Prof. Jiang is an expert of forestry engineering, and honored as an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. He served as chairman of Bio-based Materials and Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance, and vice chairman of Forest Chemistry branch of Chinese Society of Forestry and Biomass Energy and Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance. Prof. Jiang also served as an expert of “863” in Energy & Technology area in 2004. He served as an adjunct professor of both Nanjing Forestry University and Southeast University. Prof. Jiang’ research interests focus on fundamental research and industrialization through thermochemical conversion：charcoal and actived carbon adsorption materials preparation; biomass pyrolysis gasification for central gas supply, heat supply and power generation; catalytic pyrolysis and liquefaction of biomass, waste oils and fats for drop-in fuels; chemical conversion of biomass for fine chemicals, including rigid foams, plasticizers, surfactants, etc. Prof. Jiang’s research achievements have been widely introduced and applied in both China and foreign countries, including Japan, Italy, etc. He has won the award of National Scientific and Technological Progress of China four times, respectively in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016.

Prof. Xiao, a Professor in Chemical Engineering at University of New Brunswick (UNB) and the Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (FCAE), obtained his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering at McMaster University in Canada in 1995. Before joining the UNB in 2001, he was a tenured Lecturer and PhD supervisor at the University of Manchester in the UK from 1996 to 2001. Since 2016, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of J. Bioresources and Bioproducts. His research interests mainly cover the functional modification of cellulose/cellulosic nanofibres or polymers as environmentally friendly materials, especially focusing on multi-barrier enhanced green packaging materials, bioadsorbents and smart or responsive hydrogels for water/soil remediation, antiviral and antibacterial polymers and cellulose nonwoven materials. Over the past decades, Dr. Xiao has attracted substantial research funding from various recourses; and acted as Theme leader for two NSERC strategic networks in Canada. To date Dr. Xiao has published over 400 SCI peer-reviewed journal papers with high impact in relevant areas; supervised more than 60 PhD students and PDFs and some of them have won various prestigious awards. 

Zhen Fang, Elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (2021), is leader and founder of biomass group of the College of Engineering at Nanjing Agricultural University. He is the inventor of “fast hydrolysis” process. Prof. Fang is specializing in thermal/biochemical conversion of biomass, nanocatalysts synthesis and their applications, pretreatment of biomass for biorefineries and supercritical fluid processes. He obtained his PhDs from China Agricultural University (Agricultural Engineering, Beijing) and McGill University (Materials Engineering, Montreal) as well as received further postdoc training in Chemical Engineering in Spain (Marie Curie Fellowship, Universidad de Zaragoza) and visiting exchanges in bioenergy in Japan (AIST fellowship). He is listed in the “Most Cited Chinese Researchers” in energy for 2014-2019 (Elsevier-Scopus). He has more than 20-year international research experiences at top universities and institutes around the world, including 1 year in Spain (University of Zaragoza), 3 years in Japan (Biomass Technology Research Center, AIST; Tohoku University), and more than 8 years in Canada (McGill) in renewable energy and green technologies. He has worked for 7 years as a senior engineer in energy, bioresource utilization and engine design in industry before moving to academia. He won the Governor’s Friendship (Caiyun) Award in 2012 in Yunnan for the significant contributions to the Jatropha biodiesel industry and bioenergy, 2013 S&T Progress Award (the first place) of Xishuangbanna Prefecture for Breeding of New Varieties of Jatropha, and 2017 CAS Excellent Supervisor Award for training students (CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences).

Prof. Kai Zhang is the Head of the Department for Wood Technology and Wood-based Composites, and Executive Director of Biotechnology Center of Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology, University of Göttingen, Germany. The department has currently research fields including sustainable materials and functional materials including energy materials, green chemistry, polysaccharides, wood-based composites, hybrid materials etc. He serves currently as editorial board member of 'Smart Materials in Medicine' and 'Scientific Reports'. He was Associated Editor of 'Hydrogels' and editorial board member of 'Journal of Semiconductors'. He carried out a number of projects, such as from EU, German Science Foundation (DFG), Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, and German Chemical Industry Association and so on. He published more than 130 papers, such as in Nature Sustainability, Chem, Angewandte Chemie Int Ed, Advanced Materials, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Nano and Advanced Functional Materials.