Essaid Bilal is a Professor and Research Director at the Chemical Process Engineering Centre of Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Saint Etienne. He holds a PhD degree in Geochemistry from the same institution. He has published 210 scientific articles in international journals; 230 communications in congresses; and 66 confidential industrial project reports. He was the General Manager (2006-2009) of i3; Instituto Internacional de Inovação alias Heliopolis Institute, Florianopolis, Brazil and the Senior Vice-President of R&D OCP GROUP (Fertilizer industry) (2015-2017). Professor Bilal has frequently evaluated research proposals for the EC and for the national foundations of several countries (Canada, Brazil, France, etc.). He is an editorial board member of 4 peer-reviewed internationals journals and has reviewed papers for more than 40 international journals. He is a member of several learned societies: the New York Academy of Sciences (since 1999); the Regional Center for Major Industrial Accident Prevention and Environmental Partnership for Mining (EPM) of Romania (since 2002); the scientific council of the OCP group (Morocco); Permanent Honor of the Economic Geology Society of Romania (2002); the expert committee of Agence Europe Education Formation France, European programs: Leonardo da Vinci, Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus and Technology Transfer; and the Expert Evaluation Committee of Thomson Reuters and Times Higher Education: World University Rankings.