Call for submissions for a Springer Nature Group collection dedicated to the development of effective and sustainable approaches to mitigate the environmental impact of oil spills

The Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB) invites you to send original research into techniques that help develop effective and sustainable approaches to mitigate the environmental impact of oil spills and restore affected ecosystems for a dedicated collection.

The collection “Bioremediation of oil spills” supports and amplifies research related to SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation and will be published by Springer Nature Group.

Contamination of environments with oil can have devastating effects. The removal of oil spills using biological processes can be one solution to degrade and remove oil contaminants from the environment. Studies investigate the use of naturally occurring or genetically engineered microorganisms to break down hydrocarbons in soil, water, and sediments. Alternative methods such as bioaugmentation, where specific microbes are introduced to enhance degradation can be used to alter existing microbial communities and enhance their bioremediation activities. Additionally, the use of biosurfactants and immobilization strategies to improve the efficiency of bioremediation processes is a key area of focus.

More info regarding submission guidelines and deadlines is available here.

The collection “Bioremediation of oil spills” is coordinated by professors Ahmed M. Abdel-Azeem, Gargi Goswami and Pankaj Kumar.

Ahmed Abdel-Azeem is a full professor of mycology at the Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University in Egypt and guest professor at the University of Bucharest, Romania. Abdel-Azeem is particularly interested in ecology, taxonomy, biology, secondary metabolites, bioremediation and biosorption by fungi, endophytes, climate change & fungal biodiversity and conservation, with a particular focus on members of the phylum Ascomycota. Prof. Ahmed Abdel-Azeem has been working as an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports since 2024.

Gargi Goswami is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Life Sciences at the Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (Deemed to be University) in Visakhapatnam, India. Her research focuses on the sustainable production of biomass, biofuels, high-value metabolites, and carbon dioxide sequestration. With expertise in fermentation technology, process optimization, scale-up, and downstream processing, her work primarily targets biomass-to-bioenergy and waste-to-energy solutions. Dr. Gargi Goswami has been working as an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports since 2024.

Pankaj Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the School of Environmental Science, Maa Shakumbhari University, Saharanpur, India, and a Senior Researcher at Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, India. He has eight years of research experience, during which he has conducted research into the production of bioenergy from waste biomass and the remediation of contaminants in the environment, including soil, air, and water. Dr. Kumar has been working as an Editorial Board Member of Scientific Reports since 2024.