Prof. Arno Fruehwald is the executive partner of Palmwood R+D and Emeritus Professor in Hamburg University, Germany. He was the Dean Faculty of Biology and Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and the Natural Sciences University of Hamburg, and he was Professor for Wood Science and Technology, University of Hamburg, Germany (since 1977), 1996 to 2010 Director Institute for Wood Physics and Technology, Federal Research Center for Forestry and Forest Products Hamburg. Dr. Fruehwald research interest include utilization of palms trunk, environmental issues in forestry and forest products, life cycle assessment, carbon aspects and climate issues. He has scientific and applied work in more than 40 countries worldwide in tropical forest, tropical timber and palms, wood industry development and development of universities and research institutions. He studied engineering (Wood Industry) at the University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim/Germany, Wood Science and Technology as well as Economics, at the University of Hamburg/Germany, and he has PhD in Wood Science and Technology, University of Hamburg.

Walking the Talk: Considerations to Accelerate the Sectoral Developments of the Palm Crop Non-Food Byproducts

Mr. Dilip Tambyrajah is the founder and Secretary General of the International Natural Fiber Organization (INFO), representing more than 85% of the worlds production of Jute, Abaca, Coir, Kenaf, Sisal and Allied fiber. He is an active member of the UN-FAO Inter Governmental Group on Jute, Abaca, Coir, Kenaf, Sisal and Allied Fibers such as Ramie. Dilip was elected and is currently the Chairman of the UN FAO IGG. He is supporting activities in the natural fiber producing countries, which are emerging economies and developing countries, in the areas such as policy and strategy development, Research & Development, science and technology, marketing, value chain and sustainable development. In 2010, Dilip initiated Natural Fibers Composite – Design platform supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands and the University of Delft. Since the early 90-ties Dilip is the Managing Director of Zylyon International B.V., The Netherlands. Zylyon manufactures natural fibers based products. Dilip has more than 40 years of experience in international business, strategy and Science, Technology and (technical and social) Innovation policy development. Dilip studied Environmental Engineering and Business Administration (MBA) in the United Kingdom (U.K). In addition, studied Marketing Management at the Institute of Social Sciences, Leiden, and The Netherlands.

Date Palm Byproducts: A Springboard for Circular Bio Economy

The Legendary Professor Dr. Hamed El-Mously, is an Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Engineering – Ain Shams University, Egypt and co-founder and chairman of the International Association for Palm By-products (ByPalma). Dr. El-Mously is recognized as the founding father of Date Palm by-products research and development, and one of the warriors of sustainable development of local communities. He received numerous prestigious awards for his work, such as Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agriculture Innovation 2013. El-Mously has been working in projects aiming at developing local communities in all villages of Egypt, by applying developing projects using their local resources since 1995. Projects include production of blockboard, parquet, and arabesque from palm midribs, production of non-traditional animal feed from agricultural residues, production of organic fertilizers from pruning-products of date palms, doum palms, and mango trees, and production of fig jam. El-Mously contributed in the foundation of several research societies and member in several strategic consulting and scientific committees

Cellulose as substrate for active surfaces: Theory and applications

Prof. Mohamed Naceur Belgacem is the Head of Grenoble INP-Pagora Engineering School. Professor Belgacem received his Engineer diploma in wood science at the Saint Petersburg’s Forest Academy in 1986 (Russia). He then got a PhD in Material Engineering and Science from the Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France in 1991. He was then awarded a fellowship from the National Research Council of Canada to carry out a post-doctoral training for two years in Polytechnic School of Montreal (Canada) as a researcher in the field of surface and interface phenomena in cellulose-based composite materials. On his return, he worked in R&D department in industry for 5 years, before moving to University of Beira Interior in Portugal where he spent three years (from 1997 to 2000) as an associate professor. Dr. Belgacem was nominated full professor in 2000 at the Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France. He has published over 350 scientific papers, including 2 books and ~25 book chapters with around 20000 citations (H-Index > 70). Professor Belgacem was one of the three Editors-in-chief of an Elsevier Journal: “Industrial Crops and Products” (ISSN: 0926-6690 http://ees.elsevier.com/indcro/) from 2007 to 2020.

Date Palm Waste Innovative Products for Sustainable Environment

Dr. Nashi Alqahtani is the Director of the Date Palm Research Center of Excellence at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. He received his PhD degree in food science and technology from RMIT University, Australia. Earlier in his professional career, he held the position of the Director of Supporting Studies the Supervisor Center at King Faisal University. He was also the Rapporteur of the Committee of the Deans of Colleges of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine in the GCC. He participated in more than15 regional and global conferences and workshops. In addition, he was actively involved as a member or head of key committees at KFU. Dr. Nashi published more than 48 scientific papers in regional and international high impact factor reputable journals.

Harnessing Renewable Fibres from Palm and Cactus for Smart Materials: Research to Commercialization

Prof Sain serves as the Founding  Director of Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing and he is the founding Endowed Ford Motor Canada Chair Professor in Sustainable Materials in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering  at the University of Toronto. Acting as a founding Director of Centre for Biocomposites and Biomaterials Processing, first in kind research commercialization driven by transdisciplinary education, training and research,  centre focuses on sustainable and low carbon materials. Formerly Dean of Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, he also serves in a capacity as a Director of a globally recognized research hub, Prof. Sain provided leadership and vision with transdisciplinary approach. As a highly accomplished researcher-entrepreneur and Hi-Cited research scholar with an impressive record of research publications in impactful journals including Nature and Science family of journals, he also founded multiple-successful spin-off companies with his collaborative approach. Prof. Sain, a fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry UK, Royal Society of Canada and Canadian Academy of Engineers, specializes in advanced bionanotechnology, advanced green energy and energy materials including battery and fuel cell technologies,  functional biocomposites and nature-inspired advanced devices at the the University of Toronto. He was awarded honorary degree Doctor Honoris Causa. Prof. Sain is known globally for his pioneering work on the Biocar Initiative: in 2009, an issue of Toronto Life magazine featured his idea as second best among 25 World Changing Ideas from the Smartest Torontonians.