Pacific Northwest national Laboratory; Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, James McGill Professor at McGill University; and Dr. Jingxu (Jesse) Zhu, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) and Distinguished Professor at Western University.
The conference was supported by various sponsors:
Platinum Sponsors
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
- PEI Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action – Government of PEI
Gold Sponsor
- Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science – Memorial University
Silver Sponsors
- Faculty of Science – University of Prince Edward Island
- Genome Atlantic
Bronze Sponsor
- Parks Canada in PEI
Coffee Break Sponsors
- City of Charlottetown, PEI
- Town of Stratford, PEI
