Gijs Du Laing

Position/title: 
associate professor
Institution: 
Ghent University (UGent)
Faculty: 
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Department: 
Department of Analytical & Applied Physical Chemistry
Personal/department website
Research interests: 
trace elements
metals
micronutrients
technology-critical elements
recycling
recovery
speciation
Short CV / biography / description of scientific focus and achievements: 

Gijs Du Laing was appointed associate professor at the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry and Applied Ecochemistry of Ghent University (Belgium) in 2009, where he also received his MSc degree in Bioscience Engineering in 2000 and a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences in 2007. His research focuses on the chemistry of trace elements in the environment and human health, with a particular focus on trace element speciation. Recent research projects focus on the fate of micronutrients, heavy metals and metallic nanoparticles in sediments and natural and constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, use of nanotechnology in environmental remediation, environmental fate and recovery of technology-critical elements, and the fate of trace elements in the gastrointestinal tract. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers and has a h-index of 21. He currently coordinates the Marie Curie European Joint Doctorate Programme on Sustainable Product, Energy and Resource Recovery from Wastewater (SuPER-W, www.superw.ugent.be ). Moreover, he is academic coordinator of the international Erasmus Mundus joint master programme on Environmental Technology and Engineering IMETE (www.imete.ugent.be) and a new international joint master programme on Sustainable and Innovative Natural Resource Management SINReM (www.sinrem.ugent.be), funded by EIT Raw Materials.

Relevant publications: 
Folens, K., Van Hulle, S., Vanhaecke, F., Du Laing, G. (in press). Chemical fractionation and speciation modelling for optimization of ion-exchange processes to recover palladium from industrial wastewater (in press). Water Science & Technology, doi: 10.2166/wst.2016.007 .
Nicomel, N.R., Leus, K., Folens, K., Van Der Voort, P., Du Laing, G. (2016). Technologies for Arsenic Removal from Water: Current Status and Future Perspectives. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 13, 62.
Melak, F., Du Laing, G., Ambelu, A., Alemayehu, E. (2016). Application of freeze desalination for chromium (VI) removal from water. Desalination, 377, 23-27.
Van Koetsem, F., Geremew, T.T., Wallaert, E., Verbeken, K., Van der Meeren, P. & Du Laing, G. (2015). Fate of engineered nanomaterials in surface water: factors affecting interactions of Ag and CeO2 nanoparticles with (re)suspended sediments. Ecological Engineering, 80, 140-150.
Blondeel, E., Chys, M., Depuydt, V., Folens, K., Du Laing, G., Verliefde, A., Van Hulle, S. (2014). Leaching behaviour of different scrap materials at recovery and recycling companies : full-, pilot- and lab-scale investigation. Waste Management, 34, 2674-2686.
Van de Moortel, A.M.K., Du Laing, G., De Pauw, N., Tack, F.M.G. (2012). The role of the litter compartment in a constructed floating wetland. Ecological Engineering, 39, 71-80.