Prof. Stefan Wuertz obtained B.Sc. in Microbiology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, before embarking on an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences with Joe Cooney at the University of Massachusetts in the U.S. He did his post-doc in molecular biology on heavy metal resistance in bacteria in the laboratory of Max Mergeay at VITO in Belgium, in collaboration with Daniel van der Lelie and Jean-Marc Collard. Prof. Stefan Wuertz's research focuses on the structure and function of microbial communities in engineered treatment systems and the molecular detection of pathogens in the environment. He is establishing scale-up engineering bioprocess systems and investigating environmental solutions to create novel and multi-scale interactive engineering platforms for multiple purposes, such as the recovery of nutrients from used water by biofilm processes.