From PFAS to Microplastics: The Rising Challenge of Emerging Contaminants

Ivy YuXia Liu is a Senior Environmental Risk Assessor with Terrapex in Canada. She has over 15 years of experience conducting human health and ecological risk assessments across Canada under provincial and federal risk assessment frameworks. Her expertise includes quantitative risk assessment, environmental site assessments, and development of risk-based benchmarks for regulatory approvals.

Ivy holds a BSc (Honours) in Environmental Science and an MSc in Earth Science (ecotoxicology and geomicrobiology) from the University of Ottawa. She is a registered Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo.) and a Qualified Person for Risk Assessment (QPRA) under Ontario, Canada provincial regulation. She is the Subject Matter Expert for 6PPD and 6PPD-quinone at Terrapex and takes a lead role in projects involving these emerging contaminants.

Jack Sheldon is a remediation expert at Antea Group with over 40 years of experience leading environmental programs and serving as technical director. He specialises in the application of bioremediation and chemical treatment technologies, with extensive experience delivering projects across all 50 U.S. states and internationally. Jack is the Site Assessment & Remediation and PFAS/Emerging Contaminant service line leader for Antea Group USA.

Jack has supported government and commercial clients on a wide range of environmental challenges, including soil, sediment, air, and groundwater contamination. His expertise includes site investigation, technology selection, and the design and oversight of remediation programmes, from pilot studies through to full-scale implementation.

Beatrice is a geotechnical geologist at HPC in Italy with a bachelor degree in environmental sciences specialized in territorial, environmental and resource management. She is an accredited Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) consultant, trainer, and auditor with a strong hydrogeological background. Her passion for resource management has come from her 18-years life experience in Africa, where the management of resources such as water and forests is in need of an imminent sustainability commitment. Beatrice has been managing, coordinating, and implementing source vulnerability assessments (SVAs) and water stewardship projects throughout Europe, Asia and Africa for multi-national brands. In her career, Beatrice has specialized in the water resource management field, having addressed a variety of different projects related to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Certification, SVAs, water risk assessments, environmental investigation and characterization plans, resilient and responsive plans for water risk mitigation as well as social projects related to WASH and stakeholder engagement. Beatrice is also on the Leadership Team for Inogen Alliance and leads the global Water Working Group.