Professor – Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Auckland
Naresh Singhal is an environmental engineer passionate about water and wastewater quality and treatment technologies. He holds an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay, a master's degree from Louisiana State University, and a PhD from Princeton University. Since 1996, Naresh has been a member of the University of Auckland, serving in various roles, including Associate Dean (Postgraduate) in the Faculty of Engineering, a member of the Faculty Staffing Committee in the Engineering and Science Faculties, Program Director for the Master of Engineering Studies (Environmental) and Master of Engineering (Environmental) programs, and the Founding Director of the Water Research Institute.
He has received grants from the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Marsden Fund and the NZ Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment’s Endeavour Fund. He is passionate about research, teaching and service to the community. His current interests revolve around climate change, particularly regarding antimicrobial resistance development and emerging environmental contaminants, greenhouse gas emissions from treatment processes, and resource recovery from sewage. He has authored over 152 publications and made several invited keynote speeches. He actively contributes to the professional activities of the International Water Association, Water New Zealand, and Engineering New Zealand.
” Professor – Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland “
In this lecture, I cover some of humanity’s biggest challenges and my perspective on leadership required to address these through my contributions, core values, and leadership development. I share our research motivation for understanding microbial functions in the environment using various multi-omics techniques. These insights have enabled us to assess antimicrobial development in the environment, connect wastewater process operations to eliminating emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals and develop ways of reducing nitrous oxide emissions. I also highlight the potential of wastewater as a valuable source of biochemicals and our recent efforts to study how natural waterbodies respond to our changing climate. Lastly, I draw inspiration from stories told to me by my father and some of today’s influential leaders to emphasise the important role youth and academia play in our society.