Emerging Contaminants in the Terrestrial-Aquatic-Atmosphere Continuum

Dr. Willis Gwenzi is a Professor of biosystems and environmental engineering at the University of Zimbabwe. He researches on environmental remediation, environmental hydrology, water/wastewater treatment, emerging contaminants, antibiotic resistance, medical geology, environmental epidemiology, and novel (bio)materials. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles. His seminal papers on biochar-based water treatment systems and high-technology rare earth elements as emerging contaminants have been rated as Highly Cited and Hot papers in 2019 by the Web of Science. He has supervised several postgraduate students in bioenvironmental system engineering. He is a regular manuscript reviewer for top international journals. He has also acted as an external reviewer for grant proposals for the UK’s NERC, Canada’s MITACS, Chile’s FONDECYT, and the Austrian Science Foundation. He holds the following qualifications: PhD (biosystems and environmental engineering, University of Western Australia), MSc (water resources engineering and management), BSc honors (soil science), and postgraduate certificate (applied groundwater modeling).

• Section A - Introduction to emerging contaminants1. Emerging contaminants: A handful of conceptual and organizing frameworks2. Emerging contaminants in the terrestrial-aquatic-atmosphere continuum: A global perspectiveSection B - Emerging contaminants in terrestrial systems3. High-technology rare earth elements in the soil system: Occurrence, behaviour, and fate4. (Micro)plastics in the soil system: Occurrence, behaviour, fate, and future directionsSection C - Emerging contaminants in aquatic systems4. Occurrence and behaviour of emerging organic contaminants in aquatic systems5. Anthropogenic rare earth elements in aquatic environments: Occurrence, behaviour, and fate6. Microplastics in aquatic systems: Research focal areas, understudied matrices, and future research needs7. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in aquatic systems: Occurrence, behaviour, and fateSection D - Emerging contaminants in atmospheric systems8. Air-borne emerging contaminants: An under-studied reservoir and a potential health risk?9. Occurrence, behaviour, and fate of airborne microplasticsSection E - Ecological health risks10. Ecological health risks of hightechnology rare earth elements11. Ecological health risks of antibiotic resistance: A perspective on the evidence, challenges, and research needs12. Ecological health risks of emerging organic contaminants13. Occurrence and ecological health risks of microplasticsSection F - Human health risks14. Rare earth elements: Human exposure, risk factors, and health risks15. Occurrence, human exposure pathways, and health risks of microplastics16. The environmental resistome: Human exposure, health risks, and research needsSection G - Risk assessment and mitigation17. Assessment and mitigation of pollution and health risks of emerging contaminants: A call for an integrated approach18. Emerging contaminants: Approaches for policy and regulatory responses in low-income countries19. Remediation technologies for contaminated soil systems20. Bio- and chemical surfactants for remediation of emerging organic contaminantsSection H - The research agenda21. Ten (10) key research questions on emerging contaminants and novel entities, and their health risks22. Emerging contaminants: Epilogue, next-frontier novel entities, and a look ahead