A short term course on "Bioremediation for Environmental Sustainability" under the Global Initiative for Academic Networks (GIAN) Programme of MHRD, GoI, will be held in the Department of Chemical Engg. at NITK Surathkal during 11^th -15^th August 2018 and is being coordinated by Prof. Vidya Shetty K.  Prof. Pedro J. J. Alvarez, the George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University  and Director of the National Science Foundation- Engineering Research Centre on Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) is the foreign faculty for  the course. Prof. Alvarez’s research focuses on environmental sustainability through bioremediation of contaminated aquifers, fate and transport of toxic chemicals, water footprint of biofuels, microbial-plant interactions, water treatment and reuse, and environmental implications and applications of nanotechnology.