The presentation highlights the emerging partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the Dnipro University of Technology (DUT) aimed at advancing research and innovation in green technologies and land phytoremediation. It outlines Ukraine’s urgent environmental challenges caused by warfare, including soil contamination, degradation, and loss of fertility. The talk introduces modern phytotechnologies and vermiculture-based approaches developed at DUT for the reclamation of mining and war-damaged lands. Special attention is given to the development of biohumus composite briquettes and plant-based remediation systems for heavy metal and hydrocarbon removal. The presentation concludes with an action plan for joint research, academic collaboration, and grant partnerships under the BridgeUSA Program for Resilience and Reconstruction.
Oleksandr Kovrov is a Professor of the Department of Ecology and Technologies of Environmental Protection at Dnipro University of Technology. He is a specialist in the field of environmental technologies, phytoremediation of degraded and contaminated lands, water and wastewater treatment, and numerical modelling of slopes and landslides.
From October 15 to November 11, REEEC is hosting Professor Oleksandr Kovrov, a faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Technologies of Environmental Protection at Dnipro University of Technology, in Ukraine as part of the BridgeUSA Ukrainian Academic Fellows Program (UAFP), an exchange initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by the American Councils for International Education. The program's long-term goal is to help Ukrainian universities educate and train professionals critical to the country's recovery and reconstruction through lasting, productive collaboration with U.S. institutions of higher education.