COVID-19 has disrupted business and tourism across India, the Asian region, and around the globe. As a result, many business and community leaders now ask: How do we prove we are a safe city? How can we reassure customers that they can confidently return to our property and have the positive and safe experience they are looking for? And how do we take preventative steps to reduce the risk of future widespread transmission in densely populated locations?
Business operations have had to change the way they manage their commercial, community, institutional, and hospitality cleaning operations, which includes a greater emphasis on protecting occupant health. Global and local healthcare communities also are making adjustments to how they address patient and staff protocols during pandemics, as well as information sharing to create early warning systems.
The ISSA Global Biorisk Symposium addresses a variety of hot topics and vital lessons emerging from recent challenges, helping identify solutions to cleaning and disinfecting in the property management worldwide with the aim to prevent future global pandemic outbreaks and create a new normal of activity once again Bring your top questions to this Symposium, where you can draw on the knowledge and experiences of top international biorisk management and cleaning experts, as well as your fellow local leaders who successfully developed answers to many of the same issues you currently face.
Join ISSA as we work together to strengthen the future of cleaning across the Indian facility market and, more importantly – the world.
Composed of international leaders in the field of microbial-pathogenic threat analysis, mitigation, response, and recovery, the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) is a Division of ISSA – the leading association in the global cleaning sector.
As an Associate Professor of Environmental, Agricultural, and Occupational Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, Mr. Lowe teaches CPH 500 Foundations of Public Health as well as the ENV 970 Doctoral Seminar in Environmental Health. In addition, his research areas of focus are in infectious disease microbiology, disaster preparedness, and environmental exposure assessment.
More specifically, Mr. Lowe's core focus is on remediation of biological weapon contamination, highly infectious patient transport, nosocomial environmental contamination, environmental sampling, and gaseous decontamination. This includes source evaluation, source tracking, and decontamination methods to reduce exposure. His research utilizes a wide array of research techniques including molecular biology, environmental microbiology, bioinformatics, and training assessment.
Mr. Lowe has a long history of ongoing projects in a wide range of environmental health topics from decontamination, highly infectious patient care, community-acquired pneumonia, as well as public health and healthcare disaster preparedness.
Specialties: Mr. Lowe has been training in the fields of epidemiology, molecular virology, environmental & occupational health, and disaster preparedness. His accomplishments and activities have established his skillset, which includes: advanced viral and bacterial molecular laboratory methods, field research methods, scientific writing, public speaking, strategic planning, group facilitation, and project management.
Dr. Macgregor-Skinner has more than 25 years of technical experience in emergency management and infectious disease surveillance and response and has worked with the U.S. and international governments, United Nations agencies, and the private sector in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Latin America. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and Director of Global Disaster Response for the BIDMC Fellowship in Disaster Medicine affiliated with Harvard Medical School.
He has appeared on CNN, BBC, Canada CTV, Australia ABC, C-SPAN, and other news outlets to share his expertise on Ebola, Influenza, Measles, Cholera, Zika outbreaks, and other global health threats. After serving in the Australian and British militaries, he was selected by the U.K. Department for International Development for its Associate Professional Officer Scheme. He learned epidemiology as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the U.S. CDC and was a global health fellow at USAID. His passion is engaging networks of experts who share knowledge and experiences to risk the global understanding of risk and safety.
Ms. Patricia (Patty) Olinger is the Executive Director of GBAC, the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, a division of ISSA. GBAC is recognized as a leader in training, education, and certification in Forensic Restoration®, Biorisk management, decontamination, and infection/contamination control disciplines.
Patty has been a champion of international Biorisk management quality programs and standards development for many years. From the conception of the international CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) 15793 in the early 2000s to the new international standard ISO 35001:2019; Biorisk Management for Laboratories and Other Related Organizations. She is the current ISO Convener for ISO TC212- WG5 that developed the new standard.
Previous to joining ISSA-GBAC, Patty was an Assistant Vice President in the Office of Research Administration and the Executive Director of the Environmental, Health and Safety Office (EHSO) at Emory University. During her 13-year tenure, EHSO had University-wide responsibility for all aspects of
Environmental, Health, and Safety support, including EHS compliance support to Emory Healthcare. This included Biosafety support to the Emory Serious Communicable Diseases Unit (SCDU), which cared for 4 Ebola patients in 2014.
Prior to joining Emory in 2006, Patty spent 21 years in the Pharmaceutical Industry, providing support to both human and animal health research, developing a true OneHealth perspective. From 2013-2018, Patty supported the Elizabeth R. Griffin Foundation (ERGF), as both a board member and leading initiatives on global Biorisk management obtaining practical experience with staff and facilities in extremely low resource environments worldwide.
