Biography

S. Rtimi is a microbiologist with a strong background in photochemistry and materials engineering. He was awarded a PhD in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) and a Doctorate in Biological Sciences (environmental microbiology). He is investigating novel materials for microbial inactivation and emergent pollutants degradation. He started his career working on hospital wastewater treatment by solar photocatalysis. His work focuses on the development of fast antibacterial catalytic/photocatalytic ultra-thin films and the mechanistic considerations behind their reactivity. He is expert in coupling semiconductor nanostructures to degrade microbial and chemical pollutants at the solid-air and the solid-water interfaces. He published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, patent, numerous book-chapters and presented communications at international meetings. His work involves (i) photo-assisted bacterial inactivation on thin film surfaces, (ii) self-sterilizing and self-cleaning surfaces for public areas and hospital facilities, (iii) materials' chemistry using up-to-date surface science techniques, and recently (iv) the possible interactions between nanoparticles and mammalian/cancer cells. He was invited scientist at the University of Rennes (France), Russian Academy of Science (Russian Federation), Techno-pole Borj-Cedria (Tunisia), Jyothy Institute of Technology (Bengaluru, India) and other universities. Sami supervised undergraduate, Master, post-graduates and PhD students. Sami is reviewer for international peer reviewed journals, editor (books and journals) and guest-edited some special issues. He is also an international grants reviewer. Actually, he is Director of innovation at the Global Institute for Water, Environment and Health (Geneva, Switzerland).