Dr. Patricia Dolez has recently joined the Department of Human Ecology of the University of Alberta, Canada, to work as an Assistant Professor in Textile Science. Before that, she had been a researcher at CTT Group in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada since 2012. She holds an engineering degree in Materials Science and a Ph.D. in Physics. Her expertise includes textiles, polymers, and composites. She is especially interested in the application of nanotechnologies, smart textiles, natural fibres, and recycled materials in personal protective equipment and other textile-based products as well as in the aging behavior of protective materials. Dr. Dolez has authored more than 100 articles in books, scientific and technical journals, and conference proceedings. She was also the editor of a book entitled “Nanoengineering: Global Approaches to Health & Safety Issues, published in 2015 by Elsevier. Olivier Vermeersch is a graduate of the ENSISA (Engineering School in Mulhouse, France) and the University of Haute Alsace in France in Textile Materials & Processes Engineering. Dr. Vermeersch has been involved in the technical textile industry since 1990 within the CTT Group, the largest R&D laboratory in Canada in the areas of technical textiles, geosynthetics, and flexible materials. He is Vice-President R&D ass well as Chairholder of the NEXTEX Industrial Chair of St-Hyacinthe College, a Canadian NSERC Level 2 Chair that focuses on 3D textiles & preforms for composites and smart textiles. He is the author of several patents, which are commercially exploited by several of his industrial partners. He was also involved in organizing several EXPO HIGHTEX editions for a decade, was co-editor-in-chief of “ The Textile Journal until 2016, and is the author of numerous technical and scientific publications. In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Excellence Award from the Fonds de recherche Nature et Technologies du Québec. Valerio Izquierdo graduated in textile engineering from the Institut Textile et Chimique de Lyon (ITECH – France) in 1998. After 3 year at the Institut Textile de France, he joined the CTT Group (St-Hyacinthe, Canada) as a project leader to pilot innovative research and development projects and laboratory testing. Valerio became lab manager for the Textile laboratories of the CTT Group in 2006 and extended his expertise in the various testing methods routinely used to assess textile performance and quality. He is now Vice-President of the Textile Laboratories and Expertise branch of the CTT Group, involved in the characterization of textile and polymeric materials for the benefit of manufacturers, distributors, and end-users. The CTT Group Textile Laboratories perform testing of various chemical and physical textile properties, as well as flame resistance, accelerated ageing, comfort parameters, toxicity, high visibility, moisture management, and Personal Protective Equipment. Valerio also sits as a leading expert on various boards emitting regulatory and specification guidelines for the industry and governing agencies
