Biography

Prof. Zhen Fang (方真教授, 加拿大工程院院士) is leader and founder of biomass group at Nanjing Agricultural University. He is the inventor of “fast hydrolysis” process. He is Editor-in-Chief of Springer Book Series – Biofuels and Biorefineries, Elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (2021), Associate Editor of Biotechnol Biofuels (Springer) and Associate Editor of J Supercrit Fluid (Elsevier, 2018-20). He is also editorial (advisory) board members of J Supercrit Fluid, Biofuel Bioprod Bior (Wiley, 2012-18) and Energy Sustain Soc (Springer). 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). He is listed in the “Most Cited Chinese Researchers” every year from 2014 to 2023 (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 his outstanding contributions to the study and utilization of Jatropha biodiesel and bioenergy, 2013 "S&T Progress Award" (the first place) of Xishuangbanna Prefecture for Breeding of New Varieties of Jatropha, and 2017 “Excellent Supervisor Award” of Chinese Academy of Sciences and 2020 “Excellent Teacher Award” of Nanjing Agricultural University for training students. He won 2020 "Springer-Nature China New Development Awards" for significant contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 2022 Overseas Chinese Contribution Award.