Dr. habil. Stefan Melchior gained his doctorate from the University of Hamburg in 1993 and his habilitation in Soil Science  in 1999.  Since 2001he has been College lecturer University of Hamburg and also in 2001 he was founder and managing director of melchior + wittpohl Consulting Engineers in Hamburg (areas of operation: remediation of contaminated sites, soil protection in urban environments, landfill technology, recultivation, brown fields, management of geodata, soil testing in own laboratory, currently 13 employees). He has published in excess of 100 papers, 80+ oral presentations on national and international symposia, vice chair of commision VI (soil technology) of the German Society of Soil Science, serving in several committees of national scientific and technical organisations and governmental panels, organisation and co-organisation of 4 interdisciplinary conferences. Objectives and suggestions for commission activities: Organisation of an interdisciplinary conference on soil engineering in urban environments with sessions on e.g.:

·                     soil technological aspects of the treatment, recultivation and re-use of brown fields

·                     sustainable geotechnical concepts for the operation and closure of landfills in different societies and environments

·                     management of the resource soil: re-use of soil and construction debris, technical production of soils as recultivation material, construction technology and soil protection, concepts and tools to manage land consumption in mega-cities