Environmental Biotechnology is an emerging field of scientific and technological investigations that is truly global. People around the world are now joined together by a common technical bond. Furthermore, popular recognition is high for the environmental problems being faced and solved by biotechnology methods. With a feeling of winning, but recognizing there is much work to be done, workers with in-depth experience in solving one problem in environmental biotechnology meet to learn from the background of other workers how they, too, are addressing and solving environmental problems. This text includes papers from the third biennial meeting of the International Society for Environmental Biotechnology, the ISEB, held in Boston, Massachusetts, on the campus of Northeastern University. Technical oral presentations of state-of-the-art research were integrated with tutorials and workshops by practising technologists in the broad field of environmental biotechnology. This meeting was in every respect truly global. For example, presentations were heard from technical workers in Southeast Asia, Russia, China, Europe, North Africa, India, and the United States. By having these selected presenters, all participants benefited from this interactive symposium. Various persons of political stature were the keynote, banquet, and luncheon speakers; these social events further promoted informal exchange of ideas, discussions of technical problems, and exploration of new applications. This international symposium on environmental biotechnology was held on the campus of Northeastern University, but all Boston area universities were included and participated as conference Co-Chairs. This symposium was considered a success because workers with experience in one area of environmental biotechnology learned from the wealth of established backgrounds of those in other areas of environmental biotechnology. To formally disseminate conference results, all technical presentations were reviewed for formal publication.

The 52 papers report on efforts to solve environmental problems with biotechnology in the broad areas of mine drainage, removal, and toxicity of metals; waste treatment and monitoring; integrated systems; bioremediation; water quality; biodegradation; and local, national, and international issues. The specific topics include a respirometric protocol to evaluate acute microbial inhibition in activated sludge, applying nitrate as an alternative electron acceptor for remediating contaminated sites, bench scale investigations of the effects of biosurfactants on the bioavailability of hydrocarbon contaminants, prospects for the commercial adoption of new heavy metal bioremediation technologies, treating oily soil with microbes in the laboratory, accelerated coffee pulp composting, the biosorption of heavy metals by Aspergillus niger, genetic engineering and its potential for mercury bioremediation, and the detection of heavy metal ion resistance in lead-resistant bacteria. No index.
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