The Dean of the School of Biological Sciences and Engineering of Yachay Tech University will hold the 5th SOLABIAA Congress in Quito

Spiros Agathos, Dean of the School of Biological Sciences and Engineering, was appointed Ambassador of Quito on Thursday, October 26, 2017, during a ceremony organized by Quito Turismo. Such appointment was granted to him as part of a program that seeks to promote Meetings Tourism in the city. The event welcomed Minister of Tourism Enrique Ponce de Leon, Vice Minister Carlos Larrea Crespo and Secretary of the Productive Development of the Municipality of Quito, Alvaro Maldonado, among others. Spiros Agathos was awarded with this recognition for being the Chairman of the SOLABIAA Congress, which will take place in Quito in November 2018.

The Congress hopes to gather around 300 guests from Latin America and the rest of the world. This itinerant event promotes coexistence between Latin-American academic and company’s communities, allowing the exchange of experiences and knowledge related to common problems in the areas of Environmental Biotechnology, Algal Biotechnology and Cleaner and Sustainable Bioprocesses. SOLABIAA has been organizing this event since 2008 and this will be the fifth edition.

SOLABIAA gathers Latin American academics in the fields of research and development of environmental and algal biotechnology. This is an essential approach to connect efforts of the academia with the needs of the industry and society in areas related to bioremediation and the environment, and the application of biotechnology in Latin American industry. Spiros Agathos has extensive experience in the use of algae for biotechnological research and in the investigation of bioremediation methods for the industry. A clear example of this is one of his most cited articles, which describes the use of fungal enzymes for the purification of toxic pollution in wastewater of industrial activity as a means of environmental bioremediation.