Prof. Venko Beschkov, PhD, DSc, was born in 1946 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He received his PhD in 1978 and his DSc degree in 1996 at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His present interests are chemical and biochemical processes for environment protection and for the utilization of renewable energy sources. He participates in 30 scientific projects and in 18 applied ones. He has published over 210 scientific papers, 4 chapters in EOLSS (the on-line encyclopedia on life science systems), 9 chapters on selected issues, and has had 2 monographs published, 2 books on specialized topics compiled and edited, and over 1800 citations noted. He has been Head of the Institute of Chemical Engineering at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences for 21 years (1993/2014) and deputy-minister of the environment (1991/92).