Over the years Patty has served on several councils and committees including;
Ms. Olinger is a Registered Biosafety Professional, a Certified Forensic Operator, a Certified Bio-Forensic Restoration Specialist, has a BS in Biochemistry, and a Masters of Law with a focus on International Global Health. Patty has a true passion for Global Health Biorisk Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.
Swati Singh Sambyal is a renowned researcher on waste management. Swati has worked in India as well as across Global South on development issues concerning integrated waste management. Swati has done city-scale implementation projects in India on decentralized waste management in the states of Bihar (Muzaffarpur) and Himachal Pradesh. She has also worked in Zanzibar in Tanzania, eSwatini (Mbabane and Matsapha), Ethiopia, Ghana, and Namibia in bringing policy and implementation reforms and pushing for an integrated waste management approach by adopting circular solutions. She has worked extensively with governments and environmental regulatory agencies of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh on projects related to environmental compliance, impact assessment, waste, and waste-water management. She has been a part of the National Geographic forum on the circular economy. Swati is trained at Swedish EPA, Stockholm, and Norwegian EPA, Oslo on environmental governance and planning. She is presently associated as a Waste Management Specialist with UNHABITAT India looking after projects in India and Global South. She has worked as the head of a program on Municipal Solid Waste at New Delhi-based environment policy and advocacy organization, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) for over 9 years. She has been a part of national and international advisory boards on solid waste management.
Dr. Aditya Bahadur is a Principal Researcher in the Human Settlements Group at the International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK. Previously he served as the Regional Programme Development Manager with the DFID funded Action on Climate Today Programme based at Oxford Policy Management. He has 12 years of experience in research, evaluation, and practice of DRR, climate change, and development. He has published widely on these issues including in highly regarded academic journals. His work has been cited by the IPCC; it has informed DfID’s approach to disaster resilience, and it has also influenced BOND’s (the nodal network of UK INGOs) and the concept of resilience. He served as the Research Coordinator of the DFID's BRACED Programme (one of the world's
largest community level resilience-building initiatives, running in 9 countries).
In the past, Dr. Bahadur has worked on projects for AusAID, DfID, IFAD, the Hewlett Foundation, the Shell Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, ActionAid, UNISDR, UNESCAP, UNICEF, Christian Aid, and the Institute of Development Studies. Notably, Dr. Bahadur has substantial experience in examining development problems in urban areas- not only is his Ph.D. research located in the urban context, but he has also undertaken research on climate and disaster impacts in urban areas for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Asian Development Bank, and the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.
He completed his undergraduate studies at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University and has an MA and a Ph.D. in Development Studies (focus on climate change resilience) from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. He completed his Postdoctoral Research at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York where he wrote a book on urbanization and resilience. Aditya has also undertaken periods of study in Hungary, Denmark, and Thailand.
Aditya was granted a Fellowship by the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) in 2014 and the World Social Science Fellowship in 2015. He was Research Fellow at ODI and is now an ODI Research Associate. He has been awarded the Fulbright-Kalam Postdoctoral Climate Fellowship in 2018.
Dr. Raman R. Gangakhedkar, retired head of epidemiology and communicable diseases at ICMR, the apex health research body has joined the prestigious Dr. CG Pandit National Chair at ICMR.
During his tenure, Dr. Gangakhedkar had become the face of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) during government briefings to media on the coronavirus pandemic. He updated journalists on research developments related to COVID-19 by breaking down complex scientific data to make them easier for the general public to understand.
A thinker, researcher, and scientist, he also played an important role in the research on HIV/AIDS and made significant contributions to developing national policies and patient empowerment.
Dr. Gangakhedkar was the director-in charge of the National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune, before he moved to the ICMR headquarters in Delhi.
During his approximately four-year stint with ICMR, he was instrumental in the formulation of policies to handle the Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala in 2018 and recently for the COVID-19 pandemic.
He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2020, - the fourth highest civilian award in India -for his service and his research on HIV/AIDS.
Madhav Pai is the Executive Director of WRI India Ross Center. He spearheads a large urbanization policy research and prototyping support program that informs key areas of India’s urban growth story. For the last two decades, Madhav has led, designed, and implemented urban programs and projects, across continents, in over a dozen countries.
Madhav is a systems thinker and combines his academic training in engineering and transport planning, with his acumen to find systemic solutions to complex and wicked urban problems. India’s urbanization challenges are the key research focus of Madhav’s exploration. He joined WRI India in 2008 and has pioneered several new, and innovative methods to overcome barriers to the implementation of environmentally and financially sustainable infrastructure.
