Keynote speakers

Francesco Fatone

We are pleased to announce Professor Francesco Fatone as the Keynote Speaker of the ICID 2026 Congress, under the theme "Water and agricultural resilience in the face of climate change", to be held in Marseille, France, from 12 to 17 October 2026.

Professor Fatone is Professor of Chemical-Environmental Engineering, Polytechnic University of Marche (Italy) and Visiting Professor, Imperial College London (UK). Professor Fatone is internationally recognised for his work on innovative water and wastewater treatment, safe water reuse, resource recovery, circular economy and urban-industrial symbiosis. He has coordinated and led numerous large-scale European research and innovation actions and actively supports environmental policies and institutional decision-making.

In the field of water reuse, he serves as Water Europe representative in the European Commission CIS Water Reuse Expert Group, is Senior Advisor to the Italian National Commissioner on Wastewater Treatment and Reuse, and is scientific lead for several full-scale water reuse risk-management plants.

His keynote is titled “Safe water reuse turns risk management into opportunity” and it will explore recent scientific advances and the transition of water reuse systems from pilot and demonstration projects to full-scale implementation. It will address health and environmental risk management, while assessing current technological, legal and organisational readiness levels, with a particular focus on agricultural applications and territorial integration.

This keynote will be within the framework of Question 68 – Non-conventional water (REUSE, desalination): can we really loosen the grip on the resource and for what uses ?