Jules van Lier got his BSc in Biology, spec. Microbiology at Nijmegen University, The Netherlands (1985) and his MSc in Environmental Technology at Wageningen University, The Netherlands (1988). He performed his PhD on Thermophilic Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment under the supervision of Prof. Gatze Lettinga (1995), also at Wageningen University.
Between 1993 and 2005 he was senior researcher / project manager in various (inter)national research projects, working on cost-effective water treatment for resource recovery (water, nutrients, biogas, elements). Research projects are focused on closing water cycles in industries and sewage water recovery for irrigated agriculture. The further development of anaerobic treatment technology has his prime focus. He published over 200 publications in double refereed journals and conference proceedings from 1988 onwards. In October 2005 he was appointed as Professor at Wageningen University, attached to the special chair on “Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment for Reuse and Irrigation”. End of 2008 he was appointed as full professor “Environmental Engineering / Wastewater Treatment” at Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Department of Water Management, Section Sanitary Engineering.
In addition to the university work he was director of the Lettinga Associates Foundation (LeAF) form April 1997 – October 2005. LeAF is a not-for profit organization that stimulates the application of appropriate environmental technologies for environmental protection and resource conservation, with anaerobic treatment as the core technology. At present he is Executive Board Member and Scientific Advisor to the LeAF Foundation.
Jules van Lier was chairman of the Anaerobic Digestion Specialist group of the International Water Association (IWA) from 2001-2009. Recently he stepped down from this position and became regional representative for Western Europe in the same group. Other activities include (associated) editor of scientific journals like Water Science Technology and Advances in Environmental Research and development. He is also member of the Paques technological advisory commission (Paques is the world market leader in anaerobic treatment technology), and scientific Board Member of World-Waternet, Amsterdam.
Publications
A complete list of publications can be found in Google Scholar.