Madhav has mentored senior researchers at WRI India, in building a sustainable, low carbon, and resilient prototypes for Indian cities which can be further scaled across the country. He has led several projects around emerging urbanism ideas such as the use of tactical urbanism and public campaigns around pedestrian/social infrastructure, geospatial, and other big data analytics to create data-driven conversations and innovation challenges/competitions to address service delivery challenges. Notable successes include project design and implementation of Indore BRT, Mumbai Street Lab, the Raahgiri campaign for democratizing public streets, and solution design for last-mile connectivity, cleantech, etc.
Under his leadership, the team has also informed several policy discussions, at the national-, state-, and city-level, on road safety, urban transport, transit-oriented development, electric mobility, urban and regional planning, and clean air. Today, WRI India Ross Center engages 100+ professionals in offices across India and supports over 50 Indian cities.
Madhav is a published author and has written several research papers for renowned journals, articles, and books on urban transport, urban planning, resilience, and clean air. He is a civil engineer from Mumbai and holds a master’s in Transport Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.
Madhav lives in Mumbai with his wife Chaya and their daughter Ahilya. He is often seen bicycling with Ahilya on the streets of Mumbai. He is a believer in public transport, loves green open spaces, and credits his interest in urban planning to the constant loss of playgrounds, to buildings, that he witnessed growing up, and his regular commutes on Mumbai’s suburban trains.
With a professional experience of over 51 yrs in Architecture, Urban Planning, Architectural Education, Policy Planning, Planning Legislation, he has been a Team leader Srinagar Master Plan, Team Leader World Bank Project, CADS, Gujarat -4 cities, Senior Consultant, Six Master Plans of Punjab; Member Advisory Committee, Chandigarh Master Plan 2030.
He has Authored over 300 technical papers, written e-Books- Making Cities a Great Place to Live; Planning and Designing For the State of Art Healthcare Facilities- Brief Overview and Suggested Framework and has contributed articles in 8 Books. He has held important positions in various professional bodies like CII, Indian Institute of Architects, etc.
He has held Guest lectures at 6 Universities in the USA/China; SAARC Kathmandu / Bhutan; Past- Director, College of Architecture, IET Bhaddal, and also a guest faculty in many universities and colleges all over India.
His educational qualifications include B.Arch ( PU-69); Master in City and Regional Planning( GNDU Amritsar- Gold Medallist-74); Master in Public Administration(PU-78), LLB( PU-77); Advance Diploma Gandhian Philosophy( PU-Gold Medallist), Advance Diploma in Urban Management( Birmingham University-UK)
He is Chief Scientist & Head, Health and Toxicity Cell at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, under the aegis of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, GOI.
With over 28 years of research experience, he has so far been involved in over 40 research and consultancy projects. From air pollution, climate change and health-related research projects, sponsored research projects on mitigation/sequestration of CO2 vis a vis product development, his special interests include developing new monitoring technologies for air pollution exposure assessment studies study the impact of air pollution on climate change and health.
He is actively involved in environmental and industrial toxicology, environmental monitoring, exposure assessment, and health risk assessment, mitigation of GHG using microbial system vis a vis value addition in biofuel, pharmaceuticals, and food products, etc.
With 90 publications in various National and International journals, presented papers in about 120 National and International conferences, he also has three international patents to his credit. He was guided to 20 Ph.D. students, 25 PG students(Science & Engineering), and reviewed 15 Ph.D. & 15 M.Tech Thesis.
After completing his Masters's degree in Environmental Toxicology from Dr.A.L.M Post Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (Madras University), Chennai, and doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in Biochemistry from RTM Nagpur University Nagpur, India, he had been variously serving at CSIR-NEERI since September 1995.
Dr. Ramdas Bhattacharya, a retired Outstanding Scientist and former Vice Chairman of Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) of Government of India joined the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO), Tokyo Centre in November 2016 and served till recently as Executive Senior Advisor and served as an international expert in leadership and safety review of nuclear power plants in
various countries.
As Chairman, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Committee on Chemical Safety, he also served as a member of the Technical Committee of National Disaster Management Authority, Government of India. He was a member of the Environmental Clearance Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests for nuclear and other strategic facilities. He served as Jury Chairman for UBM Safety Awards. He is an expert in chemical safety and Risk Assessment, Environmental safety, industrial, and fire safety.
Dr. Bhattacharya is a graduate in Chemical Engineering, Post Graduate in Ecology and a Ph.D. in Risk Assessment and has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management. Environment. Having served in various capacities for 33 years in
India is a professional in the Nuclear Engineering field, and later as a regulator for the safety of nuclear and radiation facilities both for operating and under-construction units.
Dr. Bhattacharya has many papers to his credit published in national and international conferences/journals.
