Juan Manuel Garrido Fernández is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), affiliated with the Higher Technical School of Engineering. He leads the BIOGROUP research team focused on Environmental Biotechnology within the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS). His academic career includes a PhD in Chemistry-Chemical Engineering (1996) and a degree in Industrial Chemistry (1991), both from USC. He has completed research stays at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) and the Centre International Sur L'Eau et L'Environment (France). His research emphasizes wastewater treatment technologies, particularly membrane bioreactors (MBRs) , anaerobic processes , and nitrogen/phosphorus recovery . Key projects involve optimizing MBR systems for treating urban/industrial effluents, enriching N-damo bacteria for methane/nitrogen removal, and developing struvite crystallization for phosphorus recovery. He collaborates with companies like Aqualia and AECID. Recent work addresses emerging contaminants (microplastics, antibiotic resistance) and low-impact wastewater treatment. He teaches courses on Chemical Reactors , Environmental Technology , and Advanced Wastewater Treatment at the undergraduate and master's levels. Supervised 4 PhD and 7+ master's students. His funding includes European projects (LIFE SIAMEC) and national grants (PID2022-141203OB-I00). Publications focus on bioprocess optimization, membrane fouling, and microbial community analysis. He holds patents for MBR systems and struvite processes. Current lab initiatives explore metabolic pathways in N-damo communities and decentralized wastewater treatment solutions.





