Diederik Rousseau

Position/title: 
assistant professor
Institution: 
Ghent University (UGent)
Department: 
Industrial Biological Sciences
Personal/department website
Research interests: 
natural treatment systems
applied aquatic ecology
constructed wetlands
waste stabilization ponds
algae
Short CV / biography / description of scientific focus and achievements: 

Diederik Rousseau graduated in 1999 as a bio-engineer specialized in environmental engineering from Ghent University, Belgium, and obtained in 2005 a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences from the same university with a dissertation on “Optimisation of model-based design and operation of constructed wetlands”.

Between 2005 and 2011, he worked as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, The Netherlands. There he was co-responsible for the Masters Programme in Environmental Science, and conducting research in the field of Natural Systems for Wastewater Treatment, all with a focus on water issues in developing countries.

In 2011 he returned to Belgium, to the University College West-Flanders which was integrated into Ghent University in 2013. He is now a professor in Environmental Sciences at Ghent University, and coordinator of the Master of Science in Engineering Technology – option Environmental Engineering.

Prof. Rousseau's main expertise is natural systems for wastewater treatment, in particular constructed treatment wetlands and waste stabilization ponds, with a strong focus on the optimization of ecotechnologies’ performance by means of experimental set-ups as well as model-based design. His own research as well as the results by numerous MSc and PhD fellows under his supervision has resulted in a large number of publications, among others 38 peer-reviewed SCI-noted papers, 8 book chapters and 39 papers in proceedings of international conferences. He is a regular reviewer for various journals, founding organizer of the WETPOL symposium series and has been a member of several conference Scientific Committees.

Relevant publications: 
SHI W., L. WANG, D.P.L. ROUSSEAU and P.N.L. LENS (2010). Removal of estrone, 17<alpha>-ethinylestradiol and 17ß-estradiol in Algae and Duckweed Based Wastewater Treatment Systems. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 17(4), 824-33.
GARCIA J., D.P.L. ROUSSEAU, J. MORATO, E. LESAGE, V. MATAMOROS and J.M. BAYONA (2010). Contaminant removal processes in subsurface flow constructed wetlands, Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 40(7), 561-661.
SAH, L., D.P.L. ROUSSEAU, C.M. HOOIJMANS and P.N.L. Lens (2011). 3D model for a secondary facultative pond. Ecological Modelling, 222, 1592-1603.
SEKOMO C.B., D.P.L. ROUSSEAU, S.A. SALEH and P.N.L. LENS (2012). Heavy metal removal in duckweed and algae ponds as a polishing step for textile wastewater treatment. Ecological Engineering, 44, 102-110.
MBURU N., D.P.L. ROUSSEAU, J.J.A. VAN BRUGGEN, G. THUMBI, E. LLORENS, J. GARCIA, P.N.L. LENS (2013). Reactive transport simulation in a tropical horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland treating domestic wastewater. Science of the Total Environment, 449, 309–319.