Dr. Sudhir Pillay received his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2012 from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. As a postgraduate student, he won 3 scholar prizes from the Water Institute of Southern Africa and IWA-YWP Southern Africa for his research on gravity-driven membrane technologies, anaerobic systems and Decentralised Wastewater Treatment. He is currently employed at the South African Water Research Commission where he is responsible for the strategic moulding of the non-sewered sanitation RDI portfolio. Under his leadership and through the dedication of researchers in his portfolio, the following products have been developed or tested for applicability in South Africa: i) understanding the thermodynamics associated with the drying of faecal sludges to design improved pre-treatment steps; ii) understanding the challenges of rural school sanitation and piloting solutions to solve the challenge; iii) physical and biological-based resource recovery treatment options for faecal sludges; iv) resource recovery applications for urine including the application of waterless female urinals, biobrick production from urine and struvite systems; v) local re-engineered toilet systems that take into account water scarcity and do not need require sewers; and vi) and capacity building of Sub-Saharan African universities or organisations to develop solutions across the Faecal Sludge Management chain. He is currently a member of the National Sanitation Task team, provided technical support to the Presidency via the WRC to outline solutions to rural school sanitation challenges, served on scientific committees for various IWA conferences, represented South Africa for ISO standards development for Non-Sewered Sanitation, developed the framework for the recently launched IWA Group on Non-Sewered Sanitation (NSS) and part of IWA COVID-19 Task Force.