An engineering graduate from Ghent University (Belgium, 1998), Hans Saveyn started his professional career at ExxonMobil, before taking up an academic research position in the field of wastewater and sludge treatment. After obtaining his PhD, he became assistant professor at his alma mater and visiting research fellow at the University of Delaware (USA) and the CNRS (France). In October 2010, he joined the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. At the JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (Seville, Spain), he has been managing a wide range of projects related to end-of-waste, recycling and resource optimization as well as the review of the Best Available Techniques Reference document (BREF) on the management of waste from the extractive industries.