Keynote Speakers

Erich Shaw

Tikun Olam – Hebrew for "repairing the world" is cornerstone in Erich's philosophy in life. Israel's lack of water required using every drop, including marginal water quality resources. From the beginning of Erich's professional career in 1982 until today his forte has been transforming polluted waters to water that can be used for various applications mainly for agriculture. His professional background includes a bachelor's and master's degree in civil and environmental engineering respectively at the Technion – Israel's premier University. He has been involved in the development and the design of a vast array of engineering solutions (at all stages - masterplans, general and detailed design) with marginal surface waters, ground waters, and wastewater mainly to be used for agricultural applications. These include – filtration plants, creating specific ecosystems in large reservoirs that prevent harmful algae growth, preventing phytopathogens in water systems, iron and H2S removal plants, brackish desalination, advanced wastewater treatment plants (with primary, secondary, and tertiary phases), biological treatment for inorganic contaminate removal and others. He has worked on hundreds of unique systems for large scale operating systems ranging from 100 m3/hr to 25,000 m3/hr in over 18 countries on five continents.  His career including working for water supply companies (e.g., Mekorot Israel's National Water Company, various water associations in Israel, EPAL Portugal etc.), international and governmental institutes (e.g., World Bank, Israel Water Authority, W-SMART etc.), design companies in Israel (e.g., Tahal, Agat Engineering, Baran etc.) and with various private companies in Africa (Guinea, Angola etc.) and Asia (China, India, etc.)  that include working on developing Agro-Parks using marginal waters.