Vivek Mata is the Managing Director of Charnock Equipments Pvt.Ltd - the leading company in Cleaning equipment in the country. He also has other business interests such as food and consulting. He is and has been an active member of a few social organizations as well.
Vivek Mata has done his graduation from St.Xaviers College in Calcutta and then did his MBA from IIM - Calcutta. He specialized in sales and marketing and well know in the industry for his marketing skills.
At present, he is fully involved in his cleaning and food business with 13 offices across the country and further expanding.
Rajeev Karwal is the founder Chairman of Milagrow Robots – India’s No.1 Consumer and Commercial Service Robots. He is a renowned management thinker and professional. Acknowledged as an ethical leader in the Indian industry, he is also considered as a leading brand builder in India. He has made great contributions in his previous roles at LG (Director Sales & Marketing), Philips (Managing Director, Consumer Electronics), Electrolux (Managing Director – India Region), Reliance Digital (Founding President & CEO).
Awards and Accolades Received:
He is an MBA from IMT Ghaziabad and in 2005 when IMT instituted the award of the Most Distinguished Alumni in its 25th year, Mr. Karwal was the 1st recipient. He is also on the Governing Board of the IMT group.
He was the President of CEAMA, an association for consumer electronics and home appliances industry in India, from 1999 to 2002 and has been on the National Council of CII and FICCI multiple times. He was one of the founder members of Young Indians at CII.
His book, 'Corporate Blogging in India' was released in 2008.
He founded Milagrow Robots in 2007 which is the undisputed leader in Consumer and Commercial Service Robots in India.
Welcome Address and Keynote Speakers.
This panel discussion will share recent regional and international lessons learned for developing strategies to identify and address biorisk. The experts will discuss:
Cities across the world have been majorly impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, causing many to come to a standstill. The need for preventative measures puts a spotlight on city planning and what role human settlements can play in offering more manageable and sustainable solutions.
From better water, air quality, and sanitation measures to transportation and occupancy controls, learn what steps experts are evaluating to evolve a safer society. While access to clean water and sanitation is a necessary human right, the emphasis now is how they can protect the overall health of a society and lead to faster recovery from disease outbreaks.
This session will address the challenges and opportunities for developing sanitation priorities during and post COVID-19.
Gain insights from real-world case studies of how businesses successfully returned to work after COVID-19 lockdowns, creating much-needed employee and customer confidence. This session will get back to the basics of creating and maintaining an effective cleaning, disinfection, and infectious disease prevention program to ensure you are able to recover business and kick-start your local economy.
An already strained healthcare system in a densely populated center can face even greater challenges when handling a mass pandemic scenario. Learn practical measures to help overcome obstacles and provide the best possible care for highly infectious patients as well as protection for health care workers.
Whether facing community-acquired pneumonia, common cold, and flu, Ebola, or the current SARS-COV 2, discover the basics of biorisk management in the healthcare environment based on the practical experience of the Global Center for Health Security and the top US biocontainment and quarantine units.
From the patient’s path through a health care facility, to waste handling and disposal, PPE donning and doffing, decontamination, and patient discharge and remains handling, medical professionals and administrators need to be prepared to minimize cross-contamination risk to patients and healthcare workers. In doing so, they can reduce the chances that the outbreak will spread within the health care environment. This requires collaboration between healthcare workers, infection prevention professionals, and the environmental services and facility management staff for a holistic approach.
It has become increasingly easy for local disease outbreaks to become international epidemics, making the timely exchange of information between local and international agencies critical in biorisk management.
Traditional and existing public health surveillance systems are largely inadequate to the task of relaying information quickly. The Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) is an informal surveillance system that uses advanced technology to provide an early warning about potential public health threats to the international community. This panel will discuss what you need to know about GPHIN and other options for continuously monitoring worldwide information, identifying potential threats, and identifying proven control measures to swiftly employ for higher success rates.
The recent pandemic has underscored the need for continued improvements in waste management approaches within India and greater Asia. What once was a focus on reducing the risk that unchecked waste could lead to public health hazards now has taken an added sense of importance for the safe removal of biological contaminants during disease outbreaks.
The experts will discuss the current trends in improving waste management, as well as new and emerging technologies addressing the long and short-term challenges. Discover how robotics and
other state-of-the-art cleaning equipment and solutions can help all stakeholders, from individual facilities to their greater communities, improve standards of living, and reduce the spread of infection.
Sponsoring the ISSA Global Biorisk Symposium is a perfect opportunity to showcase your products and services to key decision-makers within the industry, whilst raising your company's profile, building brand awareness, and positioning your company as a leading player in the industry.
Contact us today to find out how you can get your company in front of key stakeholders throughout the worldwide cleaning industry